Okay, I'm officially annoucing my move to my Korean blog, Adventures in Korean. I won't be posting any more on this blog, until after I return from Korea.
After a convenient name change, this blog seems to be developing a very specific theme.
- Lyn's demonstration of (his liberal intrepretation of) how a Jedi warrior disables an enemy opponent: there are actually two insistences of this - both hilarious - and the second probably my favorite scene in the whole movie
- The Jedi warrior references subtle juxtaposition with Ewan McGregor (aka the young Obi Wan Kenobi - if you don't know who I'm talking about... get out. Now.): this was supposedly unintentional and they just happened to cast McGregor for the part. Whether true or not, whatever, I don't care. It was funny.
- The glorious, GLORIOUS 70's rock. Long live Boston.
- Pretty much the entire last twenty minutes of the movie. I will give nothing away, but it's great. And it led me to decide my next bullet point.
- Jeff Bridge's character (the original psychic warrior) is Walter Bishop. And through the transitive property, Jeff Bridges is also Walter Bishop. And Walter Bishop is the Dude.
Okay, so I realize it's not Friday anymore. You'll have to excuse the tardiness; I thought the Stargate: Universe premiere was only one hour, when it turns out it was two. And even though it's not a film, I give it two thumbs up, just for being more interesting to me than Stargate: Atlantis.
Labels: filmographic things
So I got tired of waiting around til I go to Korea to start my Korea blog, but I also didn't want to have a Blogger blog (no offense Blogger) for it, since uploading pictures is a pain in the butt. After shopping around, I eventually started a blog for Korea on Wordpress. I'll still use this one for my 'unrelated to Korea' posts, but I'll be using Wordpress for Korea/'getting ready for Korea' stuff.
Labels: korean things
As two out of three of this blog's followers already know (and one will soon be finding out, provided she keeps reading), my grandmother died last Sunday (September 9th, 2009 at 7:44am, to be precise). She died of Alzheimer's, which is very sad because it meant she died in a lot of mental pain and unfortunately because of her arthritis she was in a lot of physical pain as well. While I'm certainly not happy that she died, I am glad she was finally able to pass because she was trapped in a bad place for longer than anyone's grandma should be.
Hmmm. I might just have to make this a thing, given how I do love those movies.
Movie du jour:
Inglourious Basterds
My Grade: A
I was tempted to give this movie a lower grade, because of my bias towards some of the characters who died (and this isn't a sentimental film, so you can be sure people die). But I'm going to be bigger than that and give it an A. It was a damn good movie. I was thinking about comparing it to District 9 but I don't like it when people compare movies across genres so I won't.
I think my dad said it best when after the movie he declared (and I'm paraphrasing, cuz I forgot what he actually said) 'I know this movie was supposed to be over the top, but it's a lot more historically accurate then some movies that were supposed to be serious historical depictions.' And unfortunately the best part of what he said I can't remember. He said something other than 'over the top' but like I said... can't remember what it was. But it rings true, in terms of the realisticness of the ending and the way the plans put into motion unfold. (PS. I just asked my dad what he said, and he couldn't remember either but this time he used the word 'outrageous')
Also, I'd like to give some props to Christoph Waltz who plays Col. Hans Landa. He was one magnificently evil bastard. I suspect that one day he might be on the list of best film villians, not because he was particularly evil but because he was so deliciously calculating in his evil.
And thus I shall leave you with that. Calculated evil.
Labels: filmographic things
I got back from my day at the botanical garden so late that I didn't have time to post about it. And from Friday to Sunday I was in PA and outside of wireless internet range, which is why this post is several days late.
I knew there was a botanical garden in DC, but I didn't realize it was also a conservatory. The botanial garden was nice, but since it's August a lot of the flowers were loosing their blooms. But still very nice and in the early summer I bet it's beautiful.
Then, after eating a delicious and extremely filling meal at the American Indian Museum, I went to the conservatory. WOW. That building makes me want to work in DC so I can go there everyday; it also makes me wish I had gone there before leaving College Park.
