Observations for today:
1) I like working on specific constellations in Katamari Damacy. However, Cygnus is both difficult and maddeningly addictive, and I think I've tried it half a dozen times by now. (Finally broke 60% completion, go me!) And I only got in two tries on Ursa Major before I quit, and was thwarted both times by picking up small bear cubs when I really didn't mean to. Argh.
2) Fighting in X-Men: Legends is beyond my skill level because, um, I find it difficult to curb my button-mashing tendencies and play my character correctly. But it's still fun, even if my little people keep dying -- actually, that's also sort of entertaining. I accidentally walked Cyclops off a cliff and his dying words were, "I failed the X-Men!" I mean, who wouldn't be laughing so hard that they could barely reset the game? (Or is that just me being mean to Scott like I, um, tend to do? ^_^;;)
3) I have watched my sister play far too much of FFX-2. But I can't. Stop. Watching. >_>
I, um, also did things other than play video games today. Like, take a walk, so I could get out of the house, which was good. And tomorrow we're hitting Powell's, mmmmm ... Oh, I do so love vacation. I haven't yet hit that point where boredom and social isolation become unbearable, so right now I'm just enjoying being lazy.
Friday, December 17, 2004
09:33 p.m.
Coming home always means one thing for certain: never going hungry. I don't think I've stopped eating since I got here last night. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there is never a shortage of food, and good food, at home. Within a couple of hours of arriving at the train station, my mother plied me with lethok (a Burmese noodle salad served cold -- very yummy), German-chocolate-cake cookies, Asian-style coconut milk gelatin stuff, and ice cream of the flavor "Turtle Sundae," which apparently means vanilla with ribbons of fudge and caramel, and pecan praline pieces. (We have a whole carton of it, and it is MINE for two weeks.) Waiting in the wings is faluda (sp?) another Asian dessert, which happens to be one of my absolute favorites but which I haven't eaten in ... years, I think. There will be much consumption of goods. And I will be well-insulated for the winter. XD
My poor mom, though -- after dinner was eaten and cleaned up, and we all settled into doing whatever, me burying my nose in the first Ultimate Spider-Man trade and my sister hooking up the PS2 to start up her FFX-2 game, she just looked at us and asked, "Are you sure you're college students? You come home and start reading comic books and playing video games!" Poor woman. XD;;
Though, really, that's not too geeky, all things considered. Now, following that up with a mini-tournament with my sister in Katamari Damacy, and then staying up until two in the morning levelling up my characters in X-Men: Legends -- now, that would be geeky. I'm just saying.
Today was equally productive, with nothing much to report. I read Ultimate Spider-Man 11 this morning ... and then realized that I'm now out of Spider-Man to read. Sad. (This is really the fault of the punk who got me addicted to the books. Shameful, really.) I've also started Reading Lolita in Tehran, which comes to me highly recommended, and which, within the first thirty pages, is rich in delicious language. And now? Perhaps I'll go see if the sister is done with FFX-2, and is ready to start on some more X-Men -- which is about as far in terms of "planning" as I have been, and probably will be, for the next two weeks. I do so love Winter Break.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
03:50 p.m.
FREE!
Last final was this morning, and I think I did well -- it was philosophy, so it was pretty intense, but I felt more prepared for this exam than I did for the midterm. Answering fourteen questions that ranged from a few sentences to a page and a half was not so much fun on my hand, though. ^_^; My fingers were feeling numb by the end of it, though I did get my second wind when I got to the "tell me your own opinion" question and wrote about why non-heterosexuals should be have explicit protection in nternationally recognized human rights documents. And none of the questions from the study sheet that I was dreading appeared on the test. Whee.
There are also a couple of quotes from the last section and the review sessions that I should record for posterity:
"What's wrong with you guys? This is really sexy stuff!" - my TA, during our discussion on the roles of reason and emotion in making moral judgments about human rights. Yeah, it was hot.
"I'm just amazed at the ... bothness of it." - a classmate, during the same discussion, at our professor's concept of moral judgments being motivated by both reason *and* emotion.
"If you're doing it, then everyone involved is consenting, right?" - a student at the review session, during the discussion of the Lawrence v. Texas verdict. In the dissenting opinion, Justice Scalia stated that allowing same-sex activity would allow a host of other activities, among them masturbation. So we were trying to see how the decision to make all non-traditional consensual sexual relations legal would make masturbation legal. Maybe it's just funny because our brains were so fried. ^_^;
ARGH answering phones. Here's a conversation I just had with a potential applicant:
Me: Good afternoon, blah blah blah.
Her: I'm calling to find out the deadline for applying to the University. (Note: Applicants have to apply to both the School of Nursing, where I work, and the University itself.)
Me: Well, that would be indicated in the University's website for undergraduate admission.
