Hi

I haven't been talking about my life lately because there isn't much to report.

I've been jet lagged. I hung out with Tedrick once; we saw a small chihuahua which was insanely cute. I've been reading a lot of nostalgia books, namely the Animorphs and Jedi Apprentice, because they were really entertaining back in the day. KA Appelgate fails to be five people or, at times, even a decent writer of prose. But what she does accomplish is cool. The Animorphs doesn't sugarcoat the fact that these kids get scarred and changed by war. She explains technological loopholes and takes as much advantage of the fact that aliens are probably not going to be anything like humans, though she at times fails. I suspect she models the Andalites after East-Asian cultures. I see no reason why aliens would be so taken with human passion, though. She tries to integrate science and complex moral lessons and all levels of society.

But it's still not exactly productive in the most conventional sense, though it is in others.

My mom and I went to the mall, where we saw the cheaper Venetian creations selling for cheap prices. Everything else was expensive; moreso, in fact, than in London. It seems like the first new wave of European fashion is hitting the stores, but most of it is not my style. We saw real Venetian and Vatican jewelry for very marked-up prices. Plastic jewelry dangled everywhere. I got sick of the place very fast.

Today I'm going to hang out with Jessica.

UK Trip, Day 1

So today was very hectic. Our flight was at 7:50pm, but Primetime(an airport taxi which picks multiple people up from their houses and takes them to the airport) was going to arrive at our house at 3:40pm. As a result, we were basically in a rush to do last minute housework all day and take Snuggles to the vet. I also was trying to put an extra movie onto my computer but my mom’s compy refused to cooperate. There was a lull in activity around 3:40pm, when Primetime had called and said it was going to be at our house at 4:05pm.

Mom and I are worried about the kittens. They may not want to be picked up, but they love attention and are sweet and obedient. We hope they will be alright for the time we are gone.

Checking in took a longer time than it should have considering we were second in line. Thankfully, they took our bags instead of making us go in that annoying extra line which I hate. Everything else went smoothly and we ended up at the gate an hour and a half before departure. I dislike the fact that airports think people should pay for internet access, but I’m glad they provide free chargers. Stupid me forgot to mention getting an AC/DC converter before the flight. I love this laptop, as it helps make me productive and useful while giving me access to music.

Our seats on the plane got switched at the last moment much to mom’s chagrin, but dad was right in front of me and mom beside me.

The planets are so easy to spot from a plane.

I did bunch of work on the plane, followed by eating and falling asleep. My mom had accidentally forgotten to order a vegetarian meal for me, so I had to eat the tray. When I woke up the plane was twenty-five minutes from landing. We were early at the gate, but the gate was not ready for us and they had problems with the jet way, so we ended up getting into the airport a little late.

Airplanes really are well constructed. I don’t mean that sarcastically.

Into customs we went. Forty-five minutes later we went and picked up our suitcases, which were one of the few left. This is why my parents need to walk faster. I may not be that fast, but compared to them I am. Heathrow’s bathrooms are really, really clean.

We had a lot of fun after this, because we weren’t sure if my cousin Sharon was picking us up or sending a taxi. We tried calling her a million times, but to no avail. We were finally forced to take a taxi, which ended up charging us double the amount usually charged. I fell asleep in the cab from the warmth.

We finally reached Sharon’s house, which is a pretty brick(like most of London) residence with a park in the back, and a cemetery in back of that. I’ve been there before and it’s not bad at all, but I’m still a little freaked out by sleeping here on principle. She has a cat named Ella who seems very sweet and has converted Sharon and Rosabelle(my aunt) to cats. We went to a pub to eat dinner, where I got scampi, and then went to ASDA. ASDA is a huge grocery store that got bought out by WalMart. The store is huge, and carries a lot of of familiar and unfamiliar brands. There were no movies that I was not familiar with, which was dissapointing. The cars here are also starting to resemble American make. Many are the same model now. I'm a little upset by this, honestly. Homogenity, smogenity, I like variety in the world.

People here dress basically the same as the States, but don't have perfect complexions. Obesity is also a problem in the UK just as in the US. In one day we were nearly malled by three drivers, and I'm hoping that isn't a generalization.

Anyways, showertime. I'll see you all tomorrow, with pictures.

My Day, Featuring Cats

Top: Snuggles, my kitty
Left: Kittens sleeping on each other

Some days, most days these days in fact, I quantify and solve and logic out the puzzle. Today I drift away with the music of the piano keys to a world both dark and demure, childish and fraught, beautiful and perilous.

Yesterday I came back to Los Angeles after finals and a day full of hectic movement. On the freeway I did stuff with my compy, took pictures of the sunset, and played music. The kittens were there to great us when we came home and rocked themselves to sleep in a bundle on the patio swing. They also like to come in the house and explore tenatively. Kittens are extremely distracting. I imaged some movies(I own) and chatted, etc.

Today Andrea came to visit, which was nice. We visited a Peruvian restraunt and went to the mall. I got the coolest jacket ever and mom gave me a pair of boots of hers that I have always liked. We talked and ate and shopped. I hope Andrea had fun. She's probably reading this. Hi, Andrea!

