July 4th, 2008

Subject: Happy Fourth of July! Time: 11:51 pm

Hi hi, Happy 4th of July! This holiday certainly creeped up very quietly and unexpectedly this year. Sad that I didn't make it back to Tucson for the A-mountain pyrotechnics. :( I just didn't plan that far ahead... but I suppose it's a good thing. We have a big grant due in the middle of next week and I need to be working on it this weekend... So my biggest news is that I bought a bike! Just last weekend. TWICE in fact, ha. I bought one on Sunday, rode it to work and back again on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Somewhere in the beginning of the bike riding I realized that my bike doesn't have the little dibbet holes to be able to install a rack on the back of it, which would allow me to install baskets on the back of it... and I was really looking forward to being able to put all my stuff not on my back but on the bike. :( So I returned the bike (which at this point I had considered falling in love with, but then had to hold back the love upon realizing that I would have to return it) and bought a new one (which I may consider falling in love with... but it's hard to say. I don't want to be burned again!). Altogether, though, it's been working out really well. My legs felt like jelly by the end of the week so I really had to slow down my ride as the days went on, but it's been great. I love it! I mean it's not great having to deal with crossing streets, other cars, or even other cyclists! but overall it's been working out well. It's cute, Kyle after work will ride his bike to my work (he bought one, also) and then we'll ride home together. It's cool. Work has been good. I've been thinking a lot recently about grad school and where I'm going to apply (and studying for the GREs). I really have to kick it into high gear though... the summer is slowly starting to drift away... Kyle and I have been catching a new movie nearly every week. :O Sometimes even the same one... ( MOVIES! Possible spoilers? ) Mostly I've been getting annoyed at movies that I think have a cool idea but are executed so so badly. Those are the most disappointing. Okay, but I best get off to bed now. Very very tired and sleepy (I think it has to do with the daily bike riding...). Bye bye!

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December 4th, 2007

Subject: How can you save them? Time: 11:24 pm

Hi all, Kyle lately has been looking at lots of riddles to get his mind in tip top shape for interviews (apparently the computer software peoples like to give riddles as a way to test your way of thinking and ability to think critically). I'm going to share some with you, and I hope you'll have fun trying them out! (stesha, I think you'll have fun trying to figure these out. It brings back to mind doing those phonology problems, trying to figure out what the rule is. *sigh* What good ol' days, eh? I don't think I got any of these by myself, but their answers are way fun/cool... Jake, good luck. This should be fun). Riddle 1 You have seven balls that are supposed to weigh the same. Six of them are the same (they weigh the same), but one of them is defective. You are given a balance to determine which of the balls is defective. In two moves, which ball is defective? (*mwahahahaha*) Riddle 2 One hundred people are held hostage by an assassin. He (or she! no gender assumptions here...) lines them all up in a row so that each person can only see all the people in front of him or her. The assassin then randomly places on each person's head a red hat or a blue hat. Each hostage then has to call out the color of his or her hat. If the person calls out the correct color for his or her hat, he or she will live. If the person calls out the incorrect color for his or her hat, he or she will die. Before commencing with this sick game of what could be Russian Roulette, the people are allowed to come up with a strategy before they begin in order to maximize the number of people that will live. What is this strategy? (*mwahahahahaha*) Riddle 3 You are given 5 bottles of pills. All the pills in all the bottles weigh ten grams each, except for one bottle of pills, whose pills weigh nine grams each. You are given a scale to determine which bottle holds the defective pills. With one move/measurement, which bottle of pills is defective? (Hint: You can remove the pills from the bottles.) Those were my favorites (in other words, I've forgotten the others). If you feel like guessing, let me know! I can possible give hints later, but if no one cares, then I'll just share the answers later anyway, hehehe. If only because the answers are too too cool and fun and they make my brain happy. As another note: Watched the season finale of Beauty and the Geek today (I can't help it, I absolutely love the show). Can't say I particularly enjoyed the whole live audience, major awkward reunion environment. Not to mention, some of the Beauties and Geeks just didn't talk at all. I much prefer the interaction in the house as a reunion. Not to mention, I'm sad for Mike, because I think a secret part of him longs to be a part of the Beauty and Geek bonding club, but he never can be because he's the host. He will always be the one standing on the outside with the scripted lines and the inevitable fate of having to send someone home. Poor Mike. But my favored Geek couple won! I do like how the final couple is chosen though. Kyle at first (or still?) was greatly opposed to last season's determination of the winner by having the house choose the 'most improved' couple, because then it seems like a popularity contest. But for me, it makes sense! I think a general pattern that happens (though for the life of me, I can't remember the second season at all, which is a shame) is that one really strong couple that was winning all the challenges throughout makes it to the end and one couple who actually improves slowly and only starts winning challenges at the end makes it to the final round. And the transformation cannot be clearly seen by a regular elimination. With that type of elimination, you only get a measure of strength, answering questions, which clearly both teams are good at (maybe one team from the getgo, maybe one team acquired it). So bringing in the human factor or the 'popularity' makes sense to me. Because we, as a group, (I think) have this idea of what it means to 'improve', so we vote for the people we see who do that, not just the group that was doing well the whole time. So it's an 'improvelarity' contest, really. *hugs show* I just can't help it. Also, seriously, a massage challenge? I loved the bar challenge for the girls where they had to dress all 'not prepared' and 'primped' with these ugly looking dresses trying to get guys to buy them drinks. It's so telling about the power of looks and impressions and quick judgements. And it really shocks them into a different point of view. What does building rocket bottles teach them!? (Although that did look rather fun). ANYWAY, I just wanted to post about the riddles. Happy hunting for the answers! They're seriously fun, though I hate that desperation of trying to figure out the answer and balancing between the 'I'm never going to get this!' feeling and the 'If I keep working at this, I'll get the answer'! It's the battle of entity versus incremental thinking, go! Bye byes!

