Leave me a comment with "ROBOTSROBOTSLOL" in the subject line.

I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

1: If you could build a robot that would accept any programming, what would you tell it to do?

Hmmm, tricky question. I would first program it to not destroy all human life. Then I would program it to clean, and to drive me places. I know, I know, all of my love of robots is just for that? But think about it, when you don't have to clean and you don't have to worry about transportation anywhere, what more can you really ask for? Ohkay, fine, I would also have it print money. But then I think I'd just get a DS.

2: What event/accomplishment/achievement in your life are you absurdly proud of?

Lemme see... I'm absurdly proud that I actually did manage to graduate in the POS Honors Program. Some part of me kept whispering "FAAAAAIL" and for a while, I really thought I would, but I eventually managed to pull that off.. somehow.. even to the satisfaction of my teachers. Whee! I'm also pretty happy that even if I'm still not perfect now, I managed to turn my life around a lot in late high school by losing forty pounds and busting out of my shell, a process that continued somewhat until college, and involved me accepting more responsibility for my choices and learning who I am while accepting the realities of it.

3: If you had unlimited funds, what would you do?

Oh easy, I'd travel everywhere on gastronomic holidays and buy a fabulous house and stuff it with cheese and cool gadgets. This is really all I want from life.

That, and to go into SPAAAAAAACE

4: Do you REALLY <3 interpretive dance, or did you just say that to get questions?!

I love the absurdity of interpretive dance. Primarily because it's usually pretty hard to interpret.

5: What hobby/talent/skill would you really like to cultivate?

I'd love to be able to dance like a cool kid. Right now I have a self-deprecating, sorta-funny "white-and-nerdy" vibe going on; I think it'd be fun to actually learn how to seriously bust a move. That, and getting better at making new friends with random people.

Hello everybody!

I haven't made a post in a gazillion years, so I figured on some deep dark level that maybe I should. I'm a little bit nomisugita right now, so you'll forgive any spelling mistakes!

I am having a fun time learning Thai~ my teacher is acaan (pronounced ah-jahn) Sidhoon, an extremely genki little 75-year old lady from Thailand who rules the class with the tools of fun and an iron fist. Hehe. It's only been two weeks, and I can't exactly say a lot of things, but at the same time I feel like I can say a ton of stuff! For example, I know how to say "Grandma May is still drunk." Not a terribly useful sentence, but how many language students can say that after two weeks? It's not an immersive program, but it is definitely intensive, and I'm already considering how to come back next year.

Everyone here is also pretty nice; I've met a ton of people who are doing interesting things. One girl I know is studying Thai so that she can complete her thesis on Indian textiles for Thai markets; another guy is doing the program so he can do a research project on gender+Buddhism, and another guy already has two master's degrees from the UN University in Costa Rica and the University of Austria in Innsbruck (sp?) and is just taking Thai for fun. That excludes, of course, all the neat people from all the other languages. Did you know Tagalog is technically pronounced tah-gahl-ig? I sure didn't, till today. Wacky!

Of course, none of these people replace the void in my heart-area that is created by the absence of my college buddies. Elly, Christine, Holly, Victor, Debbeh, + others who don't read this WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU. Madison kinda sucks when you don't know anyone to hang out with, really. I even went to my very first gay bar today... it was kind of interesting, but despite all the progress I've made towards being social all the past four years I still can't walk up to people in a bar and introduce myself while flirting with others. Ah well, all things come in time :)

Anyways, I genuinely hope you're all well, those few of you who read this and pay attention. Ta ta!

- Fun weekend. Good job, Debbie!
- I want a cat
- I sort of wish my life could be made into a serialized comic
- If I ever live purely on my own, it will be a quiet and rather boring existence
- Sloths are cuuuuute
- Sci Fi truly does have the best Worst Movies Ever (tm), and they would have so much more success if they marketed as such
- I don't really know much about Albany, despite having spent four years here
- My life is about to change, and I don't know if it is much for the better
- I am indecisive about what to do next
- Sallie Mae is SLOOOOOOW
- Money is good, up to a point
- It's good to sometimes give in to your inner child
- Most people don't know how to write.. at all..
- Stealth gay is stealthy

Anyways, that's it for today. Ta ta!

Whee! At home for a day after bringing Ma and the first few boxes of the Not So Great Move back home. I'm still recovering from grad festivities, the enormity and energy of which have sort of managed to drain me. Either that or the three hours of driving, bleh. At this rate, I'll never handle the two day trip out to WI with any grace.