We just finished "Finding Neverland". I really liked it.

So, what I was going to talk about yesterday. I spent some time when younger attempting to make things "my space", but I've realized that I don't really mind the touches of mom's decorating inherent in my appartment(due to the fact that a lot of my things are taken from home). This has become a blank canvas that I project onto. My thoughts feel able to roam in a variety of directions, wheras if my appartment was themed I would feel as though they were being forced down a certain path. Though, I'm willing to bet as time goes on I will metamorphose my room into a style I don't know exists yet. At the moment, my decorating style is "put books everywhere and maybe some clothes". I predict it will involve a lot of plants.

Blarghersnarphle

I am TIRED. Tired tired tired tired tired.

Back in Los Angeles. Kitties kitties kitties kitties playing on the patio and big stuffed kitties and kitties.

Was going to write a piece on how my home is like a blank canvas that I project onto. But I will have to do that tomorrow.

Yes, I will be blogging from the trip, and posting pictures.

Bear with me.

Imagination

(Image credit; By artist Dean Yeagle)


Some moons ago Boing Boing posted a link to this Flickr gallery featuring Soviet radio apparatuses.

They also posted a link to the online archive of the American eugenics movement. We like to censor our social attitudes at the time of WWII in retrospect, but I really think that in this case we could benefit from learning from it. Also, it strikes me as blatant propaganda to hide this ugly truth. Perhaps it is beneficial that the story is alien from us as it makes it all the more repulsive, but America is guilty and needs to answer for that. It is also beneficial to face the realities of a society where quote-unquote scientific enlightenment ruled, or rather, how easily "common sense" and misinterpretation/failure to take into account variables in/of models can turn into a destructive force. As someone who welcomes intellectuals as leaders this era has especially served as a cautionary tale: yes, in ideal form, this would not happen, but a lot of things work in ideal form and Joseph Stalin does not come to power, for example.

So I don't have a Wii, but the images for the new Steampunk "Epic Mickey" freak me out and make me want to. As long as they don't have that six-legged MechaMickey in there, because I would probably accidentally throw the controller through the screen when he turned up. This is probably the most blatantly psychological steampunk I have seen, filled with a landscape of broken childhood innocence. Imagine a post-apocalyptic fairy tale, or set in a formerly fairy land. I had a dream like that, where fairyland had been transformed into suburbia and it was my job as the leader to lead my people to wake the fairy queen. We had to escape guards at Disneyland and she was in a pond where houses and graffiti were encroaching; it was nevertheless a beautiful place, much like a lake I saw in Scotland. In fact, it probably was that lake in Scotland, a lake where we thought that an oil slick made the water shine from afar but was in fact a healthy and living beauty. I was the only woman, I made fire and water dance together for a couple's wedding and accidentally made it rain. But I am all about actual utopias(or as near as humans can get, or a civilization where everyone is enlightened and can fullfill their creative urges...something), so someone else will have to write the story.

Here is an interesting story from Wired on the economics of the Somalia pirates. Note: an average pirate makes seventeen times the income of a regular Somalian citizen.

You know, all of this buisness news is blending into "estimated this and that". I'm suprised economists haven't included into their own model the estimates of what reporting can do to stocks.



If you love stop-motion animation, you'll love this. It's seriously amazing.
(Credit: The PEN story, found via Boing Boing, is another amazing stop-motion video made as an ad by Olympus. They mention him as their inspiration in their credits. )

Honestly? I can't wait for Italy and England. My blood is boiling from the need to travel to Europe again. I've been having dreams about it, and finally I'm going. And yes, I am going to be posting while there, which will probably be my only contact with the outside world.

The Foul Birdo has Been Defeated

So you've probably noticed a proliferation of news stories and not a whole lot of added content from me in the past few days sans the aquarium and gender issues posts. I'm very tired and busy. I have been thinking about things and my mind is wandering off towards semiotics at the moment, though it has been concentrating on a paper since I got home besides the nap and an episode of Star Trek. Trying to write a blog post on how you had to review improper integrals since you haven't seen them since Calc II is more shameful than entertaining, anyways. Especially since I have been using them but not in the format you're technically supposed to. Though some of you reading may like shame.

In which case, watch this commercial:


Do you know what is happening in this ad? Don't tell me if you do, I'm too busy playing with puppies and kittens. I believe there should be a free "hug an animal" center in every community.

Speaking of games, I beat Super Mario 2 in 48 minutes. And no, I'm not trying to do a speed run like this guy(and I can't do the Bird Level like that).


He also appears to be playing on an original Nintendo, which is a lot more user-friendly than the ROM and Logitech controller that I have here. I just attempted my own speed run, which lasted seventeen-ish minutes and got as far as level 6-3's birdo boss. I only used The Princess, who is in fact the only character I ever use. Maybe I should branch out more, but I play this game to relax and not to compete.

