As I've said before, Koreans look a lot younger than Americans...
Archive for August, 2008
Brother != professor
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
I was talking to one of the guys in my lab today, while we waited for a test to run. He asked me if I had any brothers or sisters, and I said "Yeah, I have a brother," and said that he was in one of the photos hanging in my cubicle. And he says, "Oh, that's your brother? I thought he was a professor!"
As I've said before, Koreans look a lot younger than Americans...
As I've said before, Koreans look a lot younger than Americans...
What a gorgeous evening!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Ahhhh. This afternoon was wonderful in all its pre-autumnal glory. On the way home, I looked out on the Charles River Basin and decided I wanted to go jogging, so I did. I came back (it was wonderful), showered, grabbed my copy of Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and a falafel from Falafel Palace, and retired to a park just up the way from my apartment and ate my falafel while reading about Haruki Murakami looking out on the same Charles River Basin and renewing his laid-away habit of running. Huh! Msr. Murakami also noted Cambridge's summer inevitability of Sam Adams Summer Ale, of which I've quaffed my share these last months. Fun to have some degree of empathy with possibly (for reasons I don't necessarily understand) my favorite author ever.
The director of biology sat me and the other intern down and told us that we should know where we want to be and run for it. She said she stumbled from one position to another almost by accident, and wishes she'd had a little more direction. I was chatting with one of the senior scientists (who's not all that senior, either) today and she said something similar! And neither of them are US natives; the director is Iranian by way of England and Australia and the scientist was born and raised in China, so it's not like they didn't take big steps for their careers. I guess I should give a little thought now and then to the idea that inshallah I'll be thirty, forty, fifty someday...
Also, thought this was funny: Someone did a quick survey and the Hillary Clinton alumni email list is putting its money on Joe Biden as Obama's VP pick. Though who knows how informed they really are -- Hillary got 23% of the votes. (Wishful thinking?)
The director of biology sat me and the other intern down and told us that we should know where we want to be and run for it. She said she stumbled from one position to another almost by accident, and wishes she'd had a little more direction. I was chatting with one of the senior scientists (who's not all that senior, either) today and she said something similar! And neither of them are US natives; the director is Iranian by way of England and Australia and the scientist was born and raised in China, so it's not like they didn't take big steps for their careers. I guess I should give a little thought now and then to the idea that inshallah I'll be thirty, forty, fifty someday...
Also, thought this was funny: Someone did a quick survey and the Hillary Clinton alumni email list is putting its money on Joe Biden as Obama's VP pick. Though who knows how informed they really are -- Hillary got 23% of the votes. (Wishful thinking?)
Folk Festival Summer
Monday, August 18th, 2008
I really need to spend a summer going to folk festivals. I love them.
I had the best time at the Philly Folk Fest this year. I was nervous about going by myself and jumping into a committee that I basically knew nothing about, but it worked out perfectly. Central Control is responsible for all of the rented tables and chairs at the festival. We also help out with moving musicians between stages and anything else that happens to come up.
I drove up to Schwenksville on Wednesday to work pre-fest. I barely started putting up my tent when a call came:
Rob: "So, do you want to go to work?"
Bill: "Don't ask her that, obviously the answer is no."
Me: "I guess I can, I'm not really doing anything else today. I can set up my tent later."
We then preceded to move a bunch of tables and chairs. We did the same thing on Thursday. It was actually really fun to sit in the back of the cube truck while it drove frighteningly fast across the pothole ridden ground. There was only one especially scary point when someone with zero experience was driving the truck and slammed on the brakes because he didn't realize that anyone was in the back.
It was so nice to be outside doing manual labor after an entire summer of being shut up in an office. After all of the heavy lifting, I walked to the swimming hole with Gus and we took a dip in the water. That night it rained and we listened to the evening concert from out campsite, underneath the shelter. We were right on the edge of the campground, in the corner, next to the Camp Stage.
I ended up with the Friday 8am-4pm, Saturday 4pm-midnight, and Sunday 12pm-8pm shifts. We did a bunch of last minute set up (beer garden, cafe etc.) on Friday morning and then I hung out with Zach and watched the evening concert. There was this amazing ukelele player - Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9mEKMz2Pvo). I bought his CD. I really want to learn the ukelele now. I also made a new friend named Neora. It was her first year at fest and we got into this whole discussion about sexuality and religion over dinner. She was born in Israel and is now studying in Philly to become a rabbi. She was also queer. She didn't have a campsite yet, so I invited her to camp next to me. Unfortunately, she ended up leaving the next day because she just wasn't prepared for camping - she had forgotten all this important stuff like her toothbrush, flashlight, and medication. Maybe I will see her next year. That night I went for a walk around the campground and ended up staying up until 4am.