My personal favorite rooms were the orchid room and the Hawaiian room. The Hawaiian room was the coldest in the building. I kept trying to hang out in there since it was so hot, but it's pretty small so everytime someone came in I had to leave.
UNFORTUNATELY, a series of unfortunate events (not the book series) led me to leave my memory card for my digital camera and my cell phone (which I needed to get a ride back to get my memory card) behind. So no beautiful pictures, which is a real shame.
After that, I went to go see Julie & Julia at the Chinatown Theatre.
My Grade: B+
I enjoyed this movie as much as a thought I would, and perhaps more. I have to say Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, playing Julia child and her husband (respectively) were extremely enjoyable to watch. I'd probably give the movie an A, but at times the storytelling was a little slow and mainly the Julia Child obsession (although fully admitted) was kinda creepy. But it was a nice movie and worth the extra expense of seeing it in Chinatown instead of at home.
The only thing is... everytime I see a movie where meat that still looks like the animals that it once was is being prepared... I leave wishing I was a vegetarian... but I love bacon too damn much.
Labels: botanical things, filmographic things
I was very happy to find both pandas out and about, and so very photogenic.
Next, I give you: The Death Stork
You know how some storks bring you babies? Guess what this one does.
This guy was one of the highlights of my trip. He was just chillin' out next to me while I stood by his enclosure and took pictures. It was almost as if he was posing.
Another highlight of my trip: the elephant shrew. Watching it root around with its adorable elephant nose was actually pretty awesome. I also should have video taped that too (curse you brand new camera that I haven't completely figured out!)
And finally: El Tigre.
Now there's a bit of a story that goes with this picture. But I'll have to type that later, because it's time to put my laptop away.
PS This is my new desktop photo.
Okay, hopefully I'll finish this up tomorrow, because I'll have new pictures of the National Botanical Garden to share (and possibly a movie review if all goes according to plan).
Labels: zoological things
I've gotten back into the swing of going to the movies, so I thought I'd write down my two cents concerning their two-thumbs-up/down-ness.
The Proposal: Starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds
My Grade: B+
Now I'm sure you're wondering why I bothered to see this movie, and my answer is that there wasn't anything else playing in the rinky-dinky theatre where I live. But also, I like watching Sandra Bullock movies. They can be formulaic but they're fun and a nice, easy movie going experience.
I didn't have super high hopes for this movie, which meant I was pleasantly surprised. I think what worked for this movie was that the trailer really didn't reveal too many of the funny scenes so there were plenty of laughs you weren't expecting. Although the story is kind of predictable and it ends how you think it will, I felt the development of the main character's relationship was reasonable enough. Plus, one line at the end (I feel) saved it from having a completely unbelievable, unrealistic ending.
All in all, this movie could have had some more original story-telling, but there were enough unique moments and the characters have enough honesty that I'd watch this again.
My Sister's Keeper: Starring Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin and Cameron Diaz
My Grade: B-
The reason I saw this movie was that my mom had a free movie ticket at the Navy base theatre, where tickets are only $4. So I saw it with my mom and my sister (which was a little awkward). I hadn't read the book, but I knew the plot and I knew the ending of the movie had been changed. And I'm glad they changed the ending. It may have just been because of the dialog in the movie, but the way the story progress and the things they prepare you for, I feel using the book ending in the movie would be just too unbelievable. I don't even like it as the book ending, but whatever.
This movie was pretty good but I had a few issues with it. The main things is the order of the scenes. If you're supposed to take it at face value and things happen in the order they're presented to you (not including the obvious flashback scenes), then it doesn't really make sense. But if you follow it according to when the older sister has hair, with things hinging around when she gets sick again and when she gets chemotherapy, it still has issues. I'm pretty sure they were intending for the scenes to be out of order, but the intended order is not clear.
This movie probably could have been a C, especially considering my above complaint and a few other things, but I really liked the acting of the main characters. Another nice feature was I felt they really prepared you for the (non-book) ending, so although it's sad, it's not exactly tragic. It's an ending that will sadden some, but it's also one that I think should make people think about what they value and what they would do if they were in a similar situation. And thinking, although unplesant, is good.