On one hand I am completely in favor of the retro-game trend. Most of these are free to download and fun to play, though I actually have not gotten into any indie/retro gaming besides Knytt Stories and the aforementioned Marios, both of which I barely ever play. Knytt Stories is a really wonderful game introduced to me by Alex. The music is wonderful, soothing, and the gameplay is simple yet subtly challenging. The "plots" are simple yet extremely creative.

On the other I feel as if this part of an 80's nostalgia wave which is coming too soon. My generation has barely reached adulthood and here a lot of us are, reminisceing over our childhood. Perhaps this is telling of the times.

Mom managed to stroke Clingy's back without him running away today. All of the kittens sleep on the rocker, hide under the shed from the heat, sleep on the bench under the bamboo, and play in their "cave". Gaiylee has been missing for over a week at this point. We don't know where she went, which is very upsetting and a sad reality for feral cats.

I was just thinking about how Livejournal is actually a much better site in general than blogspot, with photo galleries, communities, and far more customizablity, yet its popularity with a lot of teenagers ironically caused it to loose many members in the long run. I switched to Blogger because I wanted this journal to be taken more seriously(as seriously as you can take such a journal, of course) and because at the time I thought it had a better interface. Which it does not, and I should really switch to Wordpress. Maybe after Europe I will take the time to do so.

Note: I have reformatted some of my posts for aesthetic reasons.

Classmate

I saw my wormies today. They seem to be doing well, and I bought more so as to keep up with my slightly rising organic output.

There seems to be a consensus that worms are gross which I agree with. Why are they gross, exactly? I guess it's the slimy, segmented bodies.


I wonder how fast objects scale back according to depth perception and eyesight capability?

In an ironic story, Amazon pulled copies of 1984 and Animal Farm off the Kindle, sadly proving again the superiority of regular books. While I love my books, I love forests more. Do something people!

Today my Uncle's brother's daughter came to visit along with my parents after moving across the country away from every single support network she knows. We had fun, as I took them to Downtown La Jolla and Torrey Pines. I kind of wish I could have gotten more work done, but we had fun. I like her.
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When I was in high school one of my classmates a year ahead of me was named Sam Loeb. All I remember was that he had a shaved head, an infectious smile, and knew a lot about comics. He was really charismatic, everyone liked him, and he made people like me feel stupid for complaining all the time, though I'm sure that he never meant to do. I barely knew him, and most of what I knew consisted of knowing that this was a wonderful person to know. Everyone knew he had cancer, but it was never what defined him.

I remember the day that he died. I don't remember how I found out, but I do remember nutrition and lunch passing by as the HGMers wandered around like ghosts. We were all in shock. I remember those close to him throwing their arms around each other and breaking down into tears. It didn't matter that I barely knew him. I wish I had, because someone else would be around to keep more of his memory alive. His life was so short, but he should not be forgotten.

I recall all of this because of something as simple as a status one of my friends posted. He joked towards the end, trying to make light of it all. He wrote a comic in one of Joss Whedon's books.

Whoever reads this can also remember Sam Loeb. Perhaps it's a hollow fantasy, but if you read this you know as much as I do about Sam. Please carry around his memory with care, because that's all any of us have left. I may not have known him, but I miss him.

Boom! Boom!

Source

So I just realized that I sound very cool, calm, and relaxed on my blog.

This is a lie. I am actually dying of stress, but complaining is not going to help that, and I'd rather not talk about it. Instead I will run around my studio like a crazy person and proceed to collapse on the bed, weezing from the fact that I have way too many obligations.

Help?


Via Boing Boing

Part of the reason I think old film is so fascinating is because of how delicate it seems in its shaky and silent monochrome. Even though the picture is factual the world it presents seems to be remote.


Gravy Stress may waste your time if you like looking at random funny images. I am not going to click on it anymore. If your name is Chris or Frosty you may wish to check this website out.

I wonder how ridiculous our commercials look to foreigners?

In any case, here is an awesome quote from BLDBLOG:

"If you'll excuse the rambling nature of this post, meanwhile, my wife and I are actually staying in Potts Point, and we're located basically right across the street from a Saturday morning farmers' market where we got into a conversation early on our first morning here with a man selling gourmet mushrooms that were grown, he said, inside repurposed railroad tunnels south of the city in Mittagong. I would love to visit those tunnels!
Cockatoo Island, in fact, is actually honeycombed with old tunnels dug directly out of the site's bedrock – so perhaps some strange form of subterranean myco-agriculture might pop up in a few student designs over the next two weeks. Mushroom farming in the underworld. Or perhaps even the high-tech cultivation of pharmaceutical biocompounds by UV light in what used to be a submarine-repair facility (the island also houses a former submarine-repair facility!)..."

Geoff's post "The Thirteenth Room" is also rather fun, as is Reburbia. Reburbia falls directly into my sphere of interests. If you like architecture or imagining the things I do, CHECK THESE OUT.

Here is a quote from Mr. Ellis:

"The next movie I write will be Jurassic Park 4: ADAMZOIC, in which a group of committed Creationists sneak onto a dinosaur-infested Island in an attempt to prove that humans and slavering proto-avian carnivores can live in harmony, as in Eden. The film will be 3 hours long; will feature multiple variations on the theme of Cute Naked People being disembowelled while trying to sing hymns; will include at least one incidence of punning, based on the words “pray” and “prey”; and will end when the sole survivor realises the error of her ways, embraces the Power Of Darwin, and spontaneously evolves a set of wings to escape."

