Secretariat

Santa recently decided to go Boxing Day shopping, and got himself a spiffy new GPS device.

Rudolph is now on welfare.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! / HAPPY POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!!

Immunoprecipitation

In lieu of the impending snowstorm today I went into the Wii Weather Channel and saw a weather icon I hadn't seen before. It turns out that Rankin Inlet is experiencing diamond dust. Wow, that sounds pretty intense. Are there sharp crystallic fragments of ice blowing around outside? What did they do to upset Shiva?

As it turns out, diamond dust is kind of like fog, but instead of being a cloud of water droplets, it is composed of a cloud of ice crystals.

Diamond dust is similar to fog in that it is a cloud based at the surface; it differs from fog in two main ways. Generally fog refers to a cloud composed of liquid water (the term ice fog usually refers to a fog that formed as liquid water and then froze, and frequently seems to occur in polluted valleys such as Fairbanks, Alaska, while diamond dust forms directly as ice). Also, fog is a dense enough cloud to significantly reduce visibility, while diamond dust is usually very thin and may not have any effect on visibility (there are far fewer crystals in a volume of air than there are droplets in the same volume with fog). However, diamond dust can often reduce the visibility, in some cases to under a mile (1600 m).

Source

The sunlight reflecting off all of the tiny ice crystals into your eye causing glittering flashes of light results in the term "diamond dust".

On a related note, it turns out that Rankin Inlet was competing with Iqaluit to become the official capital of the territory of Nunavut, but we all know how that turned out : (

Preproinsulin

Dec 4:
ANT253 Language and Society
- Midterm, Essay

Dec 10:
BCH210 Introductory Biochemistry
- Exam

CLA206 Ancient Astronomy
- Exam

Dec 12:
BIO250 Cell and Molecular Biology
- Exam

Dec 14:
CHM220 Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences
- Exam

Finished...really need a break now...and sleep. Started drinking a lot of tea in the past few weeks, but managed to not drink a single cup of coffee or can of energy drink.

Main thing I leave these courses with:
Anthro - Zipf's Law is the answer to everything.
Biochem - Blueberries are high in antioxidants. Eat them. Also, COX.
Astro - You succeed in science by stealing other people's works and theories. Sadly this goes back even to Ancient Greece. Nowadays you can even get a Nobel Prize if you pull it off well enough.
Biology - I still need to do this next semester. Lab nights suck because I get home at 11pm and don't feel like studying afterwards.
Phys Chem - Kill me if I need to take another phys chem course ever.

Time to catch up on animé and reading.

COX

The following was inspired by those poems I saw while taking the TTC.

Fragments

.......Poetry is
............taking English sentences and
.breaking them into
....................fragments

"i left when he started talking...about HI HI HOW ARE YOU"

In light of an astronomy project, I went up to Aurora last night and went stargazing. Retreating to as dark an area which could be found, I looked up and saw what I believe were the most stars I have ever seen. This may be due to the fact that I have never stepped outside at night in Markham during one of those legendary "clear days". Even so, trying to find Polaris was disconcertingly hard, as all the stars around the general direction of "north" were either absent or engulfed in a huge mass of clouds. This leads me to conclude that the skies of ancient Mesopotamia must have been absolutely lucid because I can't comprehend how it was they could spot things like Saturn every day in the sky.

So the effort of braving the 5 degree night to find Polaris wasn't quite rewarded. Howeer, I did manage to get a glimpse of the "stars" which are so very hard to see.

Well that is, unless the star exploded a few million years ago, in which case that star isn't technically there...

Also, it was the "good" daylight savings switch today, the one that gives the illusion of gaining more time. :D

GER PICK-UP

So right now is way past the time when you realize university isn't fun. The first sets of midterms have already passed, and the next set starts soon. I have a biology writing report which demands you stuff information found in a ten-page scientific article into three single-sided double-spaced pages. An astronomy project expects me to be able to fully identify constellations in the sky...we are in Toronto, and it seems the professor hasn't noticed the little quirks about Toronto's sky, which is that there are no stars, only smog.

Earlier this month someone had a seizure during a phys chem lecture, which obviously caused a big clamor. Right after that I went to astronomy, and someone shouted "Call a doctor!" after the guy beside her "fell unconsious" and dropped the bottle he was holding. Personally, it just looked like he fell asleep, not unconscious...

In regards to commuting, I have sadly witnessed a sharp increase of subway beggars, who jump to and fro between subway cars pushing their Tim Hortons cup into your face as they pass while you're sleeping. I guess it is very effective as all the people around you have already been concentrated into a small area for you.

