Musings 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.
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...)
Found at The Pacific Northwest Shop(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)
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.
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.
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.
Sexy, am I right?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.
Okay, so I know I've mini-ranted about posting too often in the last two posts, but I figured I might as well go for the triple threat. Plus I've sort of been following this story and thus I feel obligated to end it. (Brace yourselves, I like long stories and this one won't be an exception.)
I wasn't going to post this, since I already posted today, and yesterday. But without my lovely ladies in a certain Japanese apartment to absorb my random thoughts, I feel this is my only choice. (That's right guys, feel guilty for leaving me all alone in my apartment).
I realize I posted yesterday, and posting on a daily basis isn't really my thing (at least... not yet!). But after seeing this on OMG! (which I'm sad to say I actually do read when the gossip is juicy- what's that? Stevie Nix will let Lindsay Lohan star in a movie about her over her dead body? That'll be one weird movie.)
YAY! I'm having a good day today (sorry to those who are not). Which is nice since yesterday I had only an okay day. It ended better than it started. It stated with me burning my hands. Curse your delicious cheapness, Cup O'Ramen!
- I need to master my temporal understanding better, so that it is as awesome as my spatial understand.
- I apparently need to be more patient.
- Where oh where is my GRE book?
Punny Question: "What did the dehydrated frenchman say to the other?"Punny Answer: "What do you want me to do, Pierre?"
Yay for Spring! But boo for needing to find something to do with my life.
So here's the deal: I was TOLD, by a certain person whose name starts with Mari and ends with anna that I should buy a GRE study guide from Amazon.com. Which makes sense since I like to save the money. Money is important to me. So I did that. And I bought Flight Vol. 1 since I wanted to get it and it meant I didn't have to pay for shipping. LOOK AT THE BEAUTY! (Beauty to be inserted later, once Blogger stops being not-cool. <-- I decided to keep this comment to remind myself of when Blogger is uncool. Seriously, uncoolness is not cool)
LOOK AT THE BEAUTY!
"It's so beautiful!" they cried with awe and admiration. "If only we had one!" Well you can! For only $13.99 on Amazon! Go now! What's that? Of course this message isn't small to emphasize it's subliminity. What the heck Amazon? GRE prep: Obviously of greater importance. Kind of a no brainer.
By "around" they better mean about 6 days earlier. That's right. I should get it promptly by yesterday.
But I did not.
At least I have Spring to cheer me up.
Except it's cold and rainy.
...*Sigh*...
PS: What's the deal with"!" not being allowed in the blog title or the blog label? That totally throws off my caps lock-ocity. Blogger apparently hates me.
"Lorem ipsum vim ut utroque mandamus intellegebat, ut eam omittam ancillae sadipscing, per et eius soluta veritus."
"In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country' most historic treasures. It will now be called the "Taco Libery Bell" and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar actions to do their part to reduce our nation's debt."