Soil bacteria injections make mice happy. This may explain a lot. I've always said that dirt was good, though now and as a kid I refused to eat it.

Here is an interesting article about personal transformation in the internet age. I could comment on it right now, but I don't want to.
Damn, I may have to get this novel:

Short

Comic courtesy of A Softer World

We still live in a world full of mystery, but the mystery is now not simply created by nature but by man.

I love Jimmy Carter:
"So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when th e convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief - confirmed in the holy scriptures - that we are all equal in the eyes of God."

I feel anti-social today.

Reporting from the Internet

The NY Times has a column asking whether or not Madoff got more than he deserved. I didn't get through it, but f*** no. Yes, he is a symbol, but he also did a ton of damage and showed a complete lack of ethics on a plethoric scale. One could get into the ethics of jail itself here, but that's irrelevant to the case at hand

Today my parents visited, which was mostly fun.

I also visited a park.

I don't really feel like writing down thoughts today. I'm in a good mood, just not in the mood to write.

I kind of agree with this article.
"To me, it seems social networking takes too much time with too little reward. Time to learn how to use. Time to sit and read. Time to think and interact.

All of this adds up to less time in “real” life."

"The trick is finding an equilibrium between social networking and living. Spending hours text-gossiping about someone’s page seems a little over-the-top. But using social networking sites to connect or reconnect with people to set up real face-to-face get-togethers seems really useful."

Except that I still mock my parents for taking so long to use the internet(Sorry parents, I still love you!). There are ways to use the internet to enhance life, and there are ways to let it take it over.


The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on "Ten Ways Banks Take Your Money".

"Late fees, loan-origination fees, over-the-limit and overdraft charges helped generate 53% of banking-industry income in 2008, according to R.K. Hammer... The average bounced-check fee is $28.95, up about $1 from last year, says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com. And it's a charge that rises every year.

At $19 billion, credit-card penalties for late payments and over-limit charges were up 80% between 2003 and 2008."

The new credit card reforms make me happy. In the mean time, there is apparently a study by Bankrate.com which states that the best card currently available is from USAA Federal Savings. I've never heard of this site before. If you feel like picking through the study/site, let me know what you find.

Also, if you have or will have student loans you must read this article.

Summer reading list for children that adults may wish to check out.

Like Steampunk? Click to be tortured. Who wants to petition an awesome out-of-work artist to do something like this? Via Boing Boing.

More Cracked articles you should read:
9 Devastating Insults from Around the World
7 Innocent Gestures that Can Get You Killed Overseas
7(Stupid) People Who Sued the Scientific Method
6 Great US Presidents and Their Crimes Against Humanity.

Are you Happy, Are you Feeling Glad? Have You Got Sunshine, in a Bag?

For the part of last night that I slept I had great dreams and woke up really happy, once I managed to wake up. Something about Band but I could actually stand up straight which meant that I was capable of doing the marches. Janina , Nick, Jessica Wray(?! haven't seen her since elementary school, not that I have seen any of these other people since high school) and others were there, as were many people I didn't know, since I was coming back from college as a tutor(thanks, Dylan!). Jessica wanted me to sit with her and Nick got told off by ..what's his face who's name I can't remember for making faces at me. I dreamt I was getting up at 6:30am while my mom was and garnering complaints from the other band members while my alarm clock in real life was going off at 7:30am. Before that there was a dream involving Pamela Das running away from her abusive parents to my apartment where my entire family lived then things turned into a Bollywood movie where we harnessed the power of the gods through Ilya to get some god to break a curse. Only Ilya got arrested and I had to go and break him out with someone else by following a compass except that the warden wasn't fooled by my story and I was preparing to fight, but then I woke up. Also, stuff happened with Chris. Anyways, it was a really good dream though it may not sound like it, except for the part where Geringher actually was a pedophile...not so good.

So then I woke up at 7:30am, apparently was much earlier than I had to, and got to the lab fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. We had an EH&S presentation today and much joking about drugs ensued. I sort of wonder what would have happened if when the presenter had asked someone to give an example of controlled substances I had started rattling a list of recreational substances off the top of my head, even though I've never tried any myself. It's kind of funny that I don't even drink but can name a long list of illegal drugs, though that is partially due to psychology classes. To most people raised in LA or NY this doesn't seem like much of a deal, but apparently it is? I guess it really comes down to what community within the city you have dealings with, though I never exactly hung out with seedy people. Also, when we heard that Farah Fawcett died of anal cancer we burst out laughing like the twelve year olds we actually are. No, the cancer part is not funny at all, but let's face it, in the face of tragedy sometimes the best solution is to laugh. Also, butts are funny. I totally have not been taken over by a middle schooler.