Also recently, the revelations about finding high levels of lead in products is really confusing to me. A few months ago everyone was happy with their toy cars and building blocks, and then suddenly everything has too much lead in it. It's as if quality testing just realized "Holy crap, we forgot to test for lead" and then found out everything had a lot of lead. I wonder if this was like when we found out that saturated fats were bad, and that everything actually had saturated fats.

This month is also Nintendo freebie month. They sent me a spiffy pack of DS Lite styluses a long while ago for my Brain Age 2 purchase. They're also sending out some Wii Remote jackets for people who actually still have problems not treating the remotes like a javelin.



However the change in publishers for Nintendo Power I do not like as much, as they no longer give you the option to choose a free gift when you resubscribe to the magazine, only a barebones website which forces you to get a player's guide you really don't need.

Also, contemplating SSBB:



This is what happens when I wait too long to post.

Doing Jap

Man, weirdest RT ride ever. The two people to my left were avidly chatting with sign language, the lady sitting across from me had these huge scratches along her chest and one huge red mark down her face, and the old man sitting to my right kept twitching. Worse 15 mins ever.

In other words, second year is hardcore.

Japanese-style

First day of commuting...and to think I complained about riding on a school bus for forty minutes in high school. Investing four hours a day to staring at the floor of a public transportation vehicle doesn't sound particularly appealing but the excitement of going downtown to learn is quite...well, not effective. The adaptation phase begins.

Doctors and Nurses

Back to classes today. I have to go downtown for a one hour lecture, or more importantly to get a syllabus and book list. But I guess I can also go around hunting for places to hang out in between classes, other than the library...

Foreign Customs

I ordered a new laptop battery two weeks ago with a longer battery life as I can no longer go back and recharge the battery after every class session. Sadly, it required spending waaay more than the battery normally costs because Gateway refuses to send things to Canada. I had to go to Mundo Corp in order to get it, where I was charged with huge shipping and customs fees. I'm sure there are many reasons behind it, but Gateway's reluctance to ship parts across the border is frustrating.

Ironically, a few weeks ago I called Gateway's tech support because my tablet PC's stylus wasn't working (a very common occurence with that specific type of pen) and my warranty was running out soon. Less than 24 hours after the tech session they shipped a new stylus directly to my door. Hurrah! But then why can't they do that with their other parts...

Speaking of rush deliveries...


Hmm, two weeks doesn't seem that rushed to me... But to be fair, last weekend was the Labour Day weekend. However, I expected it to arrive before the weekend. While tracking the package online, I saw that by last Thursday it had crossed into Canada and cleared customs. Then there was no word on it until yesterday. I went to an appointment and was out of the house for a mere forty minutes only to come back and find that the courier had come and gone... Wow, they're good.

So the package was picked up today, just in time before classes start again...


Do they not do the styrofoam swirlies anymore? :(

Mania

Sturdy Hoe

Rune Factory plot update:



Ooooh mysterious.

Also, got Brain Age 2. The games do seem harder but in general more fun than the straight-forward math problems in the previous installment.

Myriad

This year's edition, Guiness World Records 2008, had this to say about the font used in the book:

This year's edition is set in Myriad Pro, a beautifully proportioned and highly readable humanist sans serif typeface designed in the early 1990s by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly (both USA). Humanist fonts are those that embody the cleaness and purity of a modern, "grotesque" typeface with the natural, organic feel of hand-drawn letters; sans serif refers to the lack of serifs or flourishes - such as the small feet on a serified n or i - common to the "roman" typefaces.

That was...s-so beautiful. *sheds a tear*

Although admittedly I didn't know that bit about the sans serif.

I searched for "Myriad Pro" and it turns out that for $35 each you can choose from a whole myriad of styles of Myriad Pro, such as: Regular, Condensed, SemiCondensed, and SemiExtended, not including all the Bold, Black, Italic, Light, and SemiBold variations.

The website also adds:

Myriad also has subtle geometric shaping and monotone color, balanced by varying letter widths and open counter shapes. A readable and friendly face, Myriad works well for both text and display typography. A headline font and the playful "sketch" and "tilt" versions add versatility.

This is clearly the BEST FONT EVER.

I think I haven't had enough exposure to the world of "professional font-making".

Expirty

Today I took a crazy adventure with public transportation. In one outing I experienced for the first time YRT busing, VIVA busing, and TTC busing. (Having only previously taken TTC streetcars and subways) Yes...somehow I haven't taken the YRT until now. I learned that:

1) VIVA Purple doesn't go straight (realized once the Hwy 7 bus whizzed by)

2) You pay when you get OFF a TTC bus?