Speaking of which, the 'rents want me to take a train out. I always like trains, but I'm pushing back against this one so far since I want to use my car. I think driving would be better since I would a) get a rest in going out there by going to my stepsister's house b) I would be able to use my car in Madison, which is in the Midwest and therefore in my mind flat and wide and requires a car and c) waaaaaugh it's my carrrrrrrr and I want to use iiiittttt /whine/. But thankfully, the 'rents are not pushing it too hard (since I am now an Independent Adult Person Dude?), instead opting for the vaguely passive aggressive approach. I intend to counter by mollifying them with a promise of getting my car a trip check by a mechanic, which is not a bad idea anyways. Well, whatevs.

But anyways, until that shizzle all goes down, I have a free few weeks! Whee! I have no idea what to do with myself!

For one, I need to take the GREs, which means I can fool myself with the illusion of structure and hopefully sit down with my GRE prep book for a few hours every day/week to prepare. It would be pretty nice if I could do well... I don't know exactly what doing "well" would mean in this case, however, given that I have no idea where/when I want to apply to graduate schools. The more I think about it, the harder it all seems to be to plan.. Especially if I say, want to try and go back to Japan, which I keep talking about but not following through on.

Ah well, use the karmic principle, Brendan! It'll all work out pretty well in the end :D

In the meantime, I have to:
a) square up loans
b) square up bills
c) send off thank you notes
d) sent off postcards to foreign and domestic buddies
e) move out and negotiate with friends over furniture
f) hang out with said friends :D :D :D

Okay! I will talk to you all later. <3!

Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard 70% Deanna Troi 70% Chekov 65% Will Riker 60% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Geordi LaForge 50% Spock 47% Mr. Scott 45% Uhura 45% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 45% Data 42% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Mr. Sulu 35% Beverly Crusher 35% Worf 25%

A lover of Shakespeare and other fine literature. You have a decisive mind and a firm hand in dealing with others.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

New Star Trek is movie is SO AWESOME.

'nuf said.

Rattle off the first 15 books you can think of that will always stick with you.

I am a super geek extraordinaire so most of these are sci-fi. Also note I'm a mad cheater coz I include whole series of books here.

1) Startide Rising - David Brin
2) The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
3) Empires of the Word - Nicholas Ostler (and I'm not even totally done yet)
4) The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell
5) Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
6) The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
7) The Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
8) A Song of Ice and Fire Series - George R.R. Martin
9) Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
10) The Scar - China Mieville
11) The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
12) The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher
13) The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
14) The Prince - Niccholo Macchiavelli
15) Calvin & Hobbes - Bill Watterson (TOTALLY COUNTS)

What does it say about me? Unless you've read all this, it's hard to say.. I think it says that I think about the great systems that govern human interaction.. a lot of these books are inherently political - not in the governmental sense, but in the sense that politics deals with the relationship between people. Also, I clearly like thinking about the future. Any weird ones on there for y'all that read this?

Oh! And I tag anyone who reads.

Basically, my to-do list for the next week (a.k.a. I may be busy forever)

( Read more... )

Zen thought of the day: SWINE FLU IS COMING FOR US ALL

P.S. I need quizzes! What happened to the good ol' days of LJ memes? :P

Should God exist, s/he is a mathematician.

Okay, so to continue from last post....

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So that's good. It's nice to just have it down somewhere so that I can come back to it and be like ... "oh yeah." Plus it's a continuation of what I posted the other night. One step at a time; the current goal is very simply, graduation. So --> Back to work.

This is basically going to be a stream-of-consciousness diary sort of entry that is meant to help me figure out my brain thoughts. Feel free to ignore it.

Day one of the Guilt Trip (as we are now calling it) complete. Not too shabby, so far. Mom even said she'd do what she could to help out w/the Wisconsin thing, as a graduation present, which is really unexpected and nice. I wish I had my own funds though, I feel really bad taking help from my parents who are already in pretty dire financial straits generally. Well, I guess that's why God made Sallie Mae.

I am currently at this moment talking with Dad about future plans ...

Well, that was fun. Basically, summer = set (apart from actually applying for continuing education loans), and next year is set in that I will either be in grad school or be doing a Monbusho thing in Japan. What is not set, however, is that intervening time in between the end of this summer and the beginning of whatever I'll be doing next year. Soooo, let's see. Priorities:

1) Make some dollars. I cannot possibly continue to live on student loans, barring a mad awesome scholarship. I need to get some kind of job that will allow me to start paying off loans, as well as live comfortably. What kind of job could I get? Here're the thoughts.. 2) Keep learning. I deffos want to keep on the education, so wherever I end up I want to at least keep taking part-time classes so that I keep myself fresh and fun and the brain sharp. Wheeeeeeeee.