We talked about infidelity and I mentioned the survey that Anthony had told me about. The governor of South Carolina was discussed, and I agreed that if had not made decisions based on having the moral highground or obligation his affair would not have been a big deal. Some people say that if a man cannot hold his family together he cannot run a state. This is quite simply not true, as there are people who are good at one and horrible at the other. While it would make me dislike the man, as long as his governing was fine I would support him as a governor. Liking a good leader is not necessary, though it certainly helps. The subject came up twice until Phil played a clip from "The Daily Show". Also, the big knife is now known as our emergency backup system thanks to me.

I stayed in the lab most of the day learning Mathlab, then left and saw Peter, which went well. I'm hungry. Feed me?

If you want a cuttlefish, here is information on how to take care of Dwarf Cuttlefish.

Title is a play on the lyrics to Gorillaz-"Clint Eastwood", which don't actually have anything to do with anything, except that I am happy.

Filming

"Art does not speak...it is overheard..."
-Foucault

Thoughts about "The Reader":
1.) It reminds me very much of the starkness of German culture that Anthony elaborated to me, though the film reveals the passion and humanity underneath it.
2.) Kate Winslet is an excellent actress. Her eyes, her gestures, her manner are all perfect for her role. I am not surprised she won the Oscar.
3.) I wish people still went on cycling holidays. Though, of course, I don't know how to ride a bike..

There is joy in being loved, but there is also so much joy in loving someone else and seeing it light up their life.

4.)It's interesting how the Nazis have no effect on Micheal's life in the upper class.

5) It's powerful, incredibly powerful. Not as powerful as Slumdog, but it deserved to win some awards. I won't go into the details because that would entail spoilers, but you should watch it.

It's strange that Dora may soon be totally blonde.

You know what play is excellent? The Cherry Orchard by Chekov. I just read one of his (very) short stories, so I am thinking about his work.

I really wish that "Milk" didn't have wife-beater Sean Penn as its main actor because now I'm torn between borrowing it from someone or Blockbuster. The same holds for "The Wrestler".

Thoughts on Frost/Nixon:
1.) It was AMAZING. And I don't know how to say any more than that without spoilers. But seriously, go watch it.

I did a lot of stuff today, but little of it was physics related, which annoys me.

Video killed the Bandwith Star

I like this article because the physicist featured works at UCSD. Also, it gives me a headache when I think about my future in research.

Scubatube.org is a Youtube-like site dedicated to Scuba videos. Dnatube.com is a Youtube-like site dedicated to scientific videos. I forsee time-wasting in my future. Or would it really be time wasting? Ah, the existential questions.

Tiny Master of Tomorrow have a sound very comparable to Karen O's. And I support them because at 13 and 15 who didn't want to magically learn to play guitar, write about all the schmucking around you and then get complemented by David Bowie? Then again, I didn't know who David Bowie was. Another thanks goes out to the Chrisman for that one.

Mom found my blog and read it a bunch while procrastinating. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure that she doesn't know the URL.





How NOT to campaign for school board:

Cute(Edited 6:44 pm)

From left to right: Spot, The Brave One, Socks, and Dasha

"Mongol" is well worth seeing, though it contained some historical inaccuracies. The style of the editing felt very Mongolian from my little reading of The Secret History, and the movie had a certain poetry to it. The fight scenes are portrayed with adrenaline and brutality; the fighting is exciting but not glorified. The Mongols themselves are portrayed as "uncivilized"(insert long diatribe about civilization and our enculturation here) but living with their own code. I especially like the portrayal of Mongolian women and wish there were a few more American heroines like them. We have few records of The Great Khan's early life, which makes it strange upon speculation that it is not the topic of more imaginings. Also, I would like to mention something that Ilya said a long time ago, which is that Mongolian ponies are short and fat. The horses in this movie are big Hollywood studs.

Snuggles is becoming blinder every day. Also, he was going to pee on the mat when I picked him up and put him in the litter box, getting some on my foot in the process.

Yesterday my mom took me to the mall. Tired from all the shopping this week neither of us lasted long, and I soon escaped to the bookstore. I met a former physics major working as an engineer in the mathematics section.

At home we watched the aforementioned "Mongol" and "Mamma Mia", the latter thanks to my aunt Brenda who had recommended it to my mom. I promised to watch "Mamma Mia" with my mom if she watched "Mongol". The movie turned out to be exactly what I expected: a light, fluffy romantic comedy with lots of singing. The songs were integrated well into the plot. Also, things stopped making sense somewhere towards the end and the tone was slightly unfemenistic. All of a sudden the independent woman realizes that she's needed a man this entire time? Perhaps the best thing that happened was that after seeing Meryl Streep in "Doubt" my parents were very impressed with her acting range and are now fans. They are also starting to borrow good movies instead of sappy Bollywood flicks. My mom bought another Meryl Streep movie and is renting "The Reader". I did too, in fact, so I'll probably be writing about that later today. My parents actually had an argument about the conclusion of "Doubt" in the car.

I keep having dreams where I'm Buffy. Also in last night's dream was Chris, and it was a pleasant dream. I'm not implying something euphemistically there. It was just a nice dream, except for the werewolves and demon slaying.