District 9: Starring Sharlto Copley and Jason Cope (He was Christopher Johnson)
My Grade: A
This has the be the first movie I've seen where I read Roger Ebert's review and have come to disagree with it. Ebert says that this movie just doesn't have enough Sci-Fi to be Sci-Fi gold and wasn't too happy with some of the storytelling elements. For example, without revealing too much, he wasn't too happy with how the aliens don't have a lot of initiative.
But like The Proposal, there are a few lines here and there that I feel counter-act Ebert's points. I was impressed by the complexity of the District 9-world. If it had been more complex, it probably would have been confusing, while if it had been less complex, it probably would have felt incomplete or not entirely thought out.
I was genuinely impressed by a lot of aspects of this film. The aliens looked very realistic in their movements and facial expressions. The formation of the script (which I found out later), is practically unbelievable; the scenes were planned, but the dialog was improvised. Also, even though he infuriated me at times, I really like how the main character (with his lovely name of Wikus van der Merwe) was neither unrealistically heroic nor unrealistically adverse to what was happening to him.
While the film did have some short-comings, I think it's one of the best and most unique films of its genre for quite a while and I'd be quite disappointed if there isn't a sequel of somekind. Which brings me to the ending. A few reviewers commented that it was too dark/ ambiguous. First of all, ambiguous? Not at all. And while I'm fully happy with what happened, it could have easily been darker while staying true to the story overall. This isn't a Sandra Bullock movie guys.
Labels: filmographic things
I had been planning on blogging about something else yesterday, but I forgot what that was. Plus John Hughes died so I thought I'd honor his film career by blogging about my favorite John Hughes memories.
Memory 1: The Breakfast Club
Now, I don't mean the movie, I mean the one-person club my cousin started, where the dedicated members would watch the movie The Breakfast Club every day during breakfast. I kid you not. She must have had very long breakfasts. I do now know how long this club lasted, but it was a while
Now this lovely John Hughes romp (his only only rated-R - * el gasp!*) I was first introduced to not too long ago. I was visiting my grandparents and they wanted me to come with them to their senior living community's weekly movie. And I was like "Aww man, I like spending time with my G-parents but I don't wanna sit through an old fart movie. It has the word automobile in the title..." But I went, and sat in the could-be-very-comfortable-were-it-not-for-the-lack-of-arm-rests high back chairs, ate their delicious senior popcorn (It's more mature than regular popcorn) and found myself enjoying the movie. But, like many John Hughes movies, the end was far too happy. Could have used some death, that's all I'm saying.
R.I.P. Mister Hughes. You have filled my childhood with many a movie.
Labels: filmographic things
This blog seems to be quite ADD. I still haven't gotten down the creek, but it WILL HAPPEN SOON! I got majorly distracted by belated spring cleaning. I had been slowly cleaning the house since getting back, but we donate our old stuff. This slows down the process because my mom meticulously logs everything we donate, so we can get a sweet tax break. When she move out of her house (effectively donating half of everything that was in it), she got a couple thousand dollars back, so it's worth while.
Anyway, now that I have a working laptop again, I decided to stop waiting for my mom and take the matter into my own hands. Organizing and logging junk is REALLY tiring... But since yesterday I've accumulated a lot of stuff to donate.
So I know I promised to post pictures of my fabulous trek to the creek near my house with dog in tow, but sadly it seems I'm fighting off some kind of sickness. The major symptom is that I'm exhausted, which has been preventing me from doing anything other than play with my new laptop. Which has made me think that I didn't give my old laptop a proper send-off.
Weee! I got a new laptop! And after a bumpy start, it's up and running smoothly. In celebratory celebration of the arrival of my new laptop, I thought I'd post. Unfortunately I really have nothing to say. I mean, I could say something, but only a fool says something when they have nothing to say. So paint me a fool cuz here I go:
I have to say there is some sadness in recieving my new laptop. Due to a major miscommunication error, I wasn't able to back up any of the information on my last (/first) laptop before it died. So playing majong on my laptop (other than surf the internet, which, let's face it, get's boring after a while) reminds me so very much of all the wonderful things and memories I may have lost forever. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get my stuff off... and by I'll I mean my parents will because they're engineers and saving computers is what I like to imagine they do for a living.