Saturday was my favorite. I watched a showcase in the morning that might as well have been called "the lesbian showcase" because more than half the performers were lesbians (Chris Pureka, Nicole Reynolds, Ellis). Later that day, Janis Ian performed. I was impressed with the lesbian presence on stage. I also wandered around all the crafts, which is always fun. That made me want to learn glass blowing. At 4pm, my shift started and there was nothing to do. We all sat around being bored for the longest time. We amused ourselves by trying to annoy obnoxious ticket-holders and taking photos of the Saturday Sweep. This year the theme was PFF Prom so all the guys from Security were dressed in ball gowns. Around 8pm, we all went backstage to help out during the evening concert. I was very excited about pushing drum sets on stage and setting up water bottles for the performers. Every time I went on stage, I would text Zach to see if he saw me. Winnie and I were fooling around backstage and got chastized for laughing too loudly - apparently we were getting picked up on stage. Luckily, the stage manager has a crush on Winnie, so we didn't really get in that much trouble. We snacked on hospitality food between acts. Most of Saturday night was singer/songwriters who carry their own instruments, so there wasn't much to do. It didn't get that exciting until Judy Collins arrived. We had to escort her on and off the premises - she was kind of a diva.
On Sunday, my highlight was transporting Trout Fishing in America from the Lobby Stage to the Main Stage. I was mostly pleased because I did it all by myself and I did an excellent job. I loaded up Judy's car with their instruments, drove them down to the Main Stage, and then gave them a ride back up to the CD-signing area. (My favorite song by them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2m5nJnHnI). Later, the tall guy pulled me aside backstage because he had lost his phone and was hoping I could look for it since he was performing in 40 minutes. I found it in the car and brought it back to him with 20 minutes to spare (I also pulled down the curtain on the Tank Stage, which is why it took so long). He was so relieved and gave me a hug hug. I also saw Kimya Dawson and Great Big Sea perform that day. At the end of the concert, we had to break down all of the tables and chairs in the concert area (including reserved seating, hospitality, cafe, and beer garden) - which took something like 2-3 hours. By midnight, we rolled back into the campsite.
The next morning, we retrieved all of the tables and chairs from the campgrounds and ensured that everything was accessible for the rental service to pick up.
Now I have everything to look forward to for next summer and a standing invitation to attend the Mariposa Festival in Canada (http://www.mariposafolk.com/signpost.php?dest=festival).
I had the best time at the Philly Folk Fest this year. I was nervous about going by myself and jumping into a committee that I basically knew nothing about, but it worked out perfectly. Central Control is responsible for all of the rented tables and chairs at the festival. We also help out with moving musicians between stages and anything else that happens to come up.
I drove up to Schwenksville on Wednesday to work pre-fest. I barely started putting up my tent when a call came:
Rob: "So, do you want to go to work?"
Bill: "Don't ask her that, obviously the answer is no."
Me: "I guess I can, I'm not really doing anything else today. I can set up my tent later."
We then preceded to move a bunch of tables and chairs. We did the same thing on Thursday. It was actually really fun to sit in the back of the cube truck while it drove frighteningly fast across the pothole ridden ground. There was only one especially scary point when someone with zero experience was driving the truck and slammed on the brakes because he didn't realize that anyone was in the back.
It was so nice to be outside doing manual labor after an entire summer of being shut up in an office. After all of the heavy lifting, I walked to the swimming hole with Gus and we took a dip in the water. That night it rained and we listened to the evening concert from out campsite, underneath the shelter. We were right on the edge of the campground, in the corner, next to the Camp Stage.
I ended up with the Friday 8am-4pm, Saturday 4pm-midnight, and Sunday 12pm-8pm shifts. We did a bunch of last minute set up (beer garden, cafe etc.) on Friday morning and then I hung out with Zach and watched the evening concert. There was this amazing ukelele player - Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9mEKMz2Pvo). I bought his CD. I really want to learn the ukelele now. I also made a new friend named Neora. It was her first year at fest and we got into this whole discussion about sexuality and religion over dinner. She was born in Israel and is now studying in Philly to become a rabbi. She was also queer. She didn't have a campsite yet, so I invited her to camp next to me. Unfortunately, she ended up leaving the next day because she just wasn't prepared for camping - she had forgotten all this important stuff like her toothbrush, flashlight, and medication. Maybe I will see her next year. That night I went for a walk around the campground and ended up staying up until 4am.