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January 2nd, 2007

Current Music: The telly Current Location: HOME Subject: Happy New Year! Time: 10:29 pm

I haven't updated in soo long it seems, and now... the format is so strange! I almost don't know where I am, haha... The break has mostly been devoted to World of Warcraft I'm afraid to admit. ::hides head:: I am sadly addicted, but I chalk it up to the winter break and hope that such habits will change once the school year starts... But it has been nice catching up with old friends. ^^ So my entire break hasn't been completely wasted away on the internet. (And I've made a sock and a half! Hopefully this will turn into a two pair once this ski trip ends). I want to see the new Drew Barrymore movies. (This is a completely random note that came out of watching television and ensuing trailers...). Anyway, I just wanted to wish a Happy Holidays hello! Keep well and may the new resolutions stay in place... ...use super glue and don't jiggle them around too much. Just a suggestion. (A sadly dorky one at that, sigh!) *love*!

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November 30th, 2006

Current Music: A good year soundtrack! Subject: Oops Time: 02:46 am Current Mood: calm

Sigh. I can't sleep. Or more like, won't. Too much to do and not doing any of it. It's super slightly cold, btw, as I'm sure everyone is painfully aware of. I put together my quilt, which is an extraneous not too interesting detail. Today a hummingbird was trapped between the window pane and the blinds. Chris and I worked really hard to get it free, and we did! We had to use a roll of butcher paper to coax it down and everytime Chris slightly bopped it on the head, I'd squeak and explode into a great deal of worry. Well! everytime Chris sort of persuaded it to come down further toward the open window, the bird would hit its wing on the paper and stop flying for a split second. I was on tenderhooks worried that the bird would hurt its wing and fall at neck-breaking speed toward the window sill. But we did manage to get it out the window to fly free. I'm amazed it was able to stay "afloat' for so long. It was seriously pecking at the upper window for a good 20 minutes, before we had the good sense to realize that it wasn't actually the air conditioning like yours truly, thought. (Psh, who would ever think it was the air conditioning unit?? In this weather? Crazies.) I suppose I really should sleep now. Big day tomorrow what with class and meetings and concerts and friends and all. ::exhausted:: ::priorities badly in need of straightening:: Yesss.... EDIT: ...so it looks like I've passed that point where I should sleep. Two hours and I'd be getting up anyway, so may as well stay up, eh? ...::totters off to work on research:: PS. It is FREEZING! ...excitement? Sure. Feeling in my toes? Not so much.