So I'm going to keep up with summer vow #1, read real news. Stay tuned for more updates.

Edit 6:44pm:

The last entry brings up a point some people have nitpicked on. Do I consider myself beautiful? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, because how I look throughout the day can vary considerably. I don't necessarily consider myself beautiful in the way I want to be all the time, either. What I am sure about is that other people can find me attractive.

It's nice to be in La Jolla, since most of the harassment I experienced in LA has stopped. I have heard many a time stories about how beautiful women bemoaned the cat-calls after they were gone, but it's nice to be surrounded by so many other pretty girls. That way if someone takes a special interest in me, it probably has more to do with me than my face.

I fell down the stairs this morning after my mom told me to come quietly. The kittens were curled up on the lawn chair and I took the above picture of them. Clingy was with Gaiylee on the lawn. We bought a bunch of books in the UCSD student store and ate at the Indian place. Now I'm going to clean and watch "The Reader".

Storytime

I wonder if carbon nanotubes could be used in conjunction with another highly resilient material to create wings that could function while making minute adjustments like those a bird's wings utilize.

I was raised to consider serving people as a part of the environment, like the racks that belong in a department store. Perhaps describing them as serving robots would be more descriptive. In my universe, they existed only to do their job with a smile as part of the background. This was not an overt part of my upbringing, and I don't want to give the impression that my parents are horrible people.

When I was fourteen, I took my first community college class and my world changed. I met the people who served in these tiring, backbreaking jobs, struggling to smile and be polite to their customers who could be horribly and unrealistically demanding. I realized how abhorrent and narrow-minded my previous view had been. I admire people who work sales and service jobs, grueling, demanding, and intellectually deadening as this work is. And while I most likely will never, thank God, have to work in one of them, I try to make sales people's day a little easier if I can.

It really bothers me when people treat sales people with the naive attitude I possessed earlier in my life. I've known plenty of people working their way through college trying to balance school and work at the same time, and the last thing they need is someone snobby enough not to appreciate this. Almost nobody wants to be in these positions, but they work in them because they have to provide for themselves and sometimes their children. Why would this make them any less human?
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Every time I walk to the video store I remember a story from my childhood. When I was twelve and in seventh grade, my science teacher Mrs. Simons(sp?) assigned us a project to cook a nutritionally balanced meal. I procrastinated until the last day and then informed my mom when she came home that I had to get the ingredients necessicary. Uncharacteristically, as my parents usually would go to great lengths to help me succeed in school, my mom said that she was too tired to deal with this and that she was going to take a nap; when she got up she would decide what she was going to do.

This was not satisfactory to me. So I stole twenty dollars from her purse and set out to buy a Cornish hen.

The distance to Food for Less, which is in the same complex as the video store, was far from the longest distance I had walked at that time. But small and paranoid as I was looking like an out-of-place elementary schooler, the store seemed much further than it actually was. When I got to the store a nice sales person took special care to help me get exactly what I needed, and I went home with a feeling of satisfaction. And yes, I did give my mom the change from the bill.

My mom was angry but strangely proud and told the story to all of her sisters. This reminds me of when the Orange Line was built and I started sneaking off to downtown. After a bit of astonishment and upset, my mom wanted to know if I would take her with me.

Winnetka is now a street which I feel completely safe strolling down, although for some reason somebody always honks at me. I still don't feel comfortable in the dark out there, as the last time I was somebody grabbed my hand. But still, how times have changed.

Tonight we're watching "Run Fatboy, Run". We went on a huge shopping spree thanks to mom, though we also stopped in at the one dollar bookstore. We bought some plays by Moliere(accents are too much trouble) , Neuromancer, a book of short stories including Faulkner and Chekov, To Peking and Beyond by Salisbury(experiment) and a couple other books. I also bought Micheal Crighton's book Twister for Chris, because I couldn't help myself.

Contradictions

My family and I just finished watching "Doubt". The film's cinematography is gorgeous and made me feel as though we were looking at a moving painting. The editing and camera angles used were also well thought out. The story itself is great, portraying a battle between the stern, unchanging church and the "new" church. The actual answer to the question is left extremely ambiguous. Though I thought the movie was very well done, it was not as good as "Slumdog Millionaire".

As I said before, I'm not generally a fan of writing reviews.

Today I lazed around a lot and then had to go shopping with my mom in Kohl's and Ross. I couldn't finagle my way out of the trip as I had promised her I would go. Things went alright, and I got a new top and dress. I wish there were online discounts as good as the ones in Ross so that I never had to go into that store again. Also, considering all the time that the fashion industry spends marketing to thin women it would make sense to actually create clothing for them, but it can be very difficult to find any.

We spent about half an hour searching for a good handbag for me but got bored and gave up. Who knew that purses were this complicated? In Kohl's I found the perfect one, but it was made of genuine leather and I couldn't simply put my principles aside for a tote. Considering how long we spent searching and the fact that it was originally $115(Half off only today with extra 30% coupon on top), it was sort of a low blow.

