I, like most Americans, have no idea what that means.

2007-02-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Penn Jillette saved my life once.

2006-09-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'm cheating on Blogger again: kel-el.vox.com

2006-09-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

I was wrong. Katie wore pants tonight.

2006-09-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Update on last night's television watching:
- Katie Couric. Well, I don't know. I guess part of the problem is that I never ever watch the nightly news, so maybe it just sucks in general. I don't usually pull for the liberal media thing, but dude, this was just nutty. They open with a story about how we're totally losing the war in Afghanistan, then they show footage of Bush right next to video of Hitler waving his arms, then an interview with Thomas Friedman about how much Bush sucks, and later they showed us pictures of Suri Cruise. Hard hitting journalism. Katie's voice seemed rather high pitched, but that could have been nervousness. No cleavage, but at the end we got a gratuitous pull back that allowed us to see a candid shot of her swinging her bare legs around. How much do you want to bet we never ever see her in pants? Yeah.

- Big Brother. OMG, I didn't cry, but I was close. Dr. Will, I love you, and I was totally pulling for you and now I'm pulling for Boogie. You totally rule.

- Kim Possible. Haven't watched it yet, but am very excited, especially as this movie has the best title ever: "Kim Possible: So The Drama". Whee!

- House. Not the best episode ever, and I had some issues with the ending, but there's one thing which makes this the best show ever: Scurvy. Hell fucking yes.

2006-09-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Stuff I'm excited about watching on television tonight:
- Katie Couric's first night on the nightly news (I'm hoping she shows a bunch of cleavage)
- Big Brother (if Will gets evicted, I might actually cry)
- the Kim Possible movie on the Disney channel
- House season premiere! Whoo! I wonder if this time he'll go too far...

2006-08-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, after much diligence, patience, and bribery, Cary has gotten Cohen to stand on his hand and eat millet out of it. Now you can see how beautiful my birdie is without those white bars in front of him. This picture shortly preceded the aformentioned Flight of the Cohen into the Wall Behind the TV. He's still okay. What a cutie pie.

2006-08-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Stuff I've watched/read/heard recently (with some spoilers for stuff few if any of you are likely to care about):

- "A Foreign Affair", written/directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marlene Dietrich. I heard of this in a documentary on Marlene I saw recently, and I love her now, and the dude on TCM said I should watch this movie. It blew. Even the songs Marlene sang were lame. And I'm pretty sure Marlene got sent to a labor camp at the end, so that sucks.

- "The Abominable Dr. Phibes". Completely not what I expected. I some how in my mind had this movie tied in with "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". The two are very very dissimilar. But both good and wierd in their own way. We do like Vincent Price, of course. A cool movie to see on TCM.

- "Saved!". Not on TCM, got this one from Blockbuster. Good, funny, Mandy Moore was fabulous.

- "Birth of a Nation". Back in, like, May TCM was doing a "Black images on film" series, and so we recorded this and "The Jazz Singer". This damn movie is freakin' 3 1/2 hours long, and we watched it in many 10-30 minute bouts. The first 2 hours, at least, are boring as hell. And then the KKK comes riding in on their shrouded horses to the strains of "Ride of the Walkuere". Sweet. One of the very last images of the film is a big crowd of people standing around, and then a huge Jesus appears in the middle of them. I don't know. I couldn't really tell what was going on during most of the movie, and I couldn't tell any of the characters apart.

- "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges. I proctered a practice SAT exam yesterday, and had lots of time to read. Strange stories, somewhat uneven, but some of the stories really good. But what a smart writer, like Eco. I'm not sure what to read next.

- "The Boatman's Call" by Nick Cave. This is my favorite CD right now. Wow.

- The Busby Berkeley Collection Soundtrack Sampler. Oooooh, so cool. This song you all must listen to, oh yes indeed. Hank, I don't know how you can say "Gold Diggers of 1933" is not the best movie you've ever seen.

So we just had some excitement. Cary's been leaving Bird's cage door open and just kind of hanging out with him, and he's gotten Bird to eat millet out of his hand. So just now Bird flies out of the cage, which he's never come close to doing before, flies into the wall above the tv, lands on the ground, I get down and cover him with my hands, and Cary scoops him back into the cage. He's fine now, but it was quite an event.

2006-08-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Stuff + Sweet Pea = Awesome.

2006-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

How to tell you have the best boyfriend ever: when you look in your DVR list and discover E!'s new Hilary Duff Revealed and you say, "You taped the Hilary Duff thing for me!" and he says, "Oh, you wanted to see that, too?".

(It was pretty cool, btw, although utterly lacking in conflict, which is odd for anything produced by E!.)

2006-07-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

Update: I found out today that one other person passed the analysis exam. She may have even gotten a higher score than me. Dammit! I so enjoyed being the best for about a week or so.

2006-07-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hellodeo Jim!

2006-07-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Matthew R. Longo, Ph.D! (He's the one on the right. On the left is Miss Emily Elizabeth, one of our precious first cousins once removed.) I passed my comps, and my brother successfully defended his dissertation. Aren't we a couple of winners?

2006-07-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

I don't remember if I bragged here about how I passed the algebra comprehensive exam. I passed. I also found out last week that I passed the analysis exam as well. This is good news. This means that I don't have to study for shit this summer, and I also don't get kicked out of school. We didn't know if we'd pass analysis, because it was crazy hard. But I passed, which rules.

Here's what else rules: yesterday I ran into classmates W******* and C**** at school, and they told me that they did not pass the analysis exam, which shocked me because they are both v. smart, and good students. Also, they have some sort of nutty source who informed them that 1) everyone who took the algebra exam passed it (if you'll recall, I kicked it's ass). And 2) only one person passed analysis. Me. Hahaha. I rule. *curtsey*

Orc Squad

2006-07-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Orc Squad, originally uploaded by mooasaurus.

Seen on the 5 freeway somewhere between Santa Ana and Anaheim. The OC Fire Department's Orc Squad. Awesome.

2006-07-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Friday Beth and I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean: DMC (totally awesome!), but it ran longer than I expected so when it was over I was late picking Cary up from work, and the people sitting between us and the aisle were taking their sweet time, so Beth took the initiative to jump into the empty row in front of us for quicker exit. I followed suit, but being taller and much more awkward than Beth, I didn't make such a clean escape, and I came away with this super awesome bruise below my knee. Sexy, huh?

2006-07-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, my goal was to have these in one post, but Blogger is down for maintenance for the next hour, so here's my other cat liking math picture:

2006-07-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Look: even my cats like math!

2006-07-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

The people who live below me have a basset hound, who we rarely hear from, but all afternoon he has been lying out on the porch howling like he's in Yorkshire on a foggy night. It literally sounds like an air raid siren. It would be really irritating if it wasn't so creepy and he wasn't such a cute mopey looking basset hound.

2006-07-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Emmy nominations:
Go Gob, President and Mrs. Logan, and Gillian! Whoo!