So with a slightly disappointing (as of right now) laptop mopping around my living room, making me all kinds of sad, I thought I'd take my dog for a walk - which reminds me, one nice feature my new laptop has over the old one is a port for SD cards. Hopefully this will lead me to both taking and post more pictures, as I love pretty things. Like pictures.
Along the walk, which ended at this really peaceful creek near my house, we met this young gentleman... who I instantly feared, if you know what I mean.
Handsome, yes? The picture quality looks a little off, but considering how far away I had to shoot from (and thus how much I had to zoom) to keep it from pulling it's head back in it's shell, it's actually pretty good.
And that's it for the pictures, because my tiny-weeny memory card couldn't take any more pictures. But tomorrow I shall go back to the magical creek and take lots of lovely pictures to share, because it is a very pretty creek.
Oh yeah, I guess I should tell you guys what I found in my pocket (even though I think most of you guys know by now). MY GAMES! I FOUND MY GAMES! AND THEN I PLAYED MY GAMES AND THOUGHT 'HOLY COW, I HAVEN'T PLAYED THESE GAMES IN THE A LONG TIME - WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THEM?!'. And then I went back to playing Pokemon Ruby because there's just something satisfying about playing a really easy game that's I've been in all it's previous incarnations. (Including the not released in the US Green Version - yes, I am that dorky).
Labels: good day things
I've been doing some spring cleaning lately, which has led me to find many old and not so interesting things. Some of the things were interesting though. I've found a bunch of old notebooks with little sketches in them, and a lot of old photos perfect for black mail. But then I went through a box full of some stuff from my first years of college and some other stuff that I think just got thrown in there.
Okay so I had been planning on posting a Michael Jackson blog for a few days, but I see Alice has beat me to it, as well as most of the rest of the world. Curses, World, you've beat me this time! So I know a lot of people are wondering, following the King of Pop's death, what will happen to his estate and massive debt? What will happen to his children? What will his ultimate legacy be? But we here at We Amuse Myself am considering the bigger questions:
Labels: questionable questions
You know what hurts like a bitch when you get it in your eye? Shampoo that's what. I got some (actually I think it might have been a glob >:( ) in my eye about ten minutes ago and I'm pretty sure that the pain of getting shampoo in your eye is akin to having your eyeball set on fire. Curse you, Pantene and your two-in-one shampoo and conditioner combo that speaks to the lazy person in me who still wants nice hair!
But from this experience I have learned 3 things:
1. I thought I had gotten shampoo in my eyes before. Now I KNOW this is the first time I've ever had shampoo that wasn't for babies in my eyes.
2. Tears... are MAGICAL. I think the burning traumatized my tear ducts at first because it took them awhile to start working and washing the shampoo away. Until then I was standing in the shower trying with no success to open my eye near the cold water. But once the tears started coming the pain dissipated pretty quickly. It still hurts, especially when I turn my eye, but it's more of an itchy pain and at least now I can occasionally open the eye.
3. I keep a very cool head in panicky situations. The pain came really quickly and I kind of just grabbed my eye and tried to get it in the water. Later I was thinking 'Huh... I didn't scream... that's weird...' Stuff like this has happened before and in more extreme circumstances, where I probably should have panicked or something like that, and instead I was kind of like 'Crap. Gotta fix this.' Which is definitely a good thing. Although that said... I can also think of many not emergency or panicky situations that still needed attention where I just sat there and watched things slowly unfold before I finally get off my butt and do something... I guess I'd rather be quick with the important things and slow with the less important stuff than vice versa. I'd like to keep my vision, thank you.
Blogger is driving me nuts... Also, I did some butt-kicking
0 comments Posted by RedGypsophila at 9:04 PMThis post is mostly just a reminder that I need to post later. Right now I'm frazzled. And you don't want to see me when I'm frazzled.
