Friday, February 29, 2008

creepy...

I have a phrase-o-th-day calendar on my desk. It's 365 days of latin fun. Whee!

today, on this leap day, we get to rejoice in this phrase:

Dei pia facta vident.

or, someone is watching.

...creepy.

I like January 21 a lot better.
Carmina morte carent. songs do not die. ah, Ovid.

some others:
Deliberando saepe perit occasio. let's get down to business. (or, literally, Break out a bottle!) (...this is why I like latin.)
Absolvi meam animan. I have set my mind free.

some days I feel like shouting this:
Nemo scit praeter me ubi soccus me pressat. no one but me knows where my shoe hurts. (i.e. don't tell me what's bothering me.)

The day before my physics exam, I got this:
Dicta docta pro datis. words are cheap.

And if you're feeling existential:
Quid hoc sibi vult? what does this mean?
(and Cave Madidissimus- beware of supersoakers! ...well, beware of soaked-est. I'm still brainfried from physics midterms, shush.)

And more XKCD!hehehehehe. you know it's true.


And while I don't advocate this, and might not usually find it as entertaining as I did, but you know, a physics midterm sort of skews your mindset a bit.and it was hilarious to read in the midst of figuring out the equivalent resistivity of nasty resistor/capacitor circuits.
now go click the linky and enjoy.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Midterm in T- 5 hours...eeeeep.

taking a break from studying to give you what should be entertaining professor quotes (but we've already discussed that...)

instead, you get entertaining comics from XKCD. Go clicky.

First, something that made me laugh and then cringe, because it's physics...yep.

and also made me think about physics, since it's been a ridiculously long time since I played any MarioKart. (ok, since I failed-at-playing MarioKart, let's be honest).
just replace the "MarioKart" wedge with "MasteringPhysics."

this one is for my mum.Because it is oh so true:you know it's true. if you don't, beware becoming entrapped in...The Wikipedia Loop...

and because I do occasionally mourn the loss of the Best Couch Fort Furniture Ever...(my parent's basement furniture. papasan chairs and two couches with removable cushions, and after a few years, a secret door because the wooden slats were 'removable.' good stable cushions, too, not floppy (well, the papasan cushions were floppy, but that's beside the point.)
and who wouldn't want an apartment full of the little plastic balls? ...that's assuming they were new, and hadn't been living in a fast food playpen for years.)

and lastly:enjoy.

I'm going to go bury my face in the care package mom sent me (O'boy and yarn. and quarters. and tea. and Chef. and scrabble earrings and a wee little enamellert skilpadde.) and then...go back to studying.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Life imitating TV. or...no...

So...I have a physics exam in 36 hours. roughly.

Usually this means entertaining physics prof quotes, but...I have none.

Unless you count laughing inanely at questions asked by students, and that's not really entertaining. especially when the question is not, then, y'know, answered.

Anyway. Elliot came over to pick up his FastPass and stayed to watch a stargate episode. We started out with a computer-entity-enter-the-matrixy episode, but The Boy's computer was not being friendly with the Xbox so we switched (to the glee of Elliot and myself) to the "Window of Opportunity" episode, where a chunk of the universe gets stuck in a "bubble" of a 6-hr time loop a la groundhog day, and only two of the characters are aware of it.

so military "I need that in captain-dummy talk' (to mix shows a bit) has to learn how to translate an alien language loosely based on Latin, which makes me giggle.

and there's this image (thank you, internet, you might be a scary scary place, but when you really need something (and you're willing to dig, which can be...scary...) you can find it).
every time this shot is shown on the screen, I giggle. or snicker. it depends on the level of brain function available to me. after a day of studying for physics...it's a giggle.
(although the soul patch/goateelet (kidlet?) has. got. to. go.)

some video clips (yay youtube!):



and here's a good analog of my mental reactions to physics anything right now...



and because there was no short clip of the latin,



and...not from any episode, but...c'mon. you were so thinking it.



and with this, I am forcibly removing myself from the internet.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

quick, before I have to take the car in...again...

What Be Your Nerd Type?
Your Result: Literature Nerd

Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works.

It's okay. I understand.

Gamer/Computer Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Science/Math Nerd
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type?
Quizzes for MySpace

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Certifiable.

eyep. why now? because I'm trying to sprout a mango.

mmm, mango.

I miss real mangos. I was at Whole Foods staring at the mangos (this was the fateful Day Of The Door, which I didn't actually blog about, because it was just too horrible), trying to figure out which of the rock-hard greeny red globs were ripe, when I heaved a heavy sigh. The woman standing next to me said "So I take it that means I can't ask you how to tell when they're ripe?" I said no, and that these mangos looked nothing like the mangos I got used to on the RCS.

And by the time the mango was ripe, I'd eaten all the coconut rice pudding, and now the mango's overripe, which means my options are 1) stirfry that baby up with some chili, onions, and peanut sauce to go along with the pork tenderloin currently in the oven or 2) take it, a can of whipped cream, and my naked self to the tub (or ocean) and eat it (so sayeth the internet...).