I guess I've been through enough of these award shows that is should just accept this bullshit by now, but I'd just like to point out that West Wing was nominated for best drama, and Lost, Veronica Mars, and Supernatural were not. Excuse me? Did anyone watch WW this season? Good god, did it ever suck. Oh well. I'll be cheering for President Assface.

2006-06-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

I met a famous magician when I was 12 and I think I'm a brilliant humorist and I was an amazing artist when I was 5 but no one nurtured me and now I can't spell.

You owe me $3.95.

2006-06-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

I love Paris on Gilmore Girls.

Paris: So I told her, "Look missy--"

Rory: You called your advisor "Missy"?

Paris: It was attitudinal. I said I'm not taking AP calculus from Heneman. I'm going with Branch. Branch is a graduate of MIT and Heneman went to Berkeley. Berkeley! I mean, he may have majored in math, but what did he minor in? Bean sprouts? Forget it.

You know what else I love? Watching Gilmore Girls in my underwear at 11am on a Thursday. And then blogging about it.

2006-06-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

News flash: The Daily Show is stupid and boring and bad. Stephen Colbert, otoh, is amazing and hilarious and we're all going to go see the Strangers With Candy movie this summer and buy the DVD set. Thank you.

2006-06-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here's my new favorite soccer player. His name is Wayne Rooney, but Jim and I call him Shrek, 'cause he looks like Shrek. C'mon England! Also, C'mon Ghana!

2006-06-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Re: Hank's comment. I did not kick ass on the analysis exam, but I think it's conceivable that I passed. Here's one of the questions that just did not get answered at all:

8. a) Show that the set O(n) of all real orthogonal nxn matrices is compact.
b) Show that the tangent vector M to O(n) at the identity matrix is a skew-symmetric matrix; that is, it satisfies the contition M(transpose)=-M.

(note: I don't know what it means for a matrix to be orthogonal, because we never at all learned that in this class, and I'm sure my prof would have told me, but I like having an excuse not to have attempted this problem.)

Now that I look at the test some more, it actually seems quite likely that I failed. Fuck. (I can take it again in the fall with a much lower pass threshold.) Beth, who is going to Long Beach State next year, is on her way over to drink and watch House.

2006-06-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

I just kicked a bunch of ass on my algebra comprehensive exam, and I finished 45 minutes early to boot (first one done! Whoo!). Now lets hope I kick as much ass on analysis tomorrow...

2006-06-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

C'mon England!
(That's my sleeping boyfriend under the watchful eye of St. George. I love a country where you can put sports logos on the flag. *frantic waves to Jim*)

2006-06-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

You must all go see what the stunning Lydia did with my Cohen's beautiful blue feathers.

2006-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

To the hundreds of automated emails I've received over the past week urging me to complete instructor evaluations:

I have had the same fucking courses and the same fucking for the past three fucking semesters and I do not have any fucking thing new to say, except maybe about how I want to fucking kill Dr. ***** for being so fucking stupid, but I think it would be best not to include that on an evaluation. I refuse to fill them out this quarter on principal. Hit me up again next fucking December.

Thank you. I'm going to work on my cancer project now for real.

2006-05-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Heard last night on $40 A Day with Rachel Ray:

Did you see that? There was a stripper on a table dancing! I want to go there! Like, seriously.

That's it, I will no longer put up with anyone saying a bad word about Rachel Ray. She is officially my favorite celebrity chef.

2006-05-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

This week in television (Spoilers for 24, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Lost, and Smallville, obviously):

1) If anyone can find me a screencap of Aaron Pierce all covered in blood from the preview for next week's 24, I will love you forever. So awesome. OMG, I just thought, what if he's not really alive, but he's come back from the dead to haunt President Assface! Totally wicked.

2) This was, from what I hear, the last episode of Gilmore Girls with the Palladinos, which kinda sucks. Go Mary Lynn Rajskub! All in all, we were happy with the finale, and next season we're hoping to see a lot of people crying and screaming at Christopher.

3) OMG! Beaver raped Veronica! My television has been going kinda nutty, and I've been noticing for the past few days that, like, when I want to watch the documentary on Auschwitz (ouch-fits) on one of the tv stations around channel 10 or so, the screen is just black. Well, no problem. So then GG ends, and I put on UPN, channel 13, the screen is black. OMFG. So we had to watch VM lying on the floor in the living room in front of the dinky little tv that isn't hooked up to the stupid digital cable, while probably keeping my poor bird from going to sleep. It was worth it, though. Oh yes, I also love how much tazering has been going on on my television(s) for the last two weeks.

4) Locke and Eko may be my OTP.

5) Darkness RULES. The end of Smallville was pretty good, though. Also, can I please, please point out how very very right I was about Lana turning evil? She made out with fucking ZOD, for Christ's sake. Awesome.

Here's something else: there are a few things which are effectively destroying my involvement with internet fandoms for television shows I like. One are DVDs, because I no longer feel compelled to tape my shows (thank god, because it was driving me fucking nuts, and I still have piles of about 5 dozen tapes underneath my coffee table), and so I can't watch them over and over, until I get the DVDs. Also, I have no time, because I am in graduate school. Also, I realize that I don't like a lot of other fans. But then I remember how I liked being a part of the XF fandom. So now I'm trying to decide if I should try and be a part of something, because Boonie kinda made me feel bad for not trying. I don't know.

Anyway, now I'm going to go watch Tiara Girls and do algebra, because deep down those are the things I truly enjoy in life.

PS: I'd like to point out that I actually remembered to watch The OC tonight, but it was not on. FTS.

2006-05-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we're at Phoenix on campus eating lunch, and there's a guy outside who's got an empty gallon jug, and into it he pours an entire bottle of margarita mix and a bottle of tequila, then takes a little paper cup and pours himself a drink. Hilarious. I love midterm season.

2006-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Highlights from my day, in no particular order:

I totally love my cancer professor. She is one reason why I came to school here in the first place, she's totally smart, and I love the way she dresses. She's always wearing tight jeans or some short dress, and today she was wearing a really cool pink ruffley lacey shirt that I couldn't stop staring at. It's not that she's all stylish, but she also hardly seems to try and dress like a "serious mathematician" or something. And smart. Today she was talking about colon cancer, and how to build the equations we're going to build we need to consider how many cells are in each crypt of the colon, but no one knows how many there are. Except that she thinks she does know how many, because of this work she's done with stochastic processes. Damn, that's cool. Also, she pays a lot of careful attention to the many diagrams she draws during lecture. And she's really nice. I would so love to work with her, except deep down I'm not particularly interested in the math involved with the work she does, though the cancer part is damn neat.
Yesterday I applied for teaching positions with Kaplan and the Princeton Review, except that PR's website was all fucked up, but I did get an audition with Kaplan. So next week I have to go do a 5 minute lesson on something not related to the curriculum, so I think I'm going to do it on how to do a time step (tap dance). I'm kind of excited about this. I've been realizing that in order to pay for all the crazy things I want to do this summer (like go to Vegas, and, you know, pay rent) I'm going to have to work more than part time during only one of two summer sessions. So one of my students works for PR, and he said that if you've got your BA you can make like $24 an hour, so that makes me happy. Also the schedule's really super flexible, which is good. But I'll have to do a bunch of training first, and I don't know if I'm going to have time for that before the end of June.
Also I'm thinking of trying to get some private tutoring jobs from students in my apt complex, because I can totally tutor in undergrad calc classes, since I've TAed for those classes. And everyone around here has rich parents, so I can charge like $45/hr.
I think it's lame that I majored in math at Berkeley but I got a Bachelor of Arts, whereas my friends who majored in math at the far inferior Irvine (their undergrad math program is totally pathetic) got a Bachelor of Science. WTF?
Today is Cary's birthday. I ordered his present from Walmart.com, because they had it for less than half of what I was finding it elsewhere, but they didn't have it in the store. But I didn't order it 'til last Saturday, and I was really hoping it would come today, and sure enough it did, but stupid UPS didn't leave it, so they won't redeliver 'til Monday. Suck.
Just took out of the oven the brownies I baked for the aforementioned birthday, so the apartment smells wonderful. I'm also going to make penne with meat sauce (TJ's jarred marinara + ground turkey) in a few minutes. Also have vanilla ice cream, for the aforementioned brownies.
TV watching plans tonight may involve Hostel, which needs to be returned to Blockbuster soonest. Also have Palindromes (the latest Todd Solondzzddzd film), Season 1 Disc 2 of Sopranos, The Machinest, and something else..Love Liza. Next month I'm switching blockbuster.com to 1 disc at a time, because the backlog here is just outrageous. Plus we still have this week's Veronica Mars and Invasion, tonight's Smallville and Supernatural, and like 3 episodes of So NoTORIous from last Sunday. It doesn't help any that Cary likes to go to sleep at 8:30 pm.
May be going to San Diego this weekend to study and see my kitties.
I have pictures of stuff that I'm too lazy to post.
I'm wearing the super cool Sleeping Beauty shirt I got at Disneyland last weekend. It's pink and glittery and is a girl's XL, and it fits perfectly and is really nice material, so I'm happy.
That may be it for now.
I should go cook dinner now.
Okaybye.

2006-04-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, I remember what else I was going to say. This evening I got an email from the American Mathematical Society reminding me to update my profile or something, and the email was addressed, "Dear Professor Longo." That sounds good, no?

2006-04-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today was career fair! Whoooo! It's like Halloween for college students. I don't feel like inventorying my entire pull, but here are the extended highlights:

Two staplers, both from HSBC. Also got another highlighter from them like I got last year.
A little brush for cleaning computer monitors, with velco for you to stick the brush on your monitor.
A 5 piece computer screwdriver kit.
Luggage tag from the ATF.
A magnetic darts set.
A magnetic paper clip holder, with colored paper clips.
A little button with an iron eagle looking thing on it from some commie farm organization (in Irvine? Whaa?)
Plastic coffee cup.
A bunch of candy, and a bottle of water (I was totally dying of thirst, so that made me v. v. happy.)
A squishy firetruck.
Two frisbees; one hard, one soft and bendy.
Some sort of colorful squishy sticky wormy toy thing that made some really satisfying marks on the windows of Tim's car.
A ton of highlighters and pens.

I have so many pens now that I had to get a mug out of the cabinet to put on the computer desk to hold them all, 'cause the other pen thing is filled to capacity. It was a good day.

Now I'm just counting the days until vendor fair, when I can buy cheap blackmarket sunglasses. You know, my school really isn't half bad. :D

Just added: Sad you don't attend a school with a rocking career fair? For a mere $15/month, you can get your own collection of super cool schwag from Silicon Valley companies at valleyschwag.com. Admittedly, their stuff is way cooler than mine (I love the eff.org sticker...plus oh, the t-shirts!), but at least mine was free, and was a fun way to spend my noon hour today.

2006-04-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have to leave to see Micah in a few minutes, but I'd just like to share my two favorite lines from television last night:
"Super cool party people bid you super cool adieu!"
and
"What is it about girls who can count?"

PS: I'm hearing spoilers that Mary Lynn Rajskub is going to be on Gilmore Girls soon, which, along with the line from above, may launch GG way ahead in my list of favorite television shows.

2006-04-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Beth and I played hooky from algebra and drove to San Diego with Beth's boyfriend Newt to see the Dresden Dolls. We stopped by my mother's house to get ready (I would have loved to have worn a corset dress and intense dark "socked in the eye" makeup to teach my discussion sections, but I couldn't bring myself to put it all on at 7:30 in the morning). Didn't see my mother, since she was at work and Beth wanted to get to the concert early, but Beth and Newt got to meet my kitty cats. Kitty was *pissed* off at me, because she knew I was only staying for like half an hour. But she'll love me again next time I spend the night.

Anyway, Beth got me into the Dresden Dolls when she lent me their CD for my drive up to the yarn con in February, and they are so angry and dramatic, it makes me v. v. happy. Then she bought me a ticket to this show without even consulting me, which was cool. (PS: Hank! Only $15! <$25! Whoo!) The show, in case any of my readers went to high school with me (no), was at the Epicentre, aka the "teen center", aka the former Mira Mesa public library, where I got my very first library card at the age of ~4. Rocking.

But still, we got all gothed up. I am so un-goth, especially next to tatooed-big-thick-earringed-perma-black-wearing Beth and Newt, but at least I have the pale thing going on for me. The corset dress is Beth's, but at least the boots are mine. Oh right, you can't see my boots. But they're 20-i burgundy shiny Doc Martens, and they rocks. Anyway, here are Beth and I pre-show.
So, OMG, the show rocked so fucking hard. I have a new favorite band. If you lived with me, you would have been hearing about it nonstop for the last two days, including 2 am wednesday morning when I got home from the show. One of the opening acts, David J's Cabaret, played songs cowritten by Alan Moore and which appear in V for Vendetta (the comics, not movie). Also, they played Falling in Love from Der Blaue Engel (auf deutsch!), and Bowie's Time, and you could not pick two songs which would make me happier. And Beth is hardcore concertgoer, so we had the absolute best spots in the entire place, *right in fucking front* of Amanda, the singer/keyboardist in the Dolls. (go: explore their website) They covered I Love Rock & Roll and War Pigs, which rocked so hard. Like I said before. And drummer Brian fell off stage during Coin-Operated Boy, and I got one of his drumsticks, and I'm going to become a crazy performance artist and follow them around Europe and HOLY SHIT they had BALLERINAS. *passes out* I *love* ballerinas.

I'm happy. So is Beth. You can't imagine. Beth says they're playing Anaheim in July, which makes me happier than you can imagine. Seriously.