PS I switched the template back to see if you guys can post again. I only had the other template so I could have three columns, but I don't need three columns any more. That is a number of column far to extravagant for me right now.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot I was going to post about Diversity.
Since I have to stay up until 2:30 tonight, whether I like it or not, I decided to surf the internets for sweet new music and perhaps blog a little. And it turns out I've actually managed to do both (or start both. We'll have to see if this get's posted).
If I had an iron I'd iron the irony right out of my life
0 comments Posted by RedGypsophila at 12:49 AMOkay, I think it's time for part three of my Random Ramblings!
Labels: beautiful things, curse you internets
Well, the Spider Incident succeeded in thoroughly distracting me from my Random Ramblings, which I wanted to get done in a timely manner. And I thought I was recovering from the Incident well, until last night. I was walking around downstairs in the dark with my dog, which I do most every night as a summer vacation tradition, when I walked into the bathroom. Since it was completley dark around, I didn't bother to turn on the light, but I still noticed there was no toilet paper left. So I start to leave the bathroom, when I think 'Hey, what if a spider was using the toilet?'
So something horrific happened to me about an hour ago. I was sitting on my bed minding my own business, reading some stuff during my new found free time, when I felt a bug of somekind fall from the sky (or rather my ceiling) and hit my face. I figured it was a moth since it came from above and was bouncing around my mouth, and although I like moths I didn't want one around my face right before I eat dinner. So I flicked it off and it fell on my bed.
So I realized I haven't posted a post recently. And then a day or so later, someone pointed this out to me (can't remember who, but I'll go out on a limb and say it was probably either Alice or Ms. Bee, since you guys are the only ones who read this... I'm going to go into a corner and pretend to cry self-loathingly now... explaining this totally doesn't work as well as being in your apartment and just doing it... *sigh* I'm going to miss my apartment adventures...) So I figured I was overdue for a post.
- Graduation
- Angels and Demons/ My sister's back in my life (thanks a lot graduation)
- The irony of buying a new laptop on my old laptop
- There was something else but I forgot. Maybe I'll remember when I get to this one.
Labels: list of things
Okay, so apparently I'm super late on this, since it's been out for over a year, but I thought I'd spread the word. Spreading the word on Stuff.
Labels: shameless things placement
Well it's raining again guys and you know what that means: postification!
Labels: looks like rain
I seem to be posting when it rains. What does that mean, psychologically-speaking?
0 comments Posted by RedGypsophila at 2:38 PMMusings Regarding Past Musings on Earthworms and Further Earthworm Suicides
0 comments Posted by RedGypsophila at 9:16 PMUtterances which make use of a certain number of words, particularly if said words are in some way unsual, either in use or in make, and which could just as easily be written using a less than certain number of words, particularly if these new words are more commonly used in the daily vernacular, are of great delight to this blogger. Which is how I came to read the book "From the Mixed Up Tales of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." It's a good book; all should read.
Labels: looks like rain
If a seagull flies over the sea, what flies over the bay?
4 comments Posted by RedGypsophila at 5:34 PMA bagel, ahahahaha! Okay, you'll have to excuse today's post because I'm very hungry. How hungry am I, she asks to know one in particular? I'm soooo hungry that-
Well, as soon as I saw this at 3:17pm this dreary morning, I read this article:
Director Ron Howard defends "Angels & Demons" from Reuters.
And I was enjoying it, because I enjoy both Ron Howard movies, Tom Hanks movies, angels and demons (when they're delightfully naughty demons). Let's face it, I enjoy most movies. If you look at my Netflix's profile, I don't have any movies rated below 3 stars (granted... some I haven't rated...).But what I found MOST delightful, was the fact that they called the movie's predecessor (and I quote; this is not my own typo) "The Da Vinci Cod". I want. To see. That movie.