Saturday was my favorite. I watched a showcase in the morning that might as well have been called "the lesbian showcase" because more than half the performers were lesbians (Chris Pureka, Nicole Reynolds, Ellis). Later that day, Janis Ian performed. I was impressed with the lesbian presence on stage. I also wandered around all the crafts, which is always fun. That made me want to learn glass blowing. At 4pm, my shift started and there was nothing to do. We all sat around being bored for the longest time. We amused ourselves by trying to annoy obnoxious ticket-holders and taking photos of the Saturday Sweep. This year the theme was PFF Prom so all the guys from Security were dressed in ball gowns. Around 8pm, we all went backstage to help out during the evening concert. I was very excited about pushing drum sets on stage and setting up water bottles for the performers. Every time I went on stage, I would text Zach to see if he saw me. Winnie and I were fooling around backstage and got chastized for laughing too loudly - apparently we were getting picked up on stage. Luckily, the stage manager has a crush on Winnie, so we didn't really get in that much trouble. We snacked on hospitality food between acts. Most of Saturday night was singer/songwriters who carry their own instruments, so there wasn't much to do. It didn't get that exciting until Judy Collins arrived. We had to escort her on and off the premises - she was kind of a diva.
On Sunday, my highlight was transporting Trout Fishing in America from the Lobby Stage to the Main Stage. I was mostly pleased because I did it all by myself and I did an excellent job. I loaded up Judy's car with their instruments, drove them down to the Main Stage, and then gave them a ride back up to the CD-signing area. (My favorite song by them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2m5nJnHnI). Later, the tall guy pulled me aside backstage because he had lost his phone and was hoping I could look for it since he was performing in 40 minutes. I found it in the car and brought it back to him with 20 minutes to spare (I also pulled down the curtain on the Tank Stage, which is why it took so long). He was so relieved and gave me a hug hug. I also saw Kimya Dawson and Great Big Sea perform that day. At the end of the concert, we had to break down all of the tables and chairs in the concert area (including reserved seating, hospitality, cafe, and beer garden) - which took something like 2-3 hours. By midnight, we rolled back into the campsite.
The next morning, we retrieved all of the tables and chairs from the campgrounds and ensured that everything was accessible for the rental service to pick up.
Now I have everything to look forward to for next summer and a standing invitation to attend the Mariposa Festival in Canada (http://www.mariposafolk.com/signpost.php?dest=festival).
Today today today
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
I woke up this morning and intended to clean out my inbox and start packing and cleaning (I move out of my summer sublet on Saturday; I'm camping out with the Somerville kids for three nights before moving in to Olin on Tuesday evening). Instead, I realized it was a beautiful day.
After going shopping and purchasing my last summer week's worth of food (mostly bagels and things that go with rice), I took a freezing cold shower (the hot water has since returned) and mucked around with the Boston Harborwalk Fort Point Channel mp3 tour. It took me half a damn hour to get the mp3s onto my Zune, by which point I had lost interest -- I'd at least seen the neighborhood before, on the way to taking my GREs (which were successfully reported! despite my never showing ID -- oops?), and I kind of think they're astroturfing some of the neighborhood's cool factor. So I got off the Red Line at Park Street instead of South Station and walked around the Commons and Garden for a bit before starting in on the Freedom Trail, which I followed all the way up to the Bunker Hill monument in Charlestown. I got to walk on the USS Constitution about five minutes before it closed for the evening, which was kind of cool! I have some generally unremarkable photos which I'll probably post eventually. I think it's pretty badass that the Boston Massacre victims are buried right next to Sam Adams. We knew how to agitate, back in our day. Also, brick townhouses on Monument Ave in Charlestown: gorgeous! (Zillow says they're in the $800-1000k range, which might be attainable someday, and WalkScore gives them a respectable 81 for walkability. Though now I'm spoiled - Central Square has a score of 94! Olin? Like, 50. D:) I say things like "yeah, I don't really worry about my future salary" but then things like real-estate break that down.
I really like watching snare drum hits and low bass thumps on oscilloscope visualizations.
What's the difference between a Fast Fourier Transformation and a Fourier transformation done quickly?