Cannot keep thinking, sister interruption. "WHY ARE YOU FIGURING OUT YOUR LIFE PLAN VIA BLOG" she says. Also, she says, "SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP" six times.

So Dippikill was fun. In honor of that ....

( Quiz thing )

I dub thee "The Cycle of Automotive Misery." It's sort of like Murphy's Law as regards car, except it only happens to one person at a time, and then it is (as a spell or curse is) transferred to the next unlucky victim.

Fuck you, Albany. My own stereo getting stolen on one day is one thing. My stereo and Elly's in one day is another. Bastards.

Made delicious bean dip today.

Proceeded to dive into with the passion of a shipwrecked sailor.

Further went on to try to exercise about half an hour afterward.

Did not profit.

Still dying.

x____x

Been feeling bouncy today. I've been having a little bit of an off week, in that my head has pretty consistently felt a leetle bit fuzzy, and I find myself every now and again having really blank moments where I totally forget what I'm supposed to be doing. It's hard to describe.. like a shadow over my shoulder that every now and again comes and clouds my brain. It makes it hard to concentrate - I almost forgot I had class today, so I ran out of the campus center at 12:30 to make my 12:35 class, nearly bowling over a few students as well as my good buddy Elly. Oops.

I am so far behind in the reading that I need and want to do! I need to probably continue doing a lot of research for my thesis stuff, which means a bunch of books that I haven't contemplated touching yet. This is not to say that I don't have sources, just that I need more. Besides that, I have the crapton of books that I ordered from Amazon. My current reading list looks something like:

- Empires of the Word
- Diplomacy (by Henry Kissinger, no less!)
- The Language Instinct
- 1421
- When China Ruled the Seas
- The Iron Council
- The Power of Babel
- Kirinyaga
- The Tipping Point
- The World is Flat

I think my main problem in life is that I decide that I want to do too many things, then never really follow up on it. I get the important things done, but otherwise things sort of fall by the wayside.

Oooh! And I found out today why my car has yet to fall apart on me! You know how some people have lucky charms for their cars? My friend has a pufferfish, my other friend has these dice.. etc etc. Well, today I found a charm that came with the car from the previous owner~ A mix tape of Christian rap.

Yup.

I'm talking serious "gospelzillio is the real dillio" stuff here (actual song quote). Some of it's not too bad! I put it on my iPod. But the basic point is that my car is BLESSED by GOD HIM/HERSELF. Thank you, o previous owner! Now I know far more about you than I ever cared.

My goals for this weekend:
1) Start running again
2) Actually get revised thesis plan done. No, for serious this time.
3) See Watchmen (?)
4) Rein in spending.

Last item: I got some totally new cool shoes today, sort of converse-y but not actually converse. Others were shocked (shocked!) that I should go shoe-shopping. It happens sometimes, guys!

WHY DO I LOVE HIM SO SO MUCH.

２級合格！

Ahhhh. Relief. I had been quietly stressing about this for .. well, a while. And now it's over! And it hopefully gives me a little more leverage over the process of deciding what I want to do in the future.

Maybe? I still want to go abroad, and I'm looking at my different options.. If I can get it, a Monbusho scholarship would be awesome, but that's kind of hard to get. Same for the Fulbright. But I suppose I could always teach English, in Japan or some other East Asian country. The nice thing about what I'm doing now is that apart from all the stuff I have to get done this semester (THESIS THESIS THESIS THESIS OH GOD) I feel pretty free about the future. Whee~ It's been a good week. Kris thinks I should buy a lotto ticket, haha.

Car buy process gogogo!

Ze American dream, realized at last~ Hopefully, I'll be back in Albs by Monday with el carro nuevo :3

GARDANGIT HOLLYWOOD STOP RELEASING MOVIES IN 3D! IT DOES NOT DO ANYTHING FOR ME!

List of movies to be in 3d that I want to see and yet will have no benefit from being in 3d:

-Up
-Battle for Terra
-Aliens v. Monsters

And yeah! All those other ones! I saw Coraline yesterday, also in 3d, did absolutely nothing for the movie but give me a small headache and make me shell out an extra $2.75. Humbug.