At least that's what I thought I read... But then I reread it a little bit later, and somehow the Cod became a Code. Was it a trick of the light? Was it a crafty Reuter's cover up? What is something more ... sinister, involving Illuminati and creepy albinos who preform corporeal mortification regularly upon delicate flesh (corpi morti, as I apparently like to call it, hurts more for us fair skinned people)? The possibilities are frightening.
Still, could you imagine a book/movie called "The Da Vinci Cod". Far be it from me to waste my time and effort making a Photoshop picture of what I envision when I can just find it made by someone else on the internet. I submit for your approval (a la the Midnight Society), selected inserts from "The Da Vinci Cod":
(don't know who he is but apparently he's a trash whisperer, so... yeah...)
(You ca nbuy it as a T-shirt. Nice)
(Also, apparently Mona was a cannery girl. Always knew she was a little ... fishy. Ahahaha!... okay I'm done.)
Found on The Lotus Pond
(Which is a wiccan blog, apparently, which also no longer exists. That's right... The Da Vinci Cod has the power to exist... in non-existance.)
(PS I made the link green for it's sweet, sweet lotus power.)
Hungry. So very hungry... Want to move... to Sweden... Meat... balls...
(hehehe, balls)
Labels: filmographic things
The preferred method of listen to music at the lab (when we want to drown out the screams of the children - I'm kidding of course; the children don't scream. They know better than to do something like that.) is Pandora. One of the graduate students was listen to it the other day, which reminded me that I have a Pandora account and should use it more often to explore and extend my musical library.
While searching around on my Kate Bush station (pretty much the only one I listen to), a Loreena McKennit song started playing. Loreena McKennit music is exactly the type of music that makes my imagination wander - I mean more than usual. So I was reminded of the little figure on the sail boat that didn't quite make it through my last stream of consciousness. I thought that I might give him another chance today. The current song has him walking with a sad old camel through a vast bejeweled desert (I had better not see a book out in the next year with that plot! I had it first!), but since this song is almost over, I'll start the stream of consciousness with the next song. By the by, the song is "The Mystic's Dream" in case you're interested and I like it indeed.
Okay, SoC starting with Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery". Which I haven't listen to in a long time so that should keep my SoC fresh. Also, it's a weird little song, SoC-ly speaking, so I should come up with something interesting. Ready.... GO!
The little figure is walking through a dreary cityscape, with rain pouring down over his head. Shadowy figures are walking around him, stealing a look every now and then. He sees a shining light through the rain, so having nothing better to do with his life, he starts walking towards it. As he walks the dark swirls around him, like its dancing. He comes to the foot of a church (cuz it's in the song) and he bursts inside, wanting to know where the light is coming from. There are people in the pews praying. Not one of them looks up as his runs to the alter, dripping dirty water on the floor. He reaches a staircase. He can hear faint music from the upper floors (by the way, he's also wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora). He tries to climb but as he does the congregation of pew-prayers comes to the bottom of the stairs and starts pulling on it. As the stairs unravel the steps turn into musical notes that he has to climb to get to the upper floors. There a little girl with a big blue bow is sitting at an organ, playing not-organ music. And the song is over. Just when it was getting good.
Now a Psychedelic Fur's song ("All of This And Nothing") is playing. I want to see what the little girl does so I'll keep going. The music that comes out is oddly up beat, and the girl sways back and forth, humming alone in the darkness. The figure approaches her and hits some keys next to her. There are colored bottles on the dusty windowsill behind the organ. The light shines through it, dappling the figure and the girl in rainbow light. As the girl plays, the figure is transported to a dance floor. Somewhere very far away, colored lights just like from the bottles streams down around him. There are lots of other people in the dance floor place, all of them dancing and having a good time out of the rain. He looks up at the stage, seeing the girl, older now as a DJ, with a little blue skull cap and still moving to her own music. The figure tries to dance, but it seems he's forgotten how. The girl sees him in the audience and smiles. She leaves her hands at the controls (don't ask me how) and goes to join him. And now that song is over.
Well that got really weird. But I liked it. Next time, I think I might just do a SoC post to this song (see below), because it's really pretty. REALLY PRETTY.