Anyway, to-do:
- Show some progress towards any of the mid-term goals mentioned previously (oops)
- Clean out inboxes
- Begin packing
- Clean out room
- Buy some non-ugly clothes for crying out loud
Funny how it looks like the list of things I was going to do this weekend. ;P
After going shopping and purchasing my last summer week's worth of food (mostly bagels and things that go with rice), I took a freezing cold shower (the hot water has since returned) and mucked around with the Boston Harborwalk Fort Point Channel mp3 tour. It took me half a damn hour to get the mp3s onto my Zune, by which point I had lost interest -- I'd at least seen the neighborhood before, on the way to taking my GREs (which were successfully reported! despite my never showing ID -- oops?), and I kind of think they're astroturfing some of the neighborhood's cool factor. So I got off the Red Line at Park Street instead of South Station and walked around the Commons and Garden for a bit before starting in on the Freedom Trail, which I followed all the way up to the Bunker Hill monument in Charlestown. I got to walk on the USS Constitution about five minutes before it closed for the evening, which was kind of cool! I have some generally unremarkable photos which I'll probably post eventually. I think it's pretty badass that the Boston Massacre victims are buried right next to Sam Adams. We knew how to agitate, back in our day. Also, brick townhouses on Monument Ave in Charlestown: gorgeous! (Zillow says they're in the $800-1000k range, which might be attainable someday, and WalkScore gives them a respectable 81 for walkability. Though now I'm spoiled - Central Square has a score of 94! Olin? Like, 50. D:) I say things like "yeah, I don't really worry about my future salary" but then things like real-estate break that down.
I really like watching snare drum hits and low bass thumps on oscilloscope visualizations.
What's the difference between a Fast Fourier Transformation and a Fourier transformation done quickly?
Anyway, to-do:
- Show some progress towards any of the mid-term goals mentioned previously (oops)
- Clean out inboxes
- Begin packing
- Clean out room
- Buy some non-ugly clothes for crying out loud
Funny how it looks like the list of things I was going to do this weekend. ;P
My food is moving, and silkworms taste nutty
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Just an update on the past few days. I've had a fairly eventful weekend, going into Seoul on both days. Saturday I went to a bookstore, and replenished my stock of reading materials. Kyobo Bookstore is the largest in Seoul, and if you imagine a Barnes and Noble having a 90% off clearance sale you'll have a vague idea of how crowded it was. If Jorge Luis Borges is right that paradise is a kind of library, then surely Kyobo Bookstore is the fifth circle of Hell. Afterwards I went to Dongdaemun, one of the famous markets, and looked around. I didn't buy anything except for some kimbab, since most of it was poor-quality American knockoffs.
Sunday I went to Ttuksam Forest. It wasn't much of a forest, more an area with a few trees and some fenced in deer. The deer were rather cute, as they were half-sized, but that was the only excitement. It was also about 105 degrees with the heat index, so I couldn't stay outdoors for very long.
After that I went to a mall, since a lot of my clothes have stopped fitting. It was quite the cultural experience. For one, Korean clothes don't really fit me. Those who know me have probably noticed that I seem to be built just a little bit differently than your average Korean girl. But anyways, after much searching I had a little luck. And then I got to the bit about trying on the clothes.
The first store had a dressing room no bigger than a tiny closet. It didn't even have a mirror. The second store had a slightly larger dressing room, though for some reason I was sharing it with a shop vac. The curtain was also see through from the waist up, which for some reason made me not too keen to try things on...
The third store didn't have a dressing room. I asked the sales lady if I could try a dress on, so she unbuttons the dress, then holds it out for me to try on over my shirt. Ok, a little bit odd, but whatever. Then she starts buttoning the dress on me! Uhh...umm...well, at least it wasn't a guy.
So the moral of that story is I need to eat ice cream until my clothes fit again.
Tonight was another dinner for the interns. As usual, there was far too much soju available. I ended up having to escort the lady in charge of the interns back to her room because she wasn't exactly able to walk straight...
Anyways, dinner tonight was supposedly sushi (sweet!), but when I got there I found it was sashimi instead. That was fine by me, since sashimi is prettymuch sushi minus the seaweed, right?
Not quite. This was *real* sashimi, which involved prettymuch every sea creature imaginable. Not the most appetizing thing, but I can cope. After all, I'm up to date on all my vaccines, and if I'm going to get sick I might as well get something exotic. But before they put out the plates of sashimi, they put out side dishes. One of them had a bit of an odd look, sort of like two pill bugs squished together. So I ask what is it (already having a slight suspicion), and eventually enough people pool together their knowledge of English to tell me that I was indeed looking at silkworm larvae. I think I looked pretty horrified, but that was nothing compared to what I was thinking:
GAHHH!!!!! CRAZY KOREANS!!! THEY EAT BUGS IN THIS COUNTRY!!! EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW!!!!!!!!!!
So of course, I had to try one (once I stopped feeling lightheaded), just to say I did. It tasted sort of like a peanut that might have gone a bit moldy. The texture was a little odd, like I was expecting to get bug innards stuck in my teeth. And the taste, well, it was bad enough that I took a swig of soju afterwards because for some reason fermented sweet potatoes didn't seem nearly as bad as larvae.