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November 27th, 2006

Current Music: students chatting Current Location: work Subject: Gross Time: 10:21 am Current Mood: alertfully tired

::yawn:: I'm sleepy. A lot. I very nearly considered skipping out on my first class this morning. I imagined my teacher blah blahing on and on about the nervous system (which of course I love but not on Mondays and not on Mondays after long weekends consisting of stocking up on oversleep) and couldn't drag myself out of bed. Except I did. I like laying in bed and pondering how it is that I can just stay in bed for eons and eons until finally one neuron synapses with another to motivate me to get out of bed. I like to pretend I can actually see the little neurons talking to each other and being like, nooo I totally woke her up yesterday, you have to get her out of bed today. And it worked and I went to class. I only missed the first slide and who ever needs that intro anyway. I have no idea why I couldn't fall asleep last night. It doesn't make sense that a person can be falling asleep all day long and then come bedtime, the brain decides to activate the alert mode. Stupid brain, why are you sabotaging me. Anyway, homework needs to be done; tests need to be studied for; concerts need to be practiced for; and my stupid floor needs tidying. I'm super excited for this day. I never thought it would come. ^^V

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November 21st, 2006

Current Music: roommates chatting Current Location: home Subject: Munchies Time: 12:42 am Current Mood: working

今また食べている。おなかや顔がもと太っている！大変だね。。。 I was on a super high sugar high today haha. It didn't help with being productive at all dancing around and jumping up and down and just being crazy. :P Rabiah and Katy took it all in stride, though, like they always do, haha. Last weekend was lotsa fun! Went out to the bars on Friday and danced it up and had crazy random conversations. Then stesha's fun game night/wine & cheese night on Saturday! That was also tons of fun, as would be expected when mixing wine and cheese and competitive spirits. Also lots of random people from all sorts of different circles of six degrees. It was amusing. :) Talked with jlingofelt about some random crazy stuff... haha how to get the roommates home while letting them still stay out and have fun. ::yank!:: ::devilishly considerate:: So yeah I should probably go back to this paper thing. Work is generally going ok. I've been getting into the crossword, which is fun times. I've been teaching some of the students how to play the piano, haha. This introduces me to several interpretative versions of the very highly favored Love Story. Hehe, it's very amusing. I also saw half of Gladiator the other day but didn't make it to the rest of it. :( Tooo bad. ::sleepy::

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November 15th, 2006

Current Music: Japanese ness Subject: Debate ::dodge and jab dodge and jab:: Time: 11:29 pm Current Mood: dejected

I want to go to bed. I also should definitely stay up and work on papers. Or make a beanie. Whichever. ::conflicted::

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November 13th, 2006

Current Location: home Subject: Too full to live Time: 09:22 pm Current Mood: stuck

Trying to homework. Only half succeeding. Bought new clothes = fun winter times. Fitting into old clothes = fun winter times. I miss playing my flute. Must practice a lot more. My e-mail needs catching up. Caught up on Grey's Anatomy, great times. (sad and confused and sad and frozen) Must see Stranger than Fiction and Prestige and various others. Little Miss Sunshine to Gallagher in two weeks or so! ::excited:: I miss Little Miss Sunshine. I want ice cream. Started crocheting an ugly beanie. Must come up with better pattern. Must research for Japan. ...a lot. Fuuulllllll.

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November 6th, 2006

Current Music: mm hm Current Location: SCHOOL! Subject: The Pinky Thing Time: 10:28 am Current Mood: amused

