BTW I’m Back
Wednesday, May 12th, 2004Tags: In Progress, Story of my Life
I went home on Thursday for Mother’s Day. Purchased all sort of fun things, including Powerpuff Girl bandaids and a poofy dress with strawberries on it. I also managed to pick up a couple books on some really nerdy topics like science and grammar (1 2 3 4 5), and two pairs of shoes which both happen to be very KillBillesque. In essence, I’m a shopping machine! That’s what happens when you don’t buy anything for an entire 8 months and then suddenly end up downtown with a credit card. I feel like Brittany Murphy must have felt right after meeting Alicia Silverstone.
The weekend was quite a success, as I also managed to study, read, not screw up my Mother’s Mother’s Day Brunch, bring back my guitar, consume goat’s meat, find a job (sort of) and nearly complete my latest knitting project. It’s red and navy, à la FC Bayern München, my soccer team of choice. Hopefully my efforts will affect their success in upcoming matches.
On a final note, I discovered a fantastic site a few days ago which was immensely hard to avoid blogging. This is the kind of thing you have to save for the right moment; I sense the time has come. You will understand what I mean when you click on this (IE only) link. Yes.
UPDATE, May 16, 2004: I’ve gotten the site to work in Firefox and such! For some reason, none of my browsers had anything associated with audio/x-wav MIME types, and no matter what I did to change that it just wouldn’t play. So I reinstalled Quicktime hoping it would worm its way into my browsers and it worked. Good ol’ Quicktime.
Before I go, here’s a little game care of camel-face: On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing), and write down your favorite line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line. Then have your friends comment and see if they know the songs.
- She’s dressed in yellow, she says “hello, come sit next to me, you fine fellow.”
- She is my lover from the heart of Africa, like no other, Princess of Nigeria
- And I had no cause to doubt you! [distorted by lollin']
- Do you believe that I never see what you’re doing to me?
- Give her a lonely heart like Harlehatschi, and not so wavy hair like Liberace.
- Ooing and Aahing. Very Airy oohing and aahing. Very high frequency oohing and aahing, close to 10,000 Hz or so. Hint hint.
- Alright, I’d really rather not have to hint at ever instrumental song on my list. It’s Amon Tobin. Donga. Cheers.
- Back with another one of those [name withheld]
- We ain’t waffles! We ain’t havin’ it! [I'm so glad this one got on the list. Brilliant.]
- Another instrumental. Tomoyasu Hotei’s Battle Without Honour or Humanity.
- And so he hid inside a doggy from Madrid… [Dog Content!]
- What comes around goes ’round and came back to me
- PT Barnum said it so long ago: there’s one born every minute, that you know.
- Fellas, I’m ready to get up and do my thing!
- Iiiiiii’ve waited here for you…
- Now it’s time to choose, no one has to lose, when it could be right, now maybe there’s some hope in sight, ooh baby, ooh baby, ooh.
- Have another sweet my dear, don’t try to talk my dear, your tiny little mouth is full.
- Now don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it feel good?
- Well I get up at seven, yey, and I go to work at ni-ine!
- Too much fighting on the dance floor. [The wacky hooting is actually the best part of this song, although I doubt I could count it as lyrics.]
For the record, Bring Da Pain by Mindless Self Indulgence is coming up soon, and the lyrics (originally by Method Man) are worth checking out. MM’s last line is “I’ll fuckin’ cut your eyelids off and feed you nuthin’ but sleepin’ pills.” Hard to the Core.
That IE only link seems to work in Mozilla. Unless his lips are animated to the words. ‘Cause I can’t see that.
PS: sort of, indeed.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 4:02 am
I just googled for I Hate Studying and I got your site.
Comment by ShashiMay 12, 2004 @ 11:45 am
That’s because I hate studying.
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 2:04 am
1. bust a move
Comment by kellyMay 12, 2004 @ 2:30 am
The Gleick book is over-rated, as is Eats Shoots and Leaves. For a better introduction to chaos and complexity theory, google up the “Principia Cybernetica”. For writing advice, Strunk and White and the MLA are the definitive guides, and all else is derivative.