*ballerinas*

I have to go now. You've got me all freaking out again.

PS: Beth gave me a cool magnetic travel Sudoku thingy, which also rocks pretty hard. We're such crazy nerds.

2006-04-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

Cary and I went to Disneyland on Sunday (yay annual pass!) because Cary had never been there, and, clearly, we rode Space Mountain. We didn't buy the picture, but taking a picture of the screen at the end worked out remarkably well. Sunday after next we're going to California Adventure (yay 2fer!), where neither of us have ever been, so I'm excited about that. I saw a Sleeping Beauty shirt that I was going to buy, then changed my mind, but now I think I want it, so I think I'll buy it when we go back. It's only in girl sizes, but I think I can make a large fit. You know, I'll lose a bunch of weight and become the size of a rather tall 11 year old. But it's a really pretty shirt.

2006-04-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

Ooh, in my intense rage at television on friday, I totally forgot to post about the exciting events that occurred on The OC on Thursday! No, not all the happy Berkeley love, which was surely exciting, but the scene in which Seth is reading the infamous Stewart calculus book! Whoooooo! Go math! Of course, he was reading the regular edition, not the Early Transcendentals version, so when he goes to Berkeley and continues on in calculus he'll have to buy a new text book, and he probably won't have as firm a grasp on the logarithmic and exponential functions. OTOH, he could go to UCI, where they use the edition he was reading, and where they don't really teach you any more about log functions than what you should have already learned by junior year of high school. But never mind that.

(PS: the community college where I took my first two semesters of calculus used the Early Transcendentals edition, thus I did not have to buy a new textbook. Go me!)

Also, why are all these people only applying to one school, why do all the acceptance letters arrive on the same day, and how in the hell do they know when that day is beforehand? Dude.

In more Berkeley love, according to Wikipedia, Jack Bauer got his master's degree in law and criminology at UCB. Go Bears!

2006-04-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, I guess you're all lucky I didn't post this this morning, because I had a long ranting rant building up, but then I decided to work on homework instead, so now you get the watered down (but still long) rant, diluted by having spent the last bunch of hours doing math, and not getting pissed off about something I saw on the Today show.

So yeah, I watch the Today show every morning, because I am sort of freak. Every night before I go to sleep I even leave the tv on NBC so that when I wake up I can rewind the DVR up to an hour, in case I don't turn on the TV before 7. Total freak. But I'm obsessed with it (it's SO better than Good Morning America, which I watched when I lived in Berkeley and didn't get NBC), and I have my own love/hate (mostly love) relationship with everyone on it, and I have their commercial schedule all figured out and it's my show. It doesn't hurt that the lead anchor's name is Katie, either. Okay.

Katie Couric did a story this morning inspired by the Pink song "Stupid Girls", and how it's some big horrible thing now that stupid girls like Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Nicole Richie are role models for lots of girls. Okay, this is not about defending those people, but the only real evidence they had that those three are stupid was the Chicken of the Sea bit from Newlyweds, and a clip from the Simple Life where Nicole and Paris didn't know how to cash a check. Everything else was about how those three are really skinny and wear skimpy clothes and act like airheads a lot of the time. But are they stupid? Paris Hilton owns her own chain of nightclubs, Jessica Simpson has her own line of just about everything, and all three of them have managed to make a *ton* of money doing stuff they enjoy, and you've got to be kind of clever to do that. Wasn't it just big news how Jessica Simpson makes so much more money than her husband? And she's a stupid girl?

Well, maybe. But what's so special about Pink? I just downloaded her song, and she's singing about how she doesn't have to wear a push-up bra and be all stupid like that, or whatever. Well, let's share this picture of her, and try and reconcile everything. "Where oh where have all the smart people gone?" Are we to infer that Pink is one of those smart people? What evidence do we have of that? Calling other people stupid doesn't make you smart, and personally, as a girl/graduate student in math, I don't see that writing a couple catchy pop songs and putting a bunch of gel in your hair makes you smart, okay.

But really this isn't about Pink, because I really just assume that she's as stupid as anyone else. It's this high and mighty notion that any girls who want to be sexy and skinny and who are interested in boys and clothes are stupid. Katie Couric and the woman she had on from Seventeen magazine basically came out and equated anorexic with stupid. Like, god, all these 15 year old girls only have skinny people as role models, maybe they should have nuclear scientists as role models instead. What?

And now we segue into Katie Couric. This comes with perfect timing, as just yesterday I read this article in Slate, which also infuriated me. "Have we seen the last of Katie Couric's legs?" it begins, and goes on to talk about how she's wearing dark pantsuits now instead of more girly skirted outfits, now that she's gonna be a big primetime news anchor and needs to show that she has gravitas. In other words, now that she's going to be the first female nightly news anchor, she has to look and act more like a man. She sure is some role model.

My point, I guess, is that we need to stop equating "girly" with "stupid," and then maybe you won't see so many girls looking up to "stupid" girls. It's certainly not new that girls want to be pretty and sexy and skinny (in fact, later in the show Natalie Morales talked to the guy that made the diet for Celebrity Fit Club, and he said to her that she didn't need the diet, and she said thank you, of course implying that being skinny is a good and desirable thing). But now Katie Couric have decided that those things also mean stupid. Well, that's great. You know, I'm pretty smart, I think. But I want to be skinny and pretty. And I wear sparkly earrings and pink sweaters and write with sparkly gel pens just because their pretty, even though they're awful to take notes with, and I giggle a lot, and I love Hilary Duff, and I judge people on the basis of how they're dressed and how they look, and whatever. And I have a BA in mathematics from Berkeley and I'm working on a PhD and I have the highest grades in my classes, so fuck off Katie Couric and Seventeen Magazine and most of all Pink, because I'm probably smarter than all of you.

PS: The funniest thing I ever saw on the Today show involved a similar hypocrisy. They'd just done a bit about anorexia and body image and all that. And then next they had Katie Couric interviewing Meryl Streep, and Katie told Meryl that she looked really good, and she was wearing skinny jeans, or something like that. The interview had been taped before hand, so when they showed Katie live after that she was completely embarassed, and said something about how sorry she was for that, and how we really need to change conceptions and social norms or whatever. But she's not doing that, and that's the real problem.

Okaybye.

2006-04-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

This was the description on my DVR of last night's 24:
"Jack reinforces the importance of finding the terrorist conspirator."
That sums it up perfectly, no?

PS: President Assface, we hardly knew you!

2006-03-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is a class I plan on taking next quarter.

The topic is "Mathematical modeling of cancer". The course will introduce the students to cutting-edge research in cancer modeling and expose them to a wide variety of mathematical tools. These tools are not specific to cancer modeling and can be used in a great variety of research areas.

The course will combine elements of mathematical modeling, dynamical systems and applied stochastic processes. The instructor will give introduction to all these topics. We will talk about cancer initiation and progression, dangerous mutations, Darwinean selection acting upon cells, chromosomal instability, stem cells, and treatment of cancer. The course will be based on Komarova's book, "Computational biology of cancer: lecture notes and mathematical modeling".