My mom also wanted to buy me new shoes, but due to my aversion for heels that turned out to be a failure. In my opinion, heels are the new footbinding.

I spent a lot of time looking at Gaiylee and the kittens, who are becoming braver and bolder by the day. We have named the one my mom secretly wants to keep Dasha. There is the brave one, who is the least afraid of us and the biggest in the litter, the clingy one who is constantly attached to Gaiylee, and Socks who is adorable because between his socks, the little stripe of white on his face, and his huge ears he somehow becomes really cute. The last grey and white kitten has not don anything distinguishing him or herself from the rest of the kittens. How do you describe kittens pouncing, prancing, catching each other and their tails, climbing up the chairs on the patio and voraciously eating while their mother watches intently, only to fall asleep on the lawn? Words don't do justice to the show in our backyard.

I have some ideas bouncing around in my head right now, but I don't particularly feel like writing them down at the moment.

WhenI come home I sometimes re-read my children's and teenager books. They are extremely quick to go through and contain piles of nostalgia. Many generic writers targeting adults try extremely hard and fail while peppering their books with the content that places them in the adult category. The teenage novels are so refreshingly innocent. Anyways, nostalgia and reminding me of things I learned when I first read through the book, some concepts being entirely new at the time, are why I do this. It feels sort of silly to do this as a huge snob, but we read for many different reasons, eh?

I hope you all are having a great night. PS, Sorry about that Alex....

Wired Up

Today I went to a really interesting, fun place.

Was it Disneyland?
Was it Huntington Gardens?

It was THE DENTIST! I have to have my wisdom teeth pulled out at the end of the summer.

Watching kittens play in the sun while creating a thousand Hallmark moments is extremely relaxing.

I know that I should be calling my friends and telling them that I'm back in town, but I'm honestly having fun vegetating and feel too tired to set anything up. I will have another month to catch up with everyone, so I hope I can be forgiven.

One aspect of why I love working with living things is that there is no predicting exactly how the finished product will look or grow to be. The materials used in a project can be restricted within a certain aesthetic range, but the finished product will never be the exact replica of a mental picture. This is part of what I find so addictive about designing aquariums: even with a previous plan in mind the outcome is unknown.

Apparently, part of the book dedicated to Orpheus survives. I will attempt to find it online.*
*sentence serves as a reminder to me

I am extremely glad for the existence of 911.

Today I bought "Slumdog Millionaire" for my mom and rented "Doubt", which we will probably watch tomorrow. "Volver" was an interestingly portrayed window into the life of the lower class in Spain.

So I made a vow on this blog to re-start following "real" news over the summer quarter. The first news aggregate I'm going to catch up on is Wired. Right now I'm reading its culture section; let's see how long this takes. This article on 5 Toys from the 80's(It..has tons of global significance!) reminds me of all the playthings I wanted but could never have. This was a valuable lesson in consumerism and materialism, as I was perfectly fine without these products in the long run. Still, learning a programming language or playing with electronics is something that I would have loved to do as a kid, though I did learn BASIC as a child and it is BASICally useless. If you love Legoes, you probably want to click on the article and read about Erector sets. PS: maybe I'm still five, but that's a horrible name choice.

Also, this article on Googleconomics is really interesting. It's far too long for me to post all the relevant quotes in it, but it references some interesting ideas, a man who started doing formal mathematics when he was thirteen, and a highly successful business concept. The problem is that this makes me not want to read news and instead go off and do lots of math and physics.

If we were introduced to the concepts earlier I'm sure that most of us could have been doing formal mathematics by the time we were thirteen. So don't get too caught up in that.

This was posted a while ago, but anyone want to share their thoughts on the article entitled The New Socialism? I only started it, but while the premise is something that's been discussed since middle school I have a feeling that the article still sparked a lot of debate. For some reason this reminds me of high school when (world)news posted the day before was considered old happenings. Maybe it's because I was thinking of Jane when I wrote the first sentence in this paragraph.

Also, wetpaint may come in handy.

Weekending

Welcome back, self! I'm so glad to see that you're alright. Where were you all weekend?

This Saturday I woke up when my parents came to my door. After doing a little extra cleaning and sorting a few things out we left San Diego. A small break at home was followed by indulging in my mom's favorite activity: shopping. I actually got a lot of new clothing, even though I was hopelessly bored by the end of the trip. Big Five also did not have a good punching bag for me. I read a little, then drifted off to sleep.

I spent yesterday mostly sitting around looking at kittens and talking with my parents. Chris and I exchanged our previously borrowed belongings. I went to see "Star Trek" with Christopher, which was great but didn't match up to my very high expectations. Also, a sun exploding would destroy a solar system, not a galaxy, and the Beastie Boys are apparently going to be popular for a reallllly long time on Earth? I want to see "Terminator" and "Up" in theatres.

Last Night, This Summer

So last night I was looking at the bags of stuff on the floor when my mind went "Sh*t, Anthony!" .