Recently I've been playing Rune Factory, although getting it was hard as its existence in Canada was very vague and uncertain until recently, even though it was apparently everywhere in the US and they didn't know what to do with all of them. I finally found it by asking an EB rep in the store. (They hid them in the storeroom and didn't feel like displaying a single game box)

Anyhoo, my favourite character so far is the pastor, Wesley.



No doubt he bathes with holy water as well.

Celebration

Got back from a satisfying but tiring vacation. Mainly, it was a theme park rush with a bit of shopping in between. I don't think I've ever needed to line up so long for rides. Each attraction would take at least 30 mins, although it's usually around an hour or more. Especially in Universal Studios where their lines are usually outside and without consistent cooling fans, it was pretty hard to bear. It also seemed like Camp Week or something as there were groups of identically dressed kids everywhere, taking up big chunks of queue lines at a time. Everything from kayak camp to children's camp to bible camp.


The airport/airplane part of the trip was surprisingly smooth. No delays, security issues, etc. It actually went relatively fast, and the lineups were pretty short.


Epcot was generally a good experience, with the exception of Soarin', a new ride. That ride took over two hours worth of standing in line, half of the time on sloped surface, and the ride itself was terrible. The pretext of the ride was that you would "soar through the skies on a hang glider". Thus I was under the impression it would be a roller coaster similar to Tomb Raider at Wonderland. It..wasn't. In any case, never again will I go near that ride.


The new ride at Animal Kingdom is pretty decent. It's a pretty good idea to get the FastPass. However overall the best theme park is still Islands of Adventure.

Finally, see the nice fireworks from Epcot:

Haha...I don't remember hearing that random scream at the time...

I never got around to finishing that book, which I'll do very soon.

Friendly Fire

My course selection is in capable hands and now I'm off to Florida for a week on a chartered flight. Maybe I'll get hot towels on the flight which I've never had before (on a flight). Let's hope there isn't a nutcase in the airport/plane who tries to spoil that book for me.

This post is the bom

Excerpt obtained from Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss about Shaw's recommendation to remove the second 'b' in 'bomb':

I can scribble the word "bomb" barely legibly 18 times in one minute and "bom" 24 times, saving 25 per cent per minute by dropping the superfluous b. In the British Commonwealth, on which the sun never sets, and in the United States of North America, there are always millions of people continually writing, writing, writing... Those who are writing are losing time at the rate of 131,400 X x per annum...
George Bernard Shaw on Language, 1965

And this was in 1965. Can you even imagine how much time has been lost since then? (Apparently 131,400 X x...) Although, it does seem to take less time to type 'b' than to write it, so maybe our losses have been alleviated...

Edit: Changed the "About" section slightly.

In a good way

:-(

Aw man, missed my obligatory Canada Day post.

Making a timetable for university is going really badly as so many of the half courses have only one set of times for lectures, making the placement of labs at a reasonable time nearly impossible. The organic chem course had the brilliant idea of making us choose one of two lab times: 8:30am-12pm or 6:30pm-10pm. Brilliant.

Ryuu no PUREETO

I've been playing Pokémon Diamond recently, and I actually managed to stumble upon two shiny Pokémon, which are basically just extremely rare (somewhere along the lines of 1 in 8,192 chance in each wild encounter) and have different colouring than normal.




I found my first, which was a shiny Onix, at Iron Island. It was really tricky to get because it was in a double battle where I was forced to fight along with Riley and at first I was really annoyed because I thought you weren't allowed to catch Pokémon in double battles. (Which is true, but if one of them faints and the other is left you can catch it) On the first turn we basically knocked both the Onix and Golbat into red health, and I think the Onix summoned a Sandstorm. Unfortunately I had to knock out Riley's Lucario which would have otherwise tried to faint the Onix, and the sandstorm took care of the Golbat. Then I proceeded to put it to sleep and it was caught.

EDIT: I didn't realise it was so unclear in the pictures but basically the Onix is greenish-brown coloured.



Just recently I found a shiny Staravia (but now a Staraptor as pictured) in the Trophy Garden while trying to get wild Eevee.

I wonder if the encounter rate has been increased? Otherwise I'm just extremely lucky. Although, the shiny state doesn't really affect status or anything as far as I know.

Yam Cake

First year is...done? Nice. And now's it's time to move out.
Having an almost four month summer vacation is different, and the year DID seem like it went by faster. Now it's time to slow way down and relax a tiny bit in the summer. :P

Digging through old receipts I found out that I actually went to a lot of movies this year, at least to me. I don't usually go to movies too often, but being able to walk to the closest movie theatre really helps :D I'm definitely going to miss being downtown and able to walk to so many places nearby.

Sep 11: Borat
Oct 02: The Illusionist
Oct 23: The Prestige
Nov 02: Manufactured Landscapes
Jan 15: Pan's Labyrinth
Mar 15: 300 IMAX
May 05: Spiderman 3 IMAX

PS: OMG THE DUSTBALLS THEY'RE EVERYWHERE.