I'm going for option one, because I'm not a fan of canned whipped cream (and whipped cream + mango doesn't sound that appealing) and because my tub is too little and I think that whole suggestion was based on the assumption that the eater was between the ages of 2 and 6, or at least possessed of the dexterity of a 2-6 year old.

anyone know whether mango/mangos/mangoes is like tomato/tomatos/tomatoes? because mangoes looks wrong, but isn't underlined by the Red Spellcheck Line Of Death.
although it could just be me looking at 'mangoes' and mentally translating into 'mangøs' and then trying to figure out what that means.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

why my hair is not to be trusted...

recap:

I shower. I wash my hair. I wrap my head in towel for as long as it takes for it to decide to fall
off, which is usually about the time that I pick up my fourth article of clothing or try to find my glasses.

I go back to the computer and finish looking up the MSDS for the various chemicals I'm going to be using in lab today. (one of them is pyrophoric, and we all remember Brad's sage advice* regarding those...)

I wander into bathroom to brush hair before constructing food. glance in mirror. buh? usually my hair has gone mildly sproingy because of the lovely humidity of the recent shower, and when I brush it it de-sproingifies.

not this time. this time, one big chunk of hair has stubbornly decided it wants to channel shirley temple's evil darkhaired twin.

see?(excuse the clouds, and the apparent gaping hole where my thyroid should be. I'm playing with iPhoto. or photo booth. or whatever it is.)

very stubbornly. I've brushed it multiple times. still ringlet. it looks decidedly odd with the rest of the still-damp-so-now-actually-very-straight hair.

as with the other Marit-versus-The Hair escapades, though, I've given up. it wins.

*"it's pyrophoric**, which means that if you drop it, it's a bomb. some of you are going to be synthetic chemists, and eventually during your career you will drop things. y'sorta play hackysack with it for awhile and if you think you're going to drop it, you run.

**pyrophoric = extremely flammable when exposed to air. whee!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

can't type, PD* taking over fingers...

*Percussionist's Disease- the inability to control the urge to create/mimic/construct/whatever drumlines/beats/solos/whatever when confronted with certain types of music. or levels of boredom. or...whatever.

This is why:


because Rodrigo y Gabriela rock.

so remember how I said I didn't understand how anyone could go hard-core groupie? (ok, no, you don't, because I've never blogged about it, but hey, whatever)
and then remember how I said that I'd make an exception, and with just an ounce less self-preservation I would hop on a plane and prostrate myself before Wadaiko Yamato until they taught me everything? (ounce less self-preservation, or one more concert...thank you Luther PAC! woo 4th row seats and the chance to play with the drums afterward and learn how to say "ready? one, two, three- F*CK!" in japanese!)

we're not sure which swear word came after three, but it was clear that it was not a nice word, because it was said as the giant daiko decided it wanted to roll that way, not this way, and that way lay a 7 foot drop and a maybe 4'5'' japanese woman.


but I digress.


I will make another exception for Rodrigo y Gabriela, and that's just off a CD. also inspired me to actually unpack and begin connecting the stereo equipment that has been languishing in boxes, because I was listening to the CD in the car and on my laptop and then went...I have big speakers in boxes...must...listen...and it's probably a good thing that I didn't have any speaker cable, because otherwise I might have been evicted. apartment, marit, apartment...no cranking up the music.


now go buy this. right now. seriously. it will angl0saxx0r your face clean off.


I realize that 'angl0saxx0r' isn't really the most appropriate term to use here, but I love that superlative (ok, it's not really a superlative, shush) and I love this duo, and love should be together, way?

and this just makes me want to go mad wicked crazy and shake some sense into homeland security.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Teeth! Red Eyes! An Unmistakeable Aura Of Evil!

that's right. finally finished to my satisfaction, with much nicer pictures than my webcam will take. mmmm, digital SLR...(thanks mom and dad!)

So there it is. Red and green plaid on an orange base, complete with two wee little rivets (grommets, I guess).

the instructions on the box of the vaguely disturbing looking rivet press pliers things said to use them on two thin layers of fabric.

somehow, I don't think that worsted weight wool knit on size 8 needles with at least one carrying strand at every point + internal fabric lining count as two thin layers of fabric, but I have since learned that if it's squishable and you're determined enough...it'll work.

the view of the hat in this picture is better, but composition-wise, I like the one at the end of this entry better.

And then, of course, there's...the other side of Padma's Hat. Posing nicely on the corner and poised to leap out on unsuspecting Bootsies. ...I could use a Bootsie, my apartment's kind of scary. The lack of Bootsie is probably why the hat's too hungry to leap out and attack me.














I think it looks sort of confused in the right picture.
The eyes are a little too orange in the left picture- I blame the amazingly stupendous lighting available to me in that awkward little corner. They're actually a mildly shimmery red- perfect for plotting world domination.

So. There's the hat. I hope y'all like it.

And here's the picture that I like better, if only for the composition, since the colors/shaping is better on the above picture and the shadows conceal some of the details on the hat...

...but I like how it seems as if the Hat and the toaster are cuddling.

aw.