I know, it sounds really cool, until you get to this part:

The only prerequisites are undergraduate Ordinary Differential Equations and Probability.

Ooh. I have taken undergrad probability, and got very little out of it (for an instant I thought maybe I'd double major in math and stats, until I took probability and realized that statistics is boring). As for ODEs, I've spent most of my infant mathematical career getting heart palpitations at the mention of differential equations, so I think I'm going to sit in on the lower division course on diff eqs this quarter and pretend I'm a freshman again. Rock.

2006-03-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

One of my calculus students wrote this on their final exam. Anyone know what it says?

2006-03-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend just hooked up his Super Nintendo. Goodbye Spring Break.

2006-03-23T11:29:00.000-08:00

Meme stolen from Debbie who stole it from Lydia:

Think of your favorite underrated film, type the name into Google and do an image search. Find the best pic, post it in your journal, and have your friends guess the movie.

This is actually my new number one favorite movie. OMG, so awesome.

2006-03-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

WHOOOOO!!!!!!!! Done with finals! Spring break! Party! WHOOOOO.

PS: My plan of action for the evening is to watch Party of 5 and grade a bunch of calculus exams. I know, I know, I won't go *too* crazy.

2006-03-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

"Terrorists are threatening to kill a couple people! We have no choice but to declare martial law on the entire city of Los Angeles!"

"Oh my god! You're right!"

You'd think that as emotionally unstable as I already am, I don't really need to put myself through the weekly trauma that is watching 24. Oh god.

2006-03-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

You know, they say people drive too much in Southern California, or that too much of the land here is taken up by sprawling parking lots. I don't know, I just don't see it.
This is one of two reserved parking spots outside a McDonalds across the parking lot from the Pick Up Stix where I get dinner occasionally.

2006-03-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

One of my calculus students' quizzes. For that record, that is totally not the right answer.

2006-03-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

I have digital cable, with that neat-o program guide with descriptions of all the shows that are gonna be on. Sometimes these descriptions leave something to be desired, like "The lives of four boys in South Park, Colorado." But the description of tonight's episode of 24 was spot on.

"President Logan muddles his way through more intense decisions."

Cary's observation was that Mike Novick has never missed David Palmer more than when they were talking to Laura Palmer's dad tonight (that's a different Palmer). Logan is such a fabulous president.

2006-03-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not at school, because it's wet and my pants were wet and I hate my algebra professor and I feel like I have a grip on metric spaces, and there's a guy from Cox coming at 4 to see why my internet's all wacky, and I would have had to rush home to meet him, and I wasn't in the mood for that, or for being at school any more, so after going to school, wandering around and getting nothing accomplished, going to Panera with Beth and Tim, and dropping Beth-the-only-good-student-among-us off at MSTB, I had Tim give me a ride home. Now I'm going to go do some analysis problems out of the Rudin book, because I really am a good student, and I'm going to drink tea and maybe fall asleep. So there.

2006-02-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

Sucky sucky, crunch, get paid same day.

I love Craigslist.

2006-02-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Apparently one of my neighbors died, and we inherited this very cool china cabinet. The nice brothers-in-law just carried it in. As you can see, it is sitting in the middle of the living room, totally blocking the path from the computer or bedroom to the kitchen or front door. Obviously not a path we use very often. It looks quite heavy, but we still need to decide where to put it and then clear said space of all our crap. See, someone says to you, hey, do you want this free gigantic china cabinet, and you think, Hell yes! And then you think, hey, you're two people living in a one bedroom apartment and you already have no room to put your stuff already, plus you have no china. And then you rationalize, OMG you can put stuff IN the china cabinet. Aside from the china! So I'm really excited about this. I just need some time when I'm not avoiding doing math (like now) that I can devote to actually putting shit in this thing. Ha.

PS: We also got a big tall stand-up lamp that needs a new bulb. Also, I moved the cabinet out of the walkway all by myself, because I am a big strong hero.

2006-02-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

A few minutes ago a poured myself a bowl of cereal, and so I opened a box of Ralph's brand raisin bran which I've had for a long time but hadn't gotten to. OMG, there were no raisins in it. Not just not very many...none at all. It's conceivable they all sifted to the bottom of the box, but I rifled through the box quite a bit and didn't find a one. I feel like I should get some kind of prize for this.

PS: I wound up eating Joe's O's instead (which I think should be called Trader O's, but who am I?).

2006-02-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

Back from Stitches West 2006, and now have many more things I want to do that I don't have time for. Got some hot pink ribbon yarn I want to make a shirt out of, maybe this one (but I'm still open to suggestions). Also got a whole bunch of roving, as I learned how to knit with roving without spinning it, so I'm excited about that. But most importantly, I met a woman who will spin Sweet Pea's fur into yarn, so that is just incredibly cool.

Northern California was beautiful and cold, as always. Here are some of the beautiful snow-capped mountains surrounding Silicon Valley.

But wait! NorCal has *nothing* on the snow! So I'm driving and driving and driving through the central valley, and then get into the mountains on the northern edge of LA County, and as I'm approaching the Tejon pass, I turn a curve and think, wow, the snow on those mountains is a lot lower than it was two days ago. And then it started raining lightly, and I thought, wow, that rain is coming horizontally but it's not that windy. And then I stopped at a rest stop and realized, OMG! It's snowing! Whee! You can't see the snow in the picture, obviously, but trust me, it's there. And then I drove for another hour into the San Fernando Valley where it was 60 and sunny, so that was nice too.

PS: Google is curling today!

2006-02-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

George Michael watches Veronica Mars! And oh my god, the bond company stooge!

Goodbye, Arrested Development. Thanks for two and a half glorious seasons.

(And you can go to hell, Fox.)

PS: I forgot to mention this....Tobias is a knitter! Whee!

2006-02-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

There was a homicide at my apartment complex last Sunday night. Now, I haven't found comprehensive crime statistics, but in 2004 I believe there were a total of 2 homicides in the city of Irvine. Last year Irvine was ranked as the safest large city (over 100,000 people) in America. This was almost certainly the first homicide in this city this year, judging by the list of press releases by the Police Department this year. And it happened here at Parkwest, clearly the most ghetto place in Irvine. This place rocks.

2006-02-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday there was a career fair at my school. Now, I'd been to career fairs at Berkeley before, but let me tell you, Irvine knows how to put on a career fair. It was like a corporately branded halloween. My harvest is pictured and inventoried below.