Too fun! We finally learned something in this gen-ed class of mine! I do like the flexibility of the class, I'll admit. Somehow the yakuza were mentioned in class a couple weeks ago, so my teacher said, would people like to learn about the yakuza? And we were all like yeah yeah! So she put together a lecture for it! How cool is that? I didn't know that yakuza are the three numbers in a bad hand of this gambling card game. Nice to know! Even the mafia of Japan are just cool beans all over the place. I also love love my neuropsychology class. I am fascinated by the right hemisphere of my brain. It seems as though that's where a lot of the unconscious processing takes place. Sooo cool, that's my new favorite part of my brain. We're looking at emotional disorders right now and they're soooo fascinating!! (Especially at this little phase I'm going through ::fumes::). They did some experiments on monkeys (which is completely not cool by the way. ::against animal experimentation::) where they made lesions in the amygdala, and then the monkeys weren't able to pick up social cues anymore. ...and they died! They died because they couldn't interact in a proper social manner with the other monkeys. I get the impression people think animals are dumb and just go by instinct... but they aren't! They are completely and utterly social creatures with hierarchies and social schemas just as complex as ours. We just happen to have bigger toys and a louder, more specific way of communicating. ::sticks out tongue:: Another thing I thought was interesting was that in humans also, lesions in... was it the right side of the amygdala? (I'll look it up and repost so we don't have false information swimming around ::looks around suspiciously::) and it made it so that people would judge more negative facial expressions as more positive. They were really really friendly and made all these sexually inappropriate comments, etc... and all because they really couldn't read people's faces correctly. They were fine if they were reading a verbal description of the person... there was just something about the perception that was a little funky. Sooo cool! ::hugs brain:: Eww, gooey. Anyway, I'm gonna keep reading up on this and doing homework and trying not to utterly fail at life. That'd be great, thanks. ;) PS. Went to see Borat with the friends! It was sooo funny and sad and poignant and cute all at the same time. I really enjoyed that clip of actual Sasha, stesha! It's fun to see the real face behind the masks... he has such a great smile!! I wonder if he was nervous being the interviewee after having been on the other side and knowing that people can say the most ridiculous things. ...I wonder if Borat-wannabes are going to start popping up... "I don't have your flair to wax poetic about nothing, but I like that you do it." Harumph, I'm glad someone does.

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November 3rd, 2006

Current Music: Some regionals or allstate music in my HEAD! Current Location: SCHOOL! Subject: French homework, you ruin my life Time: 09:50 am Current Mood: clean!

...er, what am I doing?? Posting on livejournal, oh no! This is most definitely the last thing I should be doing right now. ::must study for quiz, must do French homework, must prep for lab meeting, must must must:: ...but who ever does what they must do?! Certainly not I! ha ha! It's odd how one can be going along in life then suddenly turn around and be like... whoa, what am I doing? What have I been doing? Where did my life go and why haven't I done anything about it!? Welcome to my world... ::hugs brain:: ...what am I talking about?? Next! I keep stealing other people's expressions and mannerisms and idiosyncracies. It's WEIRD. Well not so much because I know a lot of people do this, but even still!! I actually had a dream that I was talking to my roommates and they were like, Yeah, Alyssa, when you do other people's mannerisms, it's completely obvious. It's like you turn into someone else for a second and then come back again. They essentially told me it looked really silly and I shouldn't do it anymore. One of them even demonstrated for me, and I saw that, yes indeed! When you imitate someone else it completely shows up as though it's out of context! Completely gauche. (For some reason the word "gauche" and it's English meaning and French implications keeps tapping me on the head every now and again lately, it's weird). But yeah... But then! I left ...uhhhh (got a phone call, completely lost my train of thought...) OH YEAH! I left some messages on my phone for myself and when I listened to them, I could pick out the phrases I've stolen from other people, but they didn't sound like how they sound when other people say them. Which was exciting! I camoflauged them really well into my lexicon, yesss. ...but actually some people lately have been pointing out the fact that I'm stealing their lines, so I suppose it goes both ways, sigh. ...did I seriously just go on and on about something as small as mannerisms? Anyway, the bell rang, class starts in soon, I have a French assignment to write up type up, and that's all!! P.S. I put my pumpkin in a plastic bag because I think it's starting to go bad. So sad! I want to tell one of my roommates to throw it away for me because I can't stand the idea of putting down in that dark smelly trashbin so that it can be thrown around and smashed up in the garbage truck. Someone told me that people used to be able to feed their old pumpkins to hippos at the zoo!! Isn't that such a nice idea?? I want to give my pumpkin to a hippo! (cute!) But evidently they don't have hippos at the zoo anymore... whaaaat, why not?! Where did the hippos go!? And why can't I feed them my pumpkin...