The last time I had seen Anthony he told me that he was leaving La Jolla on a Thursday, though he didn't say of which week. Since it was Wednesday I called him to inquire about when he was departing, to which he replied "tomorrow". I asked him when we should meet up. He was having lunch with a professor before his flight today, so that was not an option. Then he asked, "How about right now?". I confirmed that that sounded like a good plan, and he said that he was going to walk down from the university to meet me. This was around 9:02pm.

Around twenty minutes later we met in front of Ralph's. Anthony had brought a friend, Liam, with whom he had apparently been drinking. They both had had around four beers each at that point. We sat in front of Starbucks until it closed talking about culture and history, then went into Ralph's. Since we were trying to determine where we should go at this point, I decided to invite them both back to my house. There was a lot of construction going on in the store and we got lost several times trying to find chips, pizza, and in Liam and Anthony's case, beer. They both bought a bottle to take back with them. No, I did not break my no-alcohol-for-Marisa rule. We sat up until 2:00am talking and at some points listening to music. We were all completely exhausted by the end of it and I have dark circles under my eyes today, but it was completely worth it. I'm sad to see Anthony go, though I don't doubt he misses his wife and his cats.

I studied for a little while afterward then fell asleep.

I haven't really slept that much this week. I can't believe that tomorrow finals week is over. I kind of wish I didn't have to go back to LA immediately but I think I'll be back here in around a week or so. There is a feeling of freedom in the air.

My parents are getting me a punching bag, by the way. I am psyched, as I've always wanted one.

I think a lot of victim-blaming takes place in our culture. If someone invites a person they barely met back to his or her apartment he isn't being smart, but having a had a lapse in judgment doesn't mean that he wants to be mugged. Many people victim-blame in cases of rape, citing stereotypical coy female behavior as the true impetus behind the act when the victim is a woman. If someone is being heavily flirtatious while drunk, is he or she being smart? Not necessarily, but that doesn't give anyone the right to rape her. I don't know anyone who writes Santa asking for post-traumatic stress disorder. Making a smaller mistake is no reason for a much larger hurt to be imposed on someone.

In a twist on this, last night when we were talking Liam mentioned how Hitler used to "preemptively strike" countries. I replied that it was the "she was wearing a short skirt" reason for war. Note that I was only replying to Hitler's reasoning here, as other preemptive strikes must be considered on a case-by-case basis.

During the summer I will be more social. I've made various claims on here about what I wish to do, and I intend to stick by them. I'm looking forward to what I hope is going to to be an interesting, fun, and productive time.

Foreign

I want to scream and jump up and down due to stress and pain. Instead of doing that I'm eating cheese popcorn and watching Colbert, which is actually much more affective due to this conversation:

"I overheard your conversation with General Odinero..."-President Obama(yes, the actual president of the USA)
"Wait, you overheard? Are your spy satellites really that good?"-Colbert
"No, my ears are really that big."- Obama

I came out of this episode with increased respect for everyone.

One thing I noticed was that Colbert got a lot more applause than the general. Poor Colbert is obviously loosing his voice in Tuesday's episode, on which he interviewed an Arab-America
soldier who chose to go into combat after 9-11 because of his hatred of how Osama bin Laden affected the portrayal of Arabs in America.

My physical therapist did an act of kindness for me, which is the main reason I felt better for the rest of the day. I think she knew how much a difference she made.

Did Hugo Chavez mistake Coke Zero for the other kind? Or is he afraid that Coke causes spontaneous support for the US government and culture?

I wonder if people will have nostalgia for this era as a time when people could make a brand out of being an individual. It's a novel concept, yet we have not seen anyone use their fickle power in a constructive manner; it's all about the money, fame, and staying in the spotlight. I wonder if it would even be possible to market yourself as a brand without a certain type of personality? People will forget what truly took place in this era-people celebrated for excessive decadence, and heiresses dancing in clubs.

The guy who shot the guard at the holocaust museum was a WWII veteran and white supremacist? That is horribly disturbing to me. I can't imagine what it's like to feel these people hating and degrading your belief system and heritage for no good reason. This man would have hurt people I know and love, perhaps even hurt me.

I don't think I have ever felt discriminated against, except for the time an old lady shouted to our bus driver "Be careful, there's a terrorist on this bus!" before stepping off. In fact, it's usually the opposite-people tend to believe I'm smarter because I'm Indian or something. It honestly makes me feel very uncomfortable when things along this line come up, and I either launch into a rebuttal or sort of cringe and wait for an opportunity to escape. I've never felt like a minority, except when very flirtatious men call me exotic. Nobody ever treated me any differently in school. In fact, most of the time I get let in through security checkpoints without a second glance. I remember going into the Tower of London after shopping in a market square. I had two bags full of cheap books on my arms, but I don't think they even looked to confirm that was all there was in them. I just waltzed through security while my companion ahead of me was stopped. Also on that trip, one of my classmates, James, who is Korean, was mistaken for my father at the airport. That was priceless.

The only place which I have experience discrimination is Trinidad, but let's not talk about that here.

It makes me scared and hurt for my friends when something like this happens. It doesn't feel like the place I grew up in, even though I really grew up in a time when things were worse(and I'm still growing up). Stay away from my loved ones, hatred-mongers.