Once that was said and done, a gigantic platter of raw fish sounded downright appetizing, and I ate sashimi to my heart's content. And the platters kept coming...raw clams, raw conch shells, raw scallops...my dinner options were certainly diverse, though I stuck to the fish since it seemed the least risky to me. (Risk being relative, mind you.)
Yet it was the final platter that took the cake. It was arranged quite prettily, with a cluster of sea cucumbers, a few scallops arranged in their shells, and an assortment of other unidentifiable ocean denizens. It wasn't anything that I was keen to eat, though nothing looked too gross by my newly-lowered standards.
That was, until one of the interns took chopsticks and said "Hey Beth, watch this." And he uses his chopstick to poke one of the piles of sea-foody stuff.
The food responded in kind. It twitched. Nothing too major, but the entire mound of unidentifiable-food started writhing. And for the second time tonight, I found myself thinking
GAHHH!!!!! CRAZY KOREANS!!! THEY EAT NOT-FULLY-DEAD ANIMALS IN THIS COUNTRY!!! EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW!!!!!!!!!!
I did the only thing I could do in the situation.
I cried.
And that, dear readers, is the end of this story. It has a bit of a happy ending, because when I got back to SAIT (and got the drunk lady up three flights of stairs), I ate ice cream. But I think I might not eat meat for a few days, since the thought of food wriggling about makes my stomach do weird things.
Sunday I went to Ttuksam Forest. It wasn't much of a forest, more an area with a few trees and some fenced in deer. The deer were rather cute, as they were half-sized, but that was the only excitement. It was also about 105 degrees with the heat index, so I couldn't stay outdoors for very long.
After that I went to a mall, since a lot of my clothes have stopped fitting. It was quite the cultural experience. For one, Korean clothes don't really fit me. Those who know me have probably noticed that I seem to be built just a little bit differently than your average Korean girl. But anyways, after much searching I had a little luck. And then I got to the bit about trying on the clothes.
The first store had a dressing room no bigger than a tiny closet. It didn't even have a mirror. The second store had a slightly larger dressing room, though for some reason I was sharing it with a shop vac. The curtain was also see through from the waist up, which for some reason made me not too keen to try things on...
The third store didn't have a dressing room. I asked the sales lady if I could try a dress on, so she unbuttons the dress, then holds it out for me to try on over my shirt. Ok, a little bit odd, but whatever. Then she starts buttoning the dress on me! Uhh...umm...well, at least it wasn't a guy.
So the moral of that story is I need to eat ice cream until my clothes fit again.
Tonight was another dinner for the interns. As usual, there was far too much soju available. I ended up having to escort the lady in charge of the interns back to her room because she wasn't exactly able to walk straight...
Anyways, dinner tonight was supposedly sushi (sweet!), but when I got there I found it was sashimi instead. That was fine by me, since sashimi is prettymuch sushi minus the seaweed, right?
Not quite. This was *real* sashimi, which involved prettymuch every sea creature imaginable. Not the most appetizing thing, but I can cope. After all, I'm up to date on all my vaccines, and if I'm going to get sick I might as well get something exotic. But before they put out the plates of sashimi, they put out side dishes. One of them had a bit of an odd look, sort of like two pill bugs squished together. So I ask what is it (already having a slight suspicion), and eventually enough people pool together their knowledge of English to tell me that I was indeed looking at silkworm larvae. I think I looked pretty horrified, but that was nothing compared to what I was thinking:
GAHHH!!!!! CRAZY KOREANS!!! THEY EAT BUGS IN THIS COUNTRY!!! EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW!!!!!!!!!!
So of course, I had to try one (once I stopped feeling lightheaded), just to say I did. It tasted sort of like a peanut that might have gone a bit moldy. The texture was a little odd, like I was expecting to get bug innards stuck in my teeth. And the taste, well, it was bad enough that I took a swig of soju afterwards because for some reason fermented sweet potatoes didn't seem nearly as bad as larvae.
Once that was said and done, a gigantic platter of raw fish sounded downright appetizing, and I ate sashimi to my heart's content. And the platters kept coming...raw clams, raw conch shells, raw scallops...my dinner options were certainly diverse, though I stuck to the fish since it seemed the least risky to me. (Risk being relative, mind you.)
Yet it was the final platter that took the cake. It was arranged quite prettily, with a cluster of sea cucumbers, a few scallops arranged in their shells, and an assortment of other unidentifiable ocean denizens. It wasn't anything that I was keen to eat, though nothing looked too gross by my newly-lowered standards.
That was, until one of the interns took chopsticks and said "Hey Beth, watch this." And he uses his chopstick to poke one of the piles of sea-foody stuff.