Her: *silence*
Me: ... so, why don't I look that up? *proceeds to find the information for her by looking on the Internet*
I have to hold myself back from saying this all the time, because we have to have good PR, but -- people, if you're trying to become a health care professional, I expect you to be a little more self-sufficient (or attentive or responsible or personable) than the average person. It just makes me a little more comfortable about putting my physical well-being in your hands.
The other day I replied to an email requesting information about the program, and directed the person to the school's website. I received a reply of thanks, saying, "I will defiantly look at that website." Yes, I thought, you do that.
Oh, the amusement. And the pain. One more hour here and then I'm gone for holiday!
Monday, December 13, 2004
01:31 p.m.
I thought this weekend I was just going to take my Japanese final. Knowing that it was just Japanese (third-year, but still, Japanese), and that I didn't have another final to worry about until Wednesday, I figured I'd have a fairly easy, pretty good day. I finished the test early, came down to the club room to do the quarterly inventory (which only took an hour and a half -- and I was doing it alone, so I'm quite impressed with myself), then went to get a bunch of Christmas presents. I took those gifts and made a delivery run to my on-campus friends; and then after that, I was free to look forward to a last date with my boyfriend before we separated for break.
Or so I thought. Instead, I was tricked into going home by said boyfriend, who is a sneaky bastard -- where my sister, who had suddenly become a sneaky bastard, had organized a suprise birthday party with a bunch of my friends, who are also sneaky bastards. (But I love them all dearly.) I got to spend time with almost all of my best friends here in Seattle (except for a few, who could not make it but sent their well wishes) for one last time before winter break, talking, eating, playing video games ... It was quite a geekfest of a party, I suppose -- the wild yelling and loud music came from Mario Party 5 and Karaoke Revolution, respectively. My birthday gifts included the Kenshin Kyoto DVD box and three volumes of Busou Renking (OMG Watsuki fangirl) and lovely lovely books. But really, what kind of party is better?
And it was really just wonderful, because one of the best kinds of expressions of love is when it comes as a surprise. And I would be more eloquent, but I can't manage it right now. I have been so deliriously happy that I could barely get myself to study for my philosophy final last night, and this morning I only just managed to bring myself down to earth enough to sit through (most of) a review session. I want to describe this weekend more fully, and really express just how much I felt like someone had just loosed me from gravity and let me float, but I don't have the words. Hopefully my incoherence while writing this will help me remember just how amazing it was.
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
04:05 p.m.
I cannot read these notes I'm supposed to be typing up for the associate dean. I just ... they're words, I know, but ... I cannot comprehend what they are supposed to mean. It's taken me half an hour to transcribe three sets of entries. Erg.
In the meantime, I'll share some amusing quotes from my philosophy professor, in lectures over the past few weeks:
"So really, we should be encouraging lesbianism!" This was said in response to the argument that homosexuality is wrong because it corresponds to a greater degree of promiscuity. However, even though heterosexual people tend to have fewer sexual partners than gay men, lesbians tend to be even more monogamous (at least, according to the studies my professor knew of). So if heterosexuals are better than gay men, then lesbians ...
"Your ancestors didn't diet -- they were hungry!" Again, in response to an argument against homosexuality, only this time it was the usual 'unnatural' objection. But if gay people are unnatural for having sex without procreating, my professor rejoined, just as unnatural are artificial sweeteners -- because they give us the sweet taste (that signals to our bodies that the substance is a nourishing food) but not the calories. Being 'natural' like our ancestors were would require more than just tsking at gay people.
"Derrida's argument -- well, he was a postmodern philosopher, so he didn't really want to argue anything." We read an article by Jacques Derrida. My professor does not agree with him. It's funny because it's true. XD
Okay, time to go back to squinting and muttering to myself ...
Thursday, December 2, 2004
11:49 p.m.
Here we go. I'm taking a break to fiddle with my blog, because otherwise I have to go back to my assigned reading -- which at the moment is the 2003 "Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy, and Operational Considerations." In layman's terms, it's "A Bunch of Lawyer Bullshit By Which We Can Silence the Inner Voice of Our Humanity and Justify the Infliction of Internationally Prohibited Torture Because They're Dirty Foreigners and Dammit, We Have No Sense of Moral Self-Awareness. Oh, and We Want to Kiss Dubya's Ass."
Reading this just reinforces my belief that the idea of intent (when used to determine the morality or immorality of an action) is one of the most easily abused loopholes ever. It's one thing to say that: "Person A committed an action knowing it would kill Person B, whereas Person C committed the same action on Person D but did *not* know it would cause death. Therefore Person A had the intent of killing and is guilty/immoral/accountable, whereas Person C did not, and is not." It's another thing to say, "Well, Person C *kinda* knew this would kill Person D, but he didn't *mean* it, at least not really, and look, he had this great *reason* ... so it's okay."