I got:
16 pens
2 mechanical pencils
1 sharpie
4 highlighters (including one from HSBC. Hi Jim!)1 combo highlighter *and* pen
2 pads of post-it notes
1 ruler
6 keychains (including 2 carribeaners and 2 bottle openers)
1 mini stapler (with blue staples! And attached staple remover!)
2 boxes of mints
1 light-up noise making bouncy ball
2 bars of soap
4 squishy toys (1 red ball, 1 giant golf ball, 1 planet earth, 1 car)
2 buttons (including one with a light-up thing!)
1 set of blocks (these were from Microsoft. I'm not sure what they're for, but it's not like they needed to convince people to come to their booth. Suited business majors were lined up waiting to give Microsoft their resumes)
1 magnetic memo board
1 keyboard wrist pad
1 t-shirt
1 insulated cup holder
1 plastic water bottle
2 frisbees
1 shopping bag (which was very necessary. We filled up the dinky little plastic career center bags in a few minutes)
1 North American pocket road atlas (that was from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the only place I saw that I'd actually be interested in working for)
and finally, 100,000,000 pamphlets and fliers.

2006-01-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Oh, so much going on today. First of all, there's this headline in the cnn.com sidebar: Hussein trial erupts in 'whore' insult, expulsions

Second, there's this mother and baby who were killed in Boston, Rachel and Lilian Entwistle.
Is this child not the yelling emoticon from AIM?

Third, I finished watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers this morning. That was hands down the most offensive movie I've ever seen in my life. It sucked, for one thing, which a bunch of lame songs and only one good dancing scene. But the song Debbie told me about which caused me to need to see the movie is Sobbin' Women, where the men plot in song to kidnap a bunch of women to take as brides, like the Romans took the Sabine women, and how they'll be all upset about it at first, but then they'll come around to the idea. But the thing is, this plan actually works. I mean, this movie was made in 1954, but even back then I feel that people should have universally understood that abducting women is not charming, you know? Anyway, Julie Newmar and Russ Tamblyn were in it, so that's cool.

2006-01-20T18:12:00.000-08:00

Cohen taking a nap, per Debbie's request.

2006-01-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so a few months ago I took my parakeet Cohen to Petco to have his wings clipped, and I had to wait around for a while and there were dogs in the store and stuff and I didn't think about covering his cage, so he was all freaked out, and then when the woman took him to clip his wings, he got all freaked out and dropped some of his feathers. The woman was really apologetic, but she said that that is just something that birds do sometimes and he'll be okay. So I took the feathers and I bought him a bunch of presents and treats and took him home and he's happy and cute again, and best of all he's regrown the beautiful long tail feathers that fell out.

Second best of all are the earrings I made with the feathers.

2006-01-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

All right, I'm not going to say anything spoilery about last night's 24 because I know Jim hasn't watched it yet. But I have to say these things: 1) I love Chloe. 2) The anchor on the Fox News Channel was John Beard, of the local Fox 11 News Team in Los Angeles and the fictional Fox 6 News Team in Newport Beach. That was very exciting for me.

PS: The fictional Fox 6 News Team in Newport Beach is the news on Arrested Development, because in the real Newport Beach they watch Fox 11, same as in LA, and they still watch John Beard, except I'm sure he doesn't say funny things like "It's called a cup-uh-kino and wait'll you see what it costs." Hence the link on fictional to a site about Arrested Development. And hence my excitement, because the guy on Arrested Development was on 24 last night. You think I watch the local news on Fox? When I have cable? Please. You know, I go for subtlety and it just flies back in my face.

2006-01-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

So it appears that I am now the only girl taking Math 280, Logic (there are only 4 guys taking it, so this is not a huge thing, you know). Also, and I'm not sure of this as I've only made a few casual observations, but I do believe I'm the only one in the class who takes notes using a pink sparkle gel pen. Weird.

2006-01-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

First day of class...on the PCH in Laguna Beach. Matthew! This is Catalina!

2006-01-05T19:19:00.000-08:00

Things I'm looking forward to this coming quarter:
1. An office, hopefully (maybe even with internet!)
2. No ballet (actually, I mean no class at 8:30 three days a week)
3. Knowing from the start that I hate Prof. R**** so much that I must never ever participate in lecture.
4. Day 5.
5. My new hot pink backpack.

2006-01-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It's cold and rainy here, and I have not left my apartment in two days, but that's just fine by me. I have been busy with my pictures, though. Jim!!!), and at Beth's request I made a mix CD of songs I really like to share with her and Tim. Here's the playlist:
1. Patti Smith - Gloria
2. Veruca Salt - My Sharona
3. The Faint - Posed to Death
4. Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
5. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Frenzy
6. Queen - Killer Queen
7. Connie Stevens - Sixteen Reasons
8. Beyonce and Jay-Z - Crazy in Love
9. The Raincoats - Lola
10. Mazzy Star - Halah
11. David Bowie - Queen Bitch
12. Tom Jones and Art of Noise - Kiss
13. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand
14. Iggy Pop - Nazi Girlfriend
15. Sonic Youth - Superstar
16. Cat Power - Satisfaction
17. PJ Harvey - Nickel Under the Foot
18. Belle and Sebastian - Marx and Engels
19. Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkeley Dreams
20. David Bowie - Time

I had to cut a lot, obviously, to make it under 74 minutes, but I'm very excited to have kept Crazy in Love, a song which I hope I never ever get sick of.

And now here are some Christmas picture highlights.

The elusive Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square at Disneyland.

We saw the pardoned turkeys at Disneyland, too. One is pictured below.

We had a white Christmas morning in Dana Point (fog is white).

And finally, this is my beautiful Cohen, taken when he was napping a bit just a few minutes ago. The flash woke him up when I tried to get closer, and now he's eating. Birdie!

2005-12-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday Afternoon Dog Blogging! I know, what a change. This is Rocky. He lives with the family across the street from my mom, and on Thanksgiving he was hanging out in our backyard while her family was out of town. He is such a sweetheart, really.

2005-12-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

I love gmail's new RSS feeds. I put Boing Boing in mine, and I just got this super link.

Joseph Goebbels's Nazi swing band
"They're not half bad in a crazy, heavily accented, vitriolic and utterly reprehensible way."

I'm so excited. I'm going to work out now (OMG I know! But finals are over and I have a bridesmaid dress to look good in in just over a week) and then I have a lot of downloading to do.

2005-11-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

"I hear the jury's still out on science."

For those of you who aren't watching Arrested Development, please, you must change your ways.

2005-11-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

Return of Friday Night Cat Blogging!
The arm on the right belongs to my grandmother, and the red and white thing in the corner is her birthday cake. The fluffy thing with glowing coals for eyes on the left is Sweet Pea, and apparently she wants some cake.

So a few things are transpiring all at the same time. 1) Last week I went home to San Diego and my car had been acting up so I left it at the dealer to get a new water pump or something (because why have my car serviced in Irvine when there's a perfectly good service place 90 miles away?) and so I need to go back to San Diego (or "The SD", as Beth today referred to it) this weekend to get my car. 2) My mother is going out of town tomorrow until Monday for a business trip. 3) Sweet Pea is peeing all over the goddamn house, and so she went to the vet last weekend who thought she might have a urinary tract infection. Well, the results came back, and physically she's fine, so we're thinking that all the stress and everything of the recent months is getting to her.