...don't let that fool you...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Padma's Hat

...is almost done. Just needs better photographs and two rivets.


Padma's Hat the way Collin sees it:

(you have to ponder the inexplicable mysteries of grave robbery and toast while wearing The Hat. it's a natural law.)


Padma's hat the way Fatima, Fox, Nef...ok..the rest of the Not-Padma world sees it:

leaping in for the kill.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

nemi! some of my random favorites.

all the comics below are created by lise, from this website.

This was me, yesterday night, at Dan's birthday party: (I was Nemi, not Cyan.)
"I think I'm going to throw up. I'm so full!"
"be happy you're not a squid!"
"wha-"
"a squid's brain is formed like a doughnut-" "and its digestive system goes through that doughnut- so if the squid overeats..." "it can get brain damage!"
"I definitely have to throw up."

and yesterday morning, waking up early before dropping the boy off in berkeley and finishing my physics lab of doom-"And you dare to call me now!"
"After painting all of my armadillos blue, and- what?- no, I know that you didn't"
"do it, but I dreamed..."

"note to self: if the telephone wakes you: don't answer it."

only it was an alarm on my cell phone. still.


This one is for Kates, who is stuck in the land of credits and requirements and transfers and philosophy:Going maaaaaad!
mad, mad mad!!
What came first?!
Of mental illness and the ability to think abstractly?

This one is because living so close to berkeley sometimes makes me twitchy...
AARGH! they're messing around with clones and gene-manipulating animals all the time now!
Banned from the pub for life?! HAH! meed DOG OF DOOM!
Hello? horrible?
Hm? yeah. horrible.


...because this is how my brain works, sometimes...I wonder what kind of small talk people had before there was music? that's what for the most part people talk about when they want to get to know each other?
maybe...
I like this beat!
Hah! I like this more.
nah...I wasn't thinking that far back in time...I mean: before there were bands, movies, and sports...the things that tell so much about who you are! what did they talk about? what broke the ice during the first half hour of a date?
hm...
did you see the shooting star last night? it was so beautiful...
*HAH! you're not the one for me! I don't like sky-crap. I like avalanches.*
everything between the ** is in a different dialect. think cockney, or geordie, or deep-appalachia.

And lastly, because I miss Finnmark...
What are you doing today?
Drink beer-
...and then I have to vacuum.
is there any point, now that it's dark?
no.
just beer, then.
I like the winter.
...I dont think that one needs translating. :)


Sunday, February 03, 2008

muaha.

so. The Hat is almost done.

what is The Hat?

my most recent knitting project, in response to the creator of Friendly Hostility holding a contest for fanstuffs. I'm not into writing fanfic and too persnickity about my artwork to do fanart, but...I can knit. and Padma's Hat was begging to be unleashed upon the world.

and I was looking for an excuse to try knitting plaid.

here is a picture of the hat as envisioned by its creator, K. Fuhr, now go read and worship:and here is the first stage of The Hat:it needs blocking and, of course, 'teeth! red eyes! an unmistakeable aura of evil!'

and I might rip out the crown shaping and redo, because it still looks too watchcap and not enough squished-ancient-might-have-once-been-fedora-like.

still. I'm getting somewhere.

and I conquered the beast that was the flat surface of my dresser and the pile of books in the living room today. ...doing so required reclaiming one of the bookshelves designated for The Boy but...he wasn't using it, anyway. he's still got...one. let's ignore the fact that I have three, shall we? and that if he doesn't start using the one he's got left he's gonna lose it too? sssh.

Friday, February 01, 2008

I lied.

I said nothing could wipe the sillyfool grin from my face.

why must I taunt fate that way?
does this look like a sillyfool grin to you? No. that is the bleary stare (squint?) of "oh god why must physics suck more than the indeterminable blackness of space? and why must all physicists use silly similar names for very different or not so different things? what the hell is an equipotential line and how does it differ from the electric fields or the electric lines of force or the electric field lines or the *bamf*"

...that *bamf* was my brain imploding out of self-preservation.

I had grandiose* plans of making actual food- a sort of asian-inspired beefy citrusy thing- but no longer.

now I shall damage my hearing with saint-sæns, knit, and stare at the oven until it disgorges my pizza.

*mmm. grandiosa. man I wish I could get grandiosa here...and in 3 hours, it would be lørdagspizza.

*swoon*

ok.

I forgive Tim Burton. (I cursed him earlier for directing my dreams as written by L Ron Hubbard a while ago, and that, you know, just really isn't what I wanted to do, but it's difficult to curse a dead man.)

I could forgive him for, pretty much, um, anything and everything short of...um...gimme a minute, I'll think of something.

But I am in love. (yes, of course with The Boy. this is a different kind of love.)
I just bought the Sweeney Todd soundtrack.

mmmmm.

Johnny Depp. Helene Bonham Carter. other quite nice actor/singers.

and Alan Rickman.

mmmmm.

not even the lingering spectre of my unfinished physics lab can wipe the sillyfool grin off my face.

'cos it's Sweeney Todd. and Alan Rickman.

mmmmm.