Syaffolee

Thursday, July 31, 2003

The Echo Chamber

However, blogging can have a downside [called] a "clustering effect," where people only link to like-minded sites, creating "an echo chamber." --From Welcome to their Worlds (via Kalilily.net)

Actually, linking to unlike-minded sites is pretty easy.

The hard thing is commenting on them without sounding like you're barging into a clique-y conversation as a raving idiot. Whenever I encounter a new, interesting blog, I'm very hesitant to comment. Usually I read a while before I work up the nerve to say anything. This is because I know people aren't like me. I'm always happy to get comments (whether the commenters agree with me or not is irrelevant), but that doesn't mean that other people are.

I'm more comfortable with sites that have a small to non-existent following. But maybe this comfort is part of my egoism; I'm a lot more confident that what I say will be read by the blogger. On sites that have a large core following, I am most likely not to comment. Sometimes it's because I feel lost in the shuffle, that everyone will ignore me as the stupid outsider. And other times, I don't want to look like a has-been who's desperately trying to look cool.

Naturally, I think about the comments on this site. It would be outright lying if I said I didn't care, but I'm not going to alter my writing habits just to garner conversation. But I do wonder: why do people comment on some posts and not others? Are some posts more interesting than others? Do I sound like an idiot or a pretentious ass in the posts that don't get any comments? Or are the posts so self-contained that commenting on them would be merely extraneous?

Is the right audience not finding me? I have no idea what my "right" audience is. Maybe it doesn't exist. But the audience that does exist is linked intimately with the blogroll--which admittedly are filled with people who at first glance are as unlike me as you can get. Of course, I could fill my blogroll with the sites of other students, but how interesting is it to read about college life and academia all the time?

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:08 PM : 0 comments ]

The Thursday Threesome: Three Dog Night

Onesome: Three- Lucky happenings are supposed to come in threes... What else comes in triplets and trios in your experience?

In my experience, there are no lucky numbers.

As an aside, three seems to be a very prevalent number if not exactly lucky. Religions especially like to co-op the number. In Christianity, there is the Holy Trinity. Pagans like to think of another type of trinity: the maiden, the mother, and the crone (which in turn are personifications of the Fates.) People like to think in threes for some reason. Past, present, future. Father, mother, child. Red, yellow, blue.

Why couldn't we have thought of a different number as "lucky"? We're inherently symmetrical: two eyes, two hands, two feet. We have ten fingers and ten toes. What about four-leaf clovers? Why not 167?

Twosome: Dog- Dogs and cats... Got a preference? ...and how about pedigree vs pound puppies/kittens? What do you think?

I like cats. Dogs are nice too, but if I had to live with one or the other, I would pick cats because they don't demand as much attention and they seem to fit my temperament better. Besides, they're cuter. Most likely I'd go to the pound and get an adult cat rather than a kitten or a pedigree.

Threesome: Night- Hey, do you ever do a Sports Night and head out to watch a local team/event? What draws you out? Is it baseball, football, hockey, racing, lacrosse?

Sports is evil. I never understood some people's fervent religiosity towards the whole thing. This is coming from a person who had to sit in the rain in a stuffy band uniform watching football players dance around like ballerinas on the fifty yard line. I've had close encounters with screaming mobs of students and heard old alumni discussing the newest game as if it was the only thing in the world worth talking about.

So yeah, if someone invited me to a sports night, I would think up of excuses to not go. If those don't work, I'll run the other way.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:51 AM : 0 comments ]

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Darwinian Poetry. Interesting concept, but I wouldn't say that this is Darwinian. There's nothing natural about the selection. I'd say it's more like breeding dogs or cattle. For animals, people pick out the offspring that has the traits that they desire despite whether