FYI, that is the justification by which we could get away with torturing the Guatanamo Bay prisoners, at least according to this report. "To convict a defendant of torture, the prosecution must establish that [...] the defendant specifically intended to cause severe physical or mental pain or suffering ..." (emphasis mine). The report then determines that just *knowing* something will cause the suffering constitutes only "general intent," and does not satisfy the mens rea element. In short, someone could just say, "Yeah, I *knew* it would do this ... but that's not what I *really* wanted," and get away with just about anything. Dictators can torture their citizens, Bush can torture Afghan prisoners.
ARGH. BULL. SHIT.
(Four more years of this. Four more years of unashamed hypocrisy, of parochial morality, of blindly vindictive obsession, and trigger-happy masculine compensation. Thank you, 51% of the country.)
Right. Anyway. The image for this layout is a screencap from the Escaflowne movie. It's very pretty, and soothing ... I may just go ahead and quit for the night. I'm not done with my reading, but finishing might just not be worth it, I think.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
12:39 a.m.
Final poetry paper done. Four-and-a-bit pages in four-and-a-bit hours. I WIN!
That went much more easily than I was expecting it to go. Perhaps later I shall worry more about the ease and enthusiasm with which I analyze writing, and what that means about my ability to actual *do* writing, but at the moment that is merely a curious idea for my idle, sleepy mind to contemplate.
In twelve hours or so, I will be back in Seattle. There, I will have to pound out my final philosophy paper, in which I will say why the U.N. should defend the right to privacy of homosexuals. Ignoring the fact that I have done about forty-five minutes' worth of research. I'm not worried, however, because the way I see it, our assignment is just to do research so that we can describe the problem that is the subject of our paper, and then we should spend most of the paper philosophizing said problem. (Yes, philosophizing.) I should be fine with that part, because I feel like I have knowledge of enough theories to pull out and bastardize in order to make my point. John Stuart Mill wanted sodomy to be legal, I promise you.
So, Thanksgiving break has been good, despite the mad paper-writing that is/has been characterizing its tail end. My new layout is almost done, with images at 100% and coding at about 95% (I still have to test it on Firefox). It was good to work with Photoshop again, even if it was only 5.5.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
04:29 p.m.
Hm. I've been poking at this thing occasionally over the past month or so, just to see if it was still here, and halfway considering giving it up for good. I haven't written in it since before the quarter started, and even before then my entries were sporadic; the layout, once looked upon proudly and considered pleasing to the eye, is old, old, old; and I don't think anyone still reads this anyway. However ... I took a random look at some back entries, specifically ones from post-graduation/early summer 2002. And I realized, one of the reasons I started this, and probably the only reason I've kept it up for these past few years, is because I want that record of thoughts, events, questions -- of stuff. I like having that, and later on, I'll want that record of right now's stuff. I do have a GreatestJournal, and probably will end up getting and LJ just to keep all the people I read on a Friends page I can get to quickly. But I do prefer the flexibility of layouts on this; and, since the former is more typically used as a method of communication than introspection, I feel a need to maintain the separation. (That may be an overblown need for privacy speaking, even though this page *is* public -- because I like not being part of a journal circle. Or maybe it's pretentiousness. Oh well.) I also have an illogical affection for this page, seeing as I've been writing in it for nearly four years now. I like to look back and poke around in my dorky little high school-junior self's thoughts, when I'm feeling masochistic.
So. We'll see how this goes. I don't know if I really have the time to do this, but it'll probably end up useful as another option for procrastination, at least. I am in desparate need of a new look for this page, though. First, I'll need to get Photoshop. Or maybe I'll use an old layout, because there are some I still remember with fondness.
One of the things that prompted me to hold off on giving up this thing:
"... it's the little things that I have enough control over to make the good outweigh the bad. And otherwise ... I only have control over how it all affects me. It's going to happen anyway, and whether it's one of those sorrows that's considered expected and inevitable, or something I could never see coming, I think it's valuable. It's the one point upon which I can't admit that my mother is correct (she *is* right about everything else, though) -- she would rather have us avoid all trouble and have us find our way neatly and easily through life, when I don't think I'd ever be able to know for myself what's good for me, or be able to value it properly, without experience. I really know so little, even for the short time I've been alive, that I crave it. 'To suck the marrow from life,' you know."
I wrote that over two years ago, and it still holds true for me -- or, at least, I want it to, but I may not always succeed in making it so. So I think it's something I need to be able to remind myself of, every now and again. Even if this is a lonely little page that sees no outside eyes. (I'm sure this is somehow philosophically significant, to speak into the void for the sake of my own identity -- some sort of Cartesian self-validation, maybe. :P)
Huh. Something else I wrote, back then: "It's always better to follow your heart, I think; not because it prevents all troubles, but it leaves you with wounds that can heal instead of regrets that you can never fulfill. Deep thought for the day." Which sounds pretty, I think ... but WTF was I talking about at the time??