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October 29th, 2006

Current Music: stupid internet radio Current Location: WORK Subject: 今宿題してる！　よっかたネ！ Time: 03:36 pm Current Mood: tired-EXCITED

今日は日曜日ネ！それから、私はバイトしてる。バイトする時によく宿題もすることが出来る！いいネ！　。。。私の日本語はちょっと。。。大変だね！！！私泣いてる。。。 多分もっとアニメを見たり漫画を読んだりしたらいいね？日本語の"sound"がまだなりと思う。 Ack! 日本語で書くのが蒸すかしすぎる！ 。。。中国語に変わる！ 你好! 上個星期我看了我的中文老師!我們說中文一點可是我很多的詞忘了... 我跟我的供客人也說中文一點,可是他笑很多因爲我的中文一點西怪. 法文! Je n’aime pas beaucoup mon cours de français. Je ne sais pas exactement pourquoi mais peut-être c’est l’organization de cours ou quleque chose comme ça. Je deteste recevoir mes devoirs avec des corrections surtout le page. Et je fais les mêmes erreurs chaque fois ! Je parle comme je parle anglais et il me dégoute terriblement. En tout cas, je dois commencer à finir mon travail pour retourner chez moi ! And that's all folks! One day I'll look back at these and I'll actually know how to say them correctly. Please please please. I'm so tired of English, I want to empty it out of my head. And yet I LOVE how it just runs off my fingers, that I know this language inside and out (yet why, lately are all my sentences so convoluted?! I can't write essays or papers worth crap ::fumes::) and I hope hope hope that someday it'll be like that for these other languages! Please please. ::cries::

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October 26th, 2006

Current Music: All-state and Regional band music ::nostalgic:: Current Location: HOME Subject: We're selling our lives for webspace Time: 11:12 pm Current Mood: nostalgic

HI! So yeah, I haven't posted in awhile what's up with that? Life's been crazy lately to say the least. But not as crazy as it could be, this is true. ...my room is a complete and utter disaster btw. I just don't live in my room. Or maybe I live too much in my room. I really just use it as a storage space for all my crap. Too bad. School's been cleaning up all its crap with my poor behind. I've been falling behind in everything and am finding it quite difficult to pick it up again. And it's not like it should be that difficult. It really shouldn't be. But my brain is being pushed beyond capacity I think, to the point that it's shoved up against my skull into a little ball, and it's just cringing in the corner, hiding its head, wishing this onslaught of information knocking at its door will just go away. But no such luck, brain! Suck it up and carry on, why don't you, pah-sheesh. I love my lab, btw. Just love love love. Some of the best times of my day come out of that lab. ::hugs:: Mother's in Japan at the moment. Fun times! I can't wait til I'm in Japan. I'm craving it so so badly. A constant ache. And when I close my eyes and think of their streets and their people, their food and smells and bookstores and department stores... ::eyes open:: Ouch. Must stop thinking of it and focus more on the theoretical aspect of going, for sures. I'm thinking I'm going to focus on stereotypes and discrimination in the school system academic world and whatnot. I like thinking of having focus! I admire my professor so so so much. She deals with so much with such confidence and skill and assurance. ::jaw drops:: I don't know how she does it, but she is my role model til the end. Everytime she talks I want to study more, work harder, read more, learn all I can so that I can be just as on top of things as she is. Sigh. It's really hard not to lose hope all together. I sold my soul to the Fulbright application for two weeks straight a week or so ago. This is big contributing factor to the falling behind in homework. Whether or not all that cramming in wil equal success will only be discovered come February then April-ish. Wonderful. Must start working on other scholarships with the great great hope that something will stick. Please please. All these eggs are precious and I'm gonna try and stick them in every basket I can. But what if as these baskets are being transported over time and space that the string snaps and boom, everything drops down and far to the hard earth bottom and now there are sticky bits of egg every which way. Gross. Jenna's been baking up a storm the past couple of days. ::pats tummy:: I'd bake but... Yeah, how about we not finish that sentence. ANYWAY must go study for physiology test on MONDAY! How did that happen? Let's pretend such things don't exist, shall we? I love the Ostrich Head in the Sand syndrome. That's what I base my life around.

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