The Feynman book is neat, but lacks much scientific content. I much prefer his collections of short essays and addresses. His collected lectures on physics have been proclaimed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread by a pal of mine more attentive to the subject than I am. You can google up most of the essays if you look, and they’re worth it.
GEB is brilliant, though one ought to keep in mind that it is not as balanced as it first appears. Hofstadter wants to argue in favour of eliminative materialism, and he presents a brilliant form of it, but there are a number of problems in his account that have yet to be resolved (possibly these are dealt with in Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies – I’m borrowing it off of Koves once he’s done with it).
Hawking is Hawking. If you’ve taken a class in relativity, you know most of what’s dealt with in the book. I suggest picking up Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, which is similarly pop-science, but deals with string theory and is a little better at dropping names so one knows where to look after one is done.
Comment by The RevMay 12, 2004 @ 2:33 am
I bought them because I felt like it. The Gleick book was recommended by Bob MacDonald so I figured I’d give it a chance for 5 bucks. I bought the Feynman book because he’s an interesting character, not because I want to read his theories. If I did, I’d have bought his published lectures, wouldn’t I? A housemate recommended reading the Hawking book, and I thought the panda book would be fun. Stop acting so high and mighty, it’s tiring.
5 points for Kelly!
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:09 am
I’m too lazy to link with html, but here is a site where you can get the Picard song, and the Worf song, along with others.
http://hjem.wanadoo.dk/~wan13237/
And I recommend vol. 3 of the Feynman lectures.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:40 am
I can’t seem to get the song to work in Netscape or Firefox. So Mozilla browsers are out. And let’s face it, no one cares about Opera.
Zing!
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:44 am
It works in Mozilla. I used Mozilla to listen. That’s not entirely true. As Mozilla loads it in-browser in Quicktime, but I’m using Mozilla nonetheless.
But I recommend saving the mp3s. There’s gold.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:47 am
And was that a veiled insult of Norway?
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:50 am
Is Opera Norwegian?
Double-zing, then.
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:52 am
Wow. You insult my love of opera, and my love of Norway, in a handy concise way. Well done.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:54 am
You know I mean the browser, right?
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:56 am
Apparently not. It insulted me too well.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 3:58 am
And, yes, everyone is talking about me.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 4:20 am
Hey turn around, someone’s pointing and laughing at you. They all are. ALL OF THEM.
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 4:25 am
sweet. 5 points. what can i redeem them for?
Comment by kellyMay 12, 2004 @ 5:13 am
I’m going to go with mirth. You can have all the mirth you want.
Is no one else going to play my game?
GAME!
Comment by EveMay 12, 2004 @ 7:56 am
Game? I’m sorry. I’m confused and hungry and have been wandering the city looking for anyone who’ll listen.
Comment by DaveMay 12, 2004 @ 8:05 am
Would six be “Radian” by Air? I’m too musically isolated to know any of the others.
Comment by DaveMay 13, 2004 @ 12:38 pm
Close. Caramel Prisoner.
Comment by EveMay 13, 2004 @ 1:20 am
Wow. I am completely humbled, then.
Comment by DaveMay 13, 2004 @ 1:55 am
I’d play but I don’t know any of them.
Also I’m still downloading all of my music onto my new computer, so it’ll be awhile until I can do this.
Comment by FraserMay 13, 2004 @ 2:41 am
HA Dave! Those songs are awesome!
P.S. It sort of works in safari.
Comment by RizMay 15, 2004 @ 8:09 am
‘godel, escher, bach’ has been on my shelf for the last year and a half. when i’m feeling up to it, i’ll crack ‘er open and read a few pages, but it takes quite a while, and i’m pooped at the end of it.
yes. pooped. from a book.
it’s my life’s goal to finish the damn thing, though.
-jt.
Comment by jtMay 16, 2004 @ 6:14 am
JT, who are you?
Comment by EveMay 16, 2004 @ 6:21 am