So when I was talking to my mother today, she says, "are you spending the night tomorrow night when you come home?"

Me: "No, I don't think so."

Her: "Oh. Well, would you? So that you can keep Sweet Pea company?"

Oh man. So this weekend is cat-bonding time. Also studying for algebra.

2005-11-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Guess what! I just, for the very first time, watched The OC....*in* the OC! Whoo!

Best line: "I hear Berkeley's nice. Very pretty girls, too." Debbie! The Peter thinks we're pretty!

Second best line: "Ryan Atwood: fluffer." OMG.

Best line of the preview for next week: "Ryan, try not to punch out Summer."

Ah, yes, I love this show. Yay for stupid baseball finally being over.

2005-10-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Update: I Love the 80s in 3D is *actually in 3D*. And, you won't believe this, I actually have 3D glasses lying around. (Incidently, I got them from Comic Con 3 years ago when I saw the funniest cartoon of all time with Spike and Mike's.) So I just got to watch Hal Sparks yell "Rail Gun" in a Chewbacca voice in 3D. Mmm.

Speaking of updates, at the time that I reviewed the new baja fruits flavor of Starburst, I had no idea that they were actually *replacing* the far superior California fruits variety with this new mediocre at best batch. So that sucks. I also saw some other candy with a baja type flavor, but I can't remember what it was. I don't know when Baja California replaced Alto as the hip flavor location; I enjoy a fish taco as much as anyone, but I have no idea what a dragonfruit is. I just want my California Fruits back, is all.

2005-10-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

I love Hal Sparks in 3D.

2005-10-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Say hello to my little friend, Cohen.

2005-09-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

I win!

You Are A: Kitten!

Cute as can be, kittens are playful, mischevious, and ever-curious. Like you, kittens hate getting wet. Kittens are often loving, but are known to scratch or bite when annoyed. These adorable animals are the most popular pets in the United States--37% of American households have at least one cat. Whether it is your gentle purr or your disarming appearance, you make a wonderful kitten.

You were almost a: Lamb or a Bunny
You are least like a: Turtle or a Puppy What Cute Animal Are You?

2005-09-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Oh my god! I'm still here!

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on Intelligent Design:

It says, "You know those damn theoretical gaps and conundrums that send microbiology graduate students into dank basement laboratories at 3 a.m.? They don't need to be resolved at all. Go back to bed, sleepy little grad students. God fills those gaps."

This could potentially make the next bunch of years of my life a good lot easier. :D

2005-07-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

A math professor in the Philippines has disproved Fermat's Last Theorem and been nominated for a Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the Grand Unified Theory. Impressive!

But wait! The tenacious journalistic talents of intrepid Filipino blogger Alecks Pabico have cast significant doubt on the veracity of this professor's claims.

There is so much I could say on all this, but it's all kind of apparent from these links. But this incident does deal a blow to the claim that bloggers aren't real journalists. Despite having no understanding of how trolls work, Alecks and his readers sure have a gread deal more journalistic credibility than, say, the Manila Times.

(Manila Times link from Snarkout.org. Others from Google.)

2005-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

There was a nice selection of images, but I liked the same one Debbie liked. (Runner up was "I am the Bell Curve.")

2005-07-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

For Matthew:

Now at the beginning of the 21st century, faced with scientific claims like neo-Darwinism and the multiverse hypothesis in cosmology invented to avoid the overwhelming evidence for purpose and design found in modern science, the Catholic Church will again defend human reason by proclaiming that the immanent design evident in nature is real. Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of "chance and necessity" are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence.

Okay, what *is* neo-Darwinism anyway, and are these scientific claims really invented to avoid evidence of purpose and design? This whole argument would be okay assuming that science really is trying to explain away the appearance of design. I don't know; I'm not a scientist; maybe it is. Hank will surely agree with me that inventing outrageous claims of your opponents and then arguing how wrong they are is really fun, but Hank and I don't then go around publishing op-ed pieces in the New York Times.

2005-06-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

I found a picture of my girlfriend on a Japanese fetish site the other day.

I'm not sure why, but this article left me feeling vaguely disturbed.

2005-06-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

Cat Blogging a little early this week:

Is this Sweet Pea?

Or is it Nicodemus from The Secret of NIMH?

2005-06-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a sign stood where the coffee pot once stood:

The coffee pot has been realigned to the BFM cubicle. We have doughnuts!

This is good news on many levels.
1) Michael and Brandi are the BFM people. Michael is the one who realigned the coffee pot. Happily, I sit in the same cubicle as them.
2) Brandi brought doughnuts (from Krispy Kreme!) so that if anyone protested the realignment of the coffee pot, they could just say, we have doughnuts! It worked very well.
3) Now I need only cross my cubicle, where I am comfortable, to get coffee. No more walking across the office and risking running into people with whom I am not comfortable and having to talk to them.
4) Also, I can keep an eye on how full the coffee pot is, and thus avoid taking the last cup and having to refill it.
5) Yesterday, I think 2 people not from my cubicle came and got coffee. Today it was maybe 3. When Kelley gets back from vacation, we will have 4 coffee drinkers residing in this cubicle, 100% of us, and thus I feel that we deserve to claim ownership of the coffee pot.
6) This may, in fact, result in me filling the coffee pot more often, because I do feel guilty about never doing it. But this way when I can't figure out how the damn thing works, I'll only look stupid in front of Michael, Brandi, and Kelley, who are all friendly and have done their share of looking stupid in front of me, rather than in front of my boss and a bunch of people I don't know.
7) I'm happy about this development.

2005-06-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I discovered a new flavor of Starburst, so I had to try it. The best package is, obviously, the California fruits, both in terms of taste and colors of the wrappers (important when you're, say, making a bracelet out of folded wrappers). This new package is a similar blue of the California fruits, but it is, in fact, *Baja* California fruits. Oooh. The new flavors are as follows:

Limon: Rather similar to lemon flavored Starburst, but a bit punchier. The wrapper is a nice bright green. Just as I tend to avoid the lemon Starburst but will eat them if pressed, I do not savor the taste of the limon.

Strawberry Watermelon: Quite good. Again, kind of like the pink ones in the original Starburst pack, but with some punch. It starts off mild but when you bite into it there's a good burst of flavor. The wrapper is a very satisfying pink. Not quite hot pink, but a lot more punk-rock than the original Starburst pink.

Baja Dragonfruit: It definitely gets points for its exotic sounding name. The wrapper is a very nice deep sky blue, and the candy itself is that beautiful blue with just a tinge of turquoise that only substances consisting largely of corn syrup can achieve. The taste is a bit strange, and there's something I can't put my finger on (the dragonfruit, I suppose). It's fairly off-putting, but does provide a change from the other flavors. It's definitely worth a try.