If American Idol had any singers like this, I'd have watched more than one season. That's right, American Idol. I'm calling you out.
Labels: stream of consciousness
And I get paid for it!
The time: Sunday night
The place: My apartment
What was I doing: Not-showering for science.
They didn't want any kind of product in my hair (they being the people running the EEG study I would soon be participating in) so they ask me to not wash it the day before. I realized that didn't mean I couldn't shower, but eeh. Stinky is as stinky does.
So Monday morning, I woke up at 8:30, dressed, skipped breakfast because I forgot to bring a stupid spoon with me (stupid spoons... gar, why are you in the kitchen corner where it's hard to see you?) and walked over to Marie Mount, the building that never ceases to annoy me. Then I walked up to the pretty sweet language research suite (that's probably not what they call it) and was swept into signing a pretty standard consent form.
By the way, I just realized they said the only harm that would come to me during the study would be discomfort from sitting for 3 hours. I think they missed something, but I'll get to that later.
I signed the consent form and the experimenter told me more specifically what they're looking for in the study. Basically they wanted to see the brain processes I use while I'm reading English sentences and trying to determine if the sentences are 'correct' or 'false'. Then he (the experimenter) proceeded to put the EEG gap on my head.
I was expecting the EEG gap we use in our lab currently, which is basically a flexible net with nodes on it. Then we pipe a solution under the nodees to increase its conductivity of the kids' brain waves. What I got was the EEG caps they used to use in the lab, which I had seen hanging out (literally) in the lab but never seen used. Now I know why.
This one is also a net, but it's a solid net with the nodes build into the cap. So you can't stick a pipette under the net to squeeze any solution under the nodes. However, there are holes in the nodes and the experimenter explained he'd be using a dull needle to put a gel into the nodes to increase connectivity. And it would take about an hour and a half to do.
While he was doing this, I got to watch TV on Hulu, which was pretty cool (My choices were 30 Rock, The Office and Parks & Recreation) For most of that 1hr and 30mins, I was fairly comfortable. The experimenter basically just stuck the dull needle into the node-holes and screwed it in a little bit. Nothing to worry about. But then apparently 3 of the nodes weren't dropping under the treshhold they had set (in the CDL we do it around 50, but this lab keeps in between 10-15, except I found out this experimenter had dropped it to 5... nice)
So he and another experimenter spent about 30 minutes literally screwing the needle into my head to get the nodes to connect better. It was then that I started to notice the pressure that was putting on my head. And after 10 minutes of solid screwing motion, it really started to hurt... The needle cut my scalp at the node right on the front of my hairline and also the one on my temple (that one hurt the most; my temple is a delicate place, guys).
Anyway, after that I was ready to start the study. I was told I'd get a break every 15 minutes so I figured it would be like how they have it at the CDL - there'd be a break automatically built in the program. So I sat there, starting at the black sentences on an white screen, on a white apple computer, on a white desk before a white wall in a white cubical. Needless to say, my butt and my eyes were not happy. The thing about EEGs is you need to stay really still since the brain wave readings are affected by even the slightest movements, even blinking. And I know they expected me to move some, but I wanted to be a nice little participant and stay as still as I could.
After about 15 minutes, I asked for a break before starting the second block. It was then that I realized that the breaks weren't built into the program; it was up to the discression of the experimenter to stop it and he was supposed to tell me every 15 minutes to take a break. But he was new so he wasn't. I had a watch and I was timing the task. So after maybe 20-30 minutes, I asked for another break. Because my eyes were completely dry and my back was killing me. The experimeter told me I'd have about another 30 minutes, so I sucked it up and got back to work, hoping to plow through the last couple. Except it lasted for only about 3 minutes, since I had plowed through them already during my second go. I REALLY wanted to stop looking at that screen.
So he took the EEG cap off, I washed my hair in the sink since it was full of gel and then I went to my psychology class at 1pm. Sweet. $30 for minimal effort and a little discomfort. Now I can cross 'participate in an EEG study' off my list of things to do before I die.