The food responded in kind. It twitched. Nothing too major, but the entire mound of unidentifiable-food started writhing. And for the second time tonight, I found myself thinking
GAHHH!!!!! CRAZY KOREANS!!! THEY EAT NOT-FULLY-DEAD ANIMALS IN THIS COUNTRY!!! EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW!!!!!!!!!!
I did the only thing I could do in the situation.
I cried.
And that, dear readers, is the end of this story. It has a bit of a happy ending, because when I got back to SAIT (and got the drunk lady up three flights of stairs), I ate ice cream. But I think I might not eat meat for a few days, since the thought of food wriggling about makes my stomach do weird things.
VOSTA? and unfiled updates
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Mid-term goals:
- Develop a coherent style and/or philosophy of management and/or government. Apply it through CORe and/or SCOPE.
- Understand the wars/genocide(s) in former Yugoslavia/Serbia/what the hell ever happened in that region anyway. AHS Capstone?
- Scope out labs; figure out where I want to go to grad school.
This weekend was good for me psychically. Nantucket with Jobim, Angela, Andrea, and her family on Saturday -- we daytripped out and stayed at (count the links) Andrea's mother's boyfriend's sister's house. It was a beautiful day at the beach, and I got to try my hand on their inflatable windsurfing board, which was an impressive amount of fun. The thing about Nantucket is that even mentioning Nantucket (and most of the Cape, really) makes you sound like a pretentious bag or an aspirant to the landed gentry. Fun to experience, though, and I'd go back in a heartbeat! Today I spent several hours at Simon's cleaning out my inbox, biking straight past 1369 in Inman in the process (and good riddance). The yerba mate latte at Simon's is interesting but at medium size, the flavor of the mate is almost completely lost in the milk (with or without its charming trademark latte-art heart).
Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down are playing TT's on Tuesday! It's an 18+ show, even. I'm picking up tickets tomorrow; give a holler if you want one.
My damn laptop keeps locking up on the docking station. I reimaged at the end of the year but whatever causes the hanging has persisted / was reinstalled. Boo. Makes it a lot harder to, you know, use.
I expressed a number of interesting sentiments tonight. I intend to follow up on essentially none of them. Is the unimplemented, examined life as fatal as the merely unexamined? Perhaps it's worse: overexamination leads to paralysis, thus compounding indirection with hesitation.
I wonder what this semester will be like. I have a lit class at Babson that meets for 2.5 hours on Tuesday nights. The Stars and Dandy Warhols concert in early September is on a Tuesday night. Crap guys what do I do! I guess I have already seen Stars this year and don't really need to see the Dandy Warhols, but augh. Torquil Campbell! Amy Millan! I hope you will forgive me. Then again, I know that professor, and she will definitely forgive me. Hmmm.
In secret, we believe we're nothing nothing nothing that we need.
I almost really really like Mates of State. I would probably LOVE them remixed or covered. By the Postal Service. Yes.
Two weeks of work left!
- Develop a coherent style and/or philosophy of management and/or government. Apply it through CORe and/or SCOPE.
- Understand the wars/genocide(s) in former Yugoslavia/Serbia/what the hell ever happened in that region anyway. AHS Capstone?
- Scope out labs; figure out where I want to go to grad school.
This weekend was good for me psychically. Nantucket with Jobim, Angela, Andrea, and her family on Saturday -- we daytripped out and stayed at (count the links) Andrea's mother's boyfriend's sister's house. It was a beautiful day at the beach, and I got to try my hand on their inflatable windsurfing board, which was an impressive amount of fun. The thing about Nantucket is that even mentioning Nantucket (and most of the Cape, really) makes you sound like a pretentious bag or an aspirant to the landed gentry. Fun to experience, though, and I'd go back in a heartbeat! Today I spent several hours at Simon's cleaning out my inbox, biking straight past 1369 in Inman in the process (and good riddance). The yerba mate latte at Simon's is interesting but at medium size, the flavor of the mate is almost completely lost in the milk (with or without its charming trademark latte-art heart).
Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down are playing TT's on Tuesday! It's an 18+ show, even. I'm picking up tickets tomorrow; give a holler if you want one.
My damn laptop keeps locking up on the docking station. I reimaged at the end of the year but whatever causes the hanging has persisted / was reinstalled. Boo. Makes it a lot harder to, you know, use.
I expressed a number of interesting sentiments tonight. I intend to follow up on essentially none of them. Is the unimplemented, examined life as fatal as the merely unexamined? Perhaps it's worse: overexamination leads to paralysis, thus compounding indirection with hesitation.