Manufactured Landscapes

Alphabet City

Punyaan

Just went and saw a recital by an aquaintance of Dennis', and she was really good. Opera school is next for her.

It's kind of odd having an extra two months of summer vacation, and I'm sure there will be a lot of forgetting involved. <_>

And as coincidence would have it, I'm out of town again during course selection so I'll have to figure that out.

Lake Titicaca

Last Thursday I went to see 300. Yay 300!
It was in IMAX. Yay IMAX!
We sat in the second row from the front. Yay neck injuries!
I guess it was wrong to guess that going thirty minutes beforehand wasn't enough. If we went any later I wonder if we would've even been able to get in.

IMAX's little sequence thing before the movie was so hilarious. It felt like I was in some motion simulator ride in an amusement park.

Before the movie we ate at Milestone's, which was pretty good. More expensive than usual of course but it was rather filling too.

Today's weather is really nice, which is lucky because I had to walk over to Indigo's to get something anyway. On the way back I passed by some singing monks. They were pretty good.

Whetted Curiosity

Last night there was much hopping through deep snow. This morning there was much wading through deep puddles.

Bottom of pant legs...so wet...

Snow Night

It just started snowing like crazy an hour or so ago. So apparently all class after 5pm today are cancelled.

Urban warming got beat and we managed to get a quarter of a Snow Day. Oh burn.

Now about getting to the restaurant...

The toilet over there will bring you luck

Reading Week

Recently I've gone on a massive soundtrack downloading spree. Satisfying in the end, I guess. Also, Shippuuden began which is pretty cool. Also need to finish Ergo Proxy and Ragnarok.

I finally managed to procure a Wii console, with much luck. Most amazingly, it didn't involve sitting outside a store overnight in subzero temperatures. Needless to say, getting the Wii was unexpected and the amount of procrastination was harder to control. There was a significant portion of time designated to Twilight Princess and Trauma Center.

The next holiday is Good Friday. After that are two term tests and an unfortunately arranged exam schedule.

Rollerbeetle Grand Prix

Valentine's + Chinese New Year = Lots of red

Finally it's Reading Week, and I'm looking forward to all the procrastinating waiting to be done.


Happy Chinese New Year's!

Disastereomers

It's back on the hunt.
Unrelenting. Unforgiving.
It wants your marks.

Dead.

The Revenge of Physics

02/13/07

Bond of Freedom

Today we had a special Mardi Gras themed lunch in the caf, and it was really good. The reason we're having a Mardi Gras themed lunch at this time of year is unknown. I mean, it's definitely a Mercredi.

Slush! Luckily air pollution will keep us from having a Snow Day. :(

Egg Bagel

It's going to be real cold!

Also, linguistics is interesting. And maybe I'll see Pan's Labyrinth tomorrow.

And now I can set my cellphone to tell me to stop forgetting the laundry.

Mr. X

Back in rez and back to school. :(

School, man, wtf?

I finally beat the last level in Sweatin' mode in Elite Beat Agents. Just had to get past that one annoying part of the song. I never want to hear Jumpin' Jack Flash again ~_~ But there's still Hard Rock mode so chances are I'll have to hear it again. :(

Woooooo physics lab tomorrow >_>

Northern Lights

Had sushi at Maison du Japon, which I found was actually pretty good. The restaurant was larger than I expected, and the meal includes drinks. Then saw Children of Men, which was a pretty intense movie.

I got a book called Human and it is rather complete about everything human. Goes from origins of modern humans, to the human body, human mind, life cycles, cultures, economy and power, society, religion and language, all the different peoples on Earth, and addressing future issues.

They even have a section of Communication. Now I know to never expose the soles of my feet to anyone in Thailand.

Historical Insults
Certain insults have ancient origins. One is the Greek 'moutza', in which an open hand is thrust in someone's face. This gesture dates from Byzantine times, when people used to push excrement into criminals' faces. Another is the British V-sign, thought to come from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. French soldiers would cut off the first two fingers of the English bowmen; archers who still had their fingers would wave them in defiance.

Grape Shot

Had the New Year's thing at Saké. Lots of sushi before the countdown. Got sprayed by champagne :( There was also some fun four-way wireless DS-ing, followed by a lot of card playing.

Weather was dim and foggy, perfect for minimizing auto accidents on New Year's Day.

First thing eaten in 2007: Turtles chocolate
First thing drunk in 2007: Random wine thing that tasted better than champagne
First thing played with in 2007: Cellphone camera
First thing resumed in 2007 after celebrations: Playing card games