Labels: scientific things
I was actually debating whether I wanted to bother posting this since I got on a role doing my Polish work earlier (which involved me going through my books and basically compiling information they should have had already compiled for the student reader). But since I promised it, I figured I'd finish it.
The golden question: Why was I watching Gone Baby Gone on Netflix yesterday?
The golden answer: Anime!
Okay, I see I'm going to have to connect the dots since that question-answer combination probably doesn't make much sense. It alllll started about 8 years ago... Fine, fine, won't go that far back. But in high school I used to watch my fair share of anime and read my fair share of manga. Problem was, the manga belong to my friends and the anime I watched on my TV, none of which I brought to college with me (So many friends at UMBC; why didn't they come here?!)
I've been out of the loop, so to speak, for a little while. Then, Mr. and Mrs. Alice took me to a certain comic book store and MADE ME buy a certain delightfully childlike comicbook by the name of The Amulet (Alright, I bought it out of my own free will). Which led (possibly... maybe not, but they happened around the same time) to talks of going to Otakon.
Haha, me go to Otakon? No, that was something I did in high school. Now I'm moving into the real world... going to be an adult soon... can't be running around... doing crazy things... enjoying the last bit of my childhood before I grow too old... Ha. That would be... *disappointment sigh*...
And of course buying The Amulet led to buy the previous discussed Flight, and I thought that might be the end of it. Just buy a Japanese culture-inspired comic book here and there, not an issue.
And then on Friday a certain Ms. Chelsea of a certain Japanese apartment visited me and showed me multiple theme songs from various popular animes via YouTube. And thanks to her showing me a website that had all the old Toonami videos, I started reminicing about the shows I used to watch ...Gundam Wing & G Gundam (my sister made me watch it...and I liked it weirdly a lot) ... Cowboy Bebop...Sailor Moon...DB(Z)... Yu Yu Hakusho... Case Closed (yeah, yeah I know it's Detective Conan auf japanisch) ... Tenchi Muyo!...Man I'm just enjoying typing their names down... Outlaw Star... Oh yeah, Ruroni Kenshin (my friend was OBSESSED with that show)... Inuyasha...FLCL...Lupin the 3rd...(Okay, now I'm just looking up the old Toonami/ Adult Swim lines ups, but I still remember watching them) Good times... good times...Samurai Champloo and Wolf's Rain were the last series I watched and I didn't finish them... I stopped watching them around 2005.
Ooo! Ooo! G-Force! I used to watch that show all the time when I was in elementary school! It's called Gatchaman in Japanese! Go watch it NOW! That was my first anime, not counting My Neighbor Totoro, and I loved it! Loved it! Way better than Voltron. (Pssh, Voltron). It's one of those shows I almost don't want to watch again out of fear that it might not live up to my childhood memories. I remember watching it with my grandma and she was curious about the masked woman with the lipstick... it was a man. See picture below.
Anyway, so I remembered all the happiness I had watching my little anime shows. And Ms. Chelsea and I talked about Otakon as well, and apparently I'm going.
So Friday night I wanted to watch TV, and with anime fresh on the brain I wanted to see if any of my old shows were on Netflix. They are not, at least not to watch immediately. But it recommended I watch these two shows, one of which was Air TV. Don't know if any of my three lovely readers in a certain Japanese apartment have seen that show but it looked okay for a late night watch. It's apparently based on a video game, and from the look of the show I'd assume it was a dating simulation game (... not that I've played those... I haven't, but I figure they probably look a certian way). And I was enjoying it, it was alright, predictable but still enjoyable. And then I met Potato. OHMYGODSOCUTE! You all need to watch this show if you haven't already, just for Potato. I will post a picture.

SOOO CUUUTE! And when he barks he goes 'Piko!' Sooo cute. Need I say more? I have to say, Ein used to be my favorite TV dog (Sorry Scooby, just not German enough)... I think Ein has been overthrown.
And now I'm watching the British version of The Office. Which is WAY raunchier then our American counterpart. The things they get away with on the BBC.
Labels: anime things, childhood thingies