I wonder what this semester will be like. I have a lit class at Babson that meets for 2.5 hours on Tuesday nights. The Stars and Dandy Warhols concert in early September is on a Tuesday night. Crap guys what do I do! I guess I have already seen Stars this year and don't really need to see the Dandy Warhols, but augh. Torquil Campbell! Amy Millan! I hope you will forgive me. Then again, I know that professor, and she will definitely forgive me. Hmmm.
In secret, we believe we're nothing nothing nothing that we need.
I almost really really like Mates of State. I would probably LOVE them remixed or covered. By the Postal Service. Yes.
Two weeks of work left!
Yongsan Electronics Market
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Today I went to Yongsan Electronics Market. Imagine if Amazon's electronics section had a physical storefront, and you'd have Yongsan.
It was simply unbelievable, the variety of electronics they had. And all the salesmen spoke good English, which they used to try to get the attention of all the Americans that were running around...go figure. It was actually someone surprising at first that the salesmen (there were no women selling stuff) would try to get my attention, since in the US I can count on being completely ignored if I set foot in an electronics store. I did manage to fail to find the door to the subway, so I asked a lady at a desk that said "HELP FOR FOREIGNERS." She put me on a phone with a translator, who said "Turn around, and go out that door that you see." Whoops. I guess I was closer than I expected.
I also wandered around the mall that was connected to the electronics store, especially the bookstore with an English section. They sold jigsaw puzzles there, and I was quite tempted to get one, but decided against it. Afterwards I walked to Itaewon, since I felt like walking. Seoul is much more compact than I realized. I found an American diner (that was creatively named "American Diner") that had amazing burgers, good fries and poor service. It felt just like home.
Mmm...I'm craving veggies at the moment. For those of you who know me well, this is an unusual occurence indeed. Koreans slaughter their vegetables, either putting them in heavy sauces or cooking them well beyond what even I consider reasonable. Or they just eat whole, raw chilli peppers. I think I'd rather eat live octopus.
It was simply unbelievable, the variety of electronics they had. And all the salesmen spoke good English, which they used to try to get the attention of all the Americans that were running around...go figure. It was actually someone surprising at first that the salesmen (there were no women selling stuff) would try to get my attention, since in the US I can count on being completely ignored if I set foot in an electronics store. I did manage to fail to find the door to the subway, so I asked a lady at a desk that said "HELP FOR FOREIGNERS." She put me on a phone with a translator, who said "Turn around, and go out that door that you see." Whoops. I guess I was closer than I expected.
I also wandered around the mall that was connected to the electronics store, especially the bookstore with an English section. They sold jigsaw puzzles there, and I was quite tempted to get one, but decided against it. Afterwards I walked to Itaewon, since I felt like walking. Seoul is much more compact than I realized. I found an American diner (that was creatively named "American Diner") that had amazing burgers, good fries and poor service. It felt just like home.
Mmm...I'm craving veggies at the moment. For those of you who know me well, this is an unusual occurence indeed. Koreans slaughter their vegetables, either putting them in heavy sauces or cooking them well beyond what even I consider reasonable. Or they just eat whole, raw chilli peppers. I think I'd rather eat live octopus.
Oh Man
Friday, August 8th, 2008
The summer is wrapping up, which is good and bad.
I only have 2 more days left of work, which is kind of exciting. I've actually grown to really like my job at Constellation Energy. Even if I was doing kind of boring stuff and spent way too much time staring at a computer screen, all of the people were really fun. I liked the office environment a lot. The only eh-part was that guy I worked with on my project. He was fine to work with, but I didn't actually enjoy his company at all.
This weekend is going to involve lots of working on my SEA Semester application, packing/cleaning, and taking care of Kelly (she just got her wisdom teeth out). My parents are planning to move to Pasadena, MD (to a little house on the water) some time in the next year so I need to leave the house in some sort of respectable state.
On Wednesday, I head out for the Philly Folk Fest. I get back on August 18th and then I'm touring a Nuclear Power Plant the next day. The day after that, I'm leaving for Nebraska for a family reunion. I'll get home just in time to leave for Boston. Busy, busy, busy - which is why this is packing weekend.
Luckily, I'll be back in town for the National SWE Conference in November. YOU SHOULD ALL COME. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. I <3 BALTIMORE!
Right now there's some sort of anime convention. I was walking to the other side of the harbor last night (to watch Casablanca on Federal Hill) and there were all these people wandering around in funny costumes with badges.
I also met this woman who did a SEA Semester in 1993 as a freshman in college. She told me the most amazing stories about standing watch at 3am while strapped into the bow of the ship - the night sky reflected against the ocean as far as you can see. I'm so excited for it. Now if only I wasn't so nervous about everything going wrong with my application.