Aztec Punch: I wonder whether the Aztecs ever settled in Baja California. The red one is usually my favorite in a Starburst pack, but this flavor disappoints. It's not far off from the traditional cherry chew, but with a lasting acidic flavor, like Kool-aid with not enough sugar. The picture on the package indicates that this punch contains cherries and mango. I don't taste the mango, for what it's worth. The color, too, is disappointing, a washed-out, slightly pinkish red. It's not a bad chew; it's probably better than the Dragonfruit, definitely better than Limon, but it gets surpassed by the pink and doesn't live up to its status as the red one.

In all, this is not a bad package of Starburst. It does not live up to the Alto California pack, either in color or taste, but, really, what could? On both counts, overall, it is superior to both the original flavors and that green one, tropical, I think. I actually really like the wrapper colors in this one. They're not as bold as California, but they're so nice and bright, they would make a lovely bracelet. I give the package a B.

2005-06-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Cat Blogging:

She actually shoots lasers from her eyes. (Click on the picture to get the full effect.)

2005-06-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

OMG, this site makes me so happy.

2005-06-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

In his review of the new Robert Rodriguez film The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, Roger Ebert includes the main credits of the film, some of which I found interesting.

Sharkboy (age 5): Rebel Rodriguez
Sharkboy (age 7): Racer Rodriguez
Lug: Rocket Rodriguez
Written by Racer and Robert Rodriguez

Apparently, Robert Rodriguez's children are named Rebel, Racer, and Rocket. That is almost as cool as Moxie CrimeFighter.

2005-06-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, now that I'm a day removed from it, now maybe I can share the newest reason why I hate Mark Morford. For telling anorexic girls they're ugly. Among other things. Dude.

It's more than just the usual bizarre admixture of magazine ads and media spectacle and celebrity whoredom that makes them want, at all costs, to appear completely bedraggled and curveless and perpetually expressionless and completely unsexy and looking like meth-addicted mannequins with bleached teeth and flat-ironed eyelashes and stapled stomachs and dry, brittle spines and totally cute shoes.

2005-06-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

In the new issue of Bookslut, one of the features is a Translator's Roundtable, that begins,

Most of us English speakers are too lazy, busy or stultified to read Goethe, Gogol, Kafka, and Mishima in their original languages.

I'd just like to point out that I have read Goethe and Kafka in their original languages, and I haven't even disdained to read Gogol or Mishima in English, so that's pretty cool. I also like that the Austrian translator's name is Wortsman.

2005-06-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is the cutest picture of Sweet Pea that has ever been taken.

Well, okay, this one is close.

2005-06-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have a hard time wrapping their head aroud the idea that Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks?

2005-06-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

The excitement here never ends. Lunchtime brought me to the fourth annual PMW 160 Chili Cook-off. I'd never been to a chili cook-off, so it was quite a thing. The cook-off was organized by the sister of the girl who sits in the next corner of this cubicle, and her mother won. I only tried two of the chilis, but the mother's was really quite exceptional. There was also a cornbread cookoff, and again, I only tried two, but the sister's blueberry stuff was pretty good, but it only won second place. I also snagged a couple of peanut butter cups for later, so I'm excited about that.

In other news, I hate Mark Morford (oh wait, that's not news, but I still hate him). But what I do like in the chronicle today is this story, and especially the little picture that goes along with it.

2005-06-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

This from a NYT article today about Post-Partum Depression:

Ten to 20 percent of women experience a serious depression within weeks or months of giving birth, but fewer than one woman in five is treated for it.

Having studied mathematics at Berkeley, I can tell you that ten to 20 percent is, in fact, fewer (or equal to) than one in five. So that seems good.

2005-06-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

Excitement! The fire alarm just went off, so we all got to go stand outside and muster. It was a bit cold, because it's overcast and breezy, and because of that I didn't bring a jacket or sweater because the temperature inside my office is inversely proportional to the temperature outside. But now I'm back in the comfortably warm office, with a nice big cup of coffee with the Special Edition Toffee Nut creamer, courtesy of Brandi, who sits over there, and the creamer is really quite tasty.

2005-06-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

For all of you who pay taxes to the U.S. government, I am now blogging on your dime. Thank you.

2005-06-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Isn't this guy adorable?

2005-05-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Wookiee Army!!!1!

2005-05-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud of my boys!

May Day

Another quiz result

2005-03-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Cool. This was exactly the result I wanted. In the question that asked what my favorite die was, I wanted to answer 6, but that wasn't a choice.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a good old-fashioned six-sided cube, otherwise known as a d6. Others know you to be plain, predictable, conservative, average, ordinary, and downright boring. You prefer to describe yourself as dependable, honest, practical and trustworthy. People usually know what to expect from you, since you rarely hold any surprises. You hate to make decisions, and if forced to decide, you'll always fall back on how it was done in the past. You always order the same thing at your favorite restaurant, and your jokes, while funny, are never too offensive. It seems that you are well liked, but maybe that's simply because there's nothing to hate.

But let's have another little math rant, shall we? It's not nitpicking, it's just some expansion of ideas brought up. Here's a bit of the disclaimer from this quiz:
"Despite the mind-boggling complexity of mankind, the billions of distinctly different personalities found on Earth can easily be divided into seven simple categories that correspond to the five Platonic solids, a pseudo polyhedron, and whatever the hell a d100 is."

The five Platonic solids, of course, are the 5 possible 3-dimensional regular polyhedra, the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosahedron. In n-dimensions for n>3, there are only 3 possible n-dim polyhedra, generalizations of the tetrahedron, dodecahedron, and octahedron. Isn't that interesting? A 100-sided die is conceivable, but it wouldn't be regular (all of its sides and angles wouldn't be congruent to each other), which would kind of ruin its purpose as a die.

Today my friend showed me a die her dad gave her that you don't roll, you just smack it on your hand and the digital screen on top randomly picks a number from 1-6. It's pretty cool, and one of those things that make you wonder if technology is ever going to come up with something useful again.

2005-03-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Elite Phile Dork
You scored 96%!

You really know your shit. Like me (the writer of the test) you
probably spent most of the show's nine year run hanging out on X Files
message boards, surfing for spoilers and rewatching episodes. You know
all of the episode names and like every single bit of inane trivia. You
probably even shelled out the ridiculous amounts of cash required for
the DVD sets, maybe wrote some fan fiction or have gotten into a heated
arguments over the mytharc. You can probably guess what season an
episode or picture is from by Mulder and Scully's hair and can guess
which episode you are watching merely from viewing 30 seconds of it. If
I don't know you already, message me because we should be friends.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 89% on Phile Points

Link: The X Files Dork Test written by nerbieQpants on Ok Cupid

2005-02-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday, Hank!

2004-09-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here, help me out.

Wired says it's legit, I swear to god!

Okay, I just noticed that the link format is really ugly and will have to change, but not now because I'm going to meet the U1D crew for coffee then produce! Hooray!