Summer Highlights:
Going to Bethany Beach with all my high school friends
Seeing Bitch perform at the Capital Pride Women's Party
Learning to play Bridge
Taking a belly-dancing class
Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
Visiting Boston - where I drank lots of tea with good friends and found awesome shoes
Going to Flicks on the Hill every week
etc. etc. It was a good summer.
I only have 2 more days left of work, which is kind of exciting. I've actually grown to really like my job at Constellation Energy. Even if I was doing kind of boring stuff and spent way too much time staring at a computer screen, all of the people were really fun. I liked the office environment a lot. The only eh-part was that guy I worked with on my project. He was fine to work with, but I didn't actually enjoy his company at all.
This weekend is going to involve lots of working on my SEA Semester application, packing/cleaning, and taking care of Kelly (she just got her wisdom teeth out). My parents are planning to move to Pasadena, MD (to a little house on the water) some time in the next year so I need to leave the house in some sort of respectable state.
On Wednesday, I head out for the Philly Folk Fest. I get back on August 18th and then I'm touring a Nuclear Power Plant the next day. The day after that, I'm leaving for Nebraska for a family reunion. I'll get home just in time to leave for Boston. Busy, busy, busy - which is why this is packing weekend.
Luckily, I'll be back in town for the National SWE Conference in November. YOU SHOULD ALL COME. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. I <3 BALTIMORE!
Right now there's some sort of anime convention. I was walking to the other side of the harbor last night (to watch Casablanca on Federal Hill) and there were all these people wandering around in funny costumes with badges.
I also met this woman who did a SEA Semester in 1993 as a freshman in college. She told me the most amazing stories about standing watch at 3am while strapped into the bow of the ship - the night sky reflected against the ocean as far as you can see. I'm so excited for it. Now if only I wasn't so nervous about everything going wrong with my application.
Summer Highlights:
Going to Bethany Beach with all my high school friends
Seeing Bitch perform at the Capital Pride Women's Party
Learning to play Bridge
Taking a belly-dancing class
Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
Visiting Boston - where I drank lots of tea with good friends and found awesome shoes
Going to Flicks on the Hill every week
etc. etc. It was a good summer.
Mostly Asleep?
Friday, August 8th, 2008I had two really weird dreams last night.
In the first one, I stuffed someone’s shot in basketball. The weird part? I was playing a sport. Haha j/k. The weird part is that I’m almost positive that I actually swung my real-world arm and hit my bed.
This was followed by a dream where I dropped something acidic on three spots of my hand. My brain insists that it was “about as acidic as capsaicin.” I have no clue how acidic capsaicin is. Also, pure capsaicin doesn’t look like the oil in my dream. Anyhow. The weird part was that I felt it on my real-world hand for what seems like a couple of hours. I was asleep so maybe my time-perception was off, but it lasted through several unrelated dreams…
I think those are the two weirdest dreams I’ve had and remembered since the one with the cartoon fish that ate my older brother or the ridiculous one with the Scooby-Doo meets Paper Mario styled monsters that were trying to find me, my friends and my family in some weird mansiony thing. Those dreams are like 6 years old or something though… dreams are weird.
Biphasing again – now with gratuitous physical exertion
Thursday, August 7th, 2008So I was looking at my schedule for this coming semester and some of the times lined up all pretty for me to schedule a nap…
So I’m doing biphasic again. I’m also going to be working out and doing something aerobic - a combination that I haven’t done for something like 4 years. The first time I did biphasic I was hitting 4.5 hours every day. And I would get tired/bored when people weren’t around (eg 04:30). So I’m going to try to avoid some of that this time around.
My schedule works somewhat better for it this year. Instead of staying awake and bored until 5, I’ll be in bed at 2 or 03:30. This should help with boredom at night and it gives me a nice chunk of time at 06:30 when the Babson gym opens.
Sadly, the schedule is a bit less straightforward. I wake up every day at 06:30, but there’s two different times I go to bed. On Wednesdays, SCOPE steals a nap. At the end of the day I’ll average just under 5 hours a day of sleep. I will, however, be adding in a bunch of physical activity so I might find myself needing more rest - we’ll see.
There’s two ways to go about a new sleep schedule. Gradual transition and habit forming or sleep deprivation. The second one is what I’ll be trying this time around. The abrupt change from summer sleep hours and the addition of running or swimming should make sure my body is begging for whatever sleep I decide it can take. That’s the quick, if plausibly painful, way to go about it. At least I’m not doing an uberman schedule where I don’t sleep at all for the first three days or anything that extreme…
Still haven’t figured out why I like toying with my sleep so much… I’m sure I’ll babble about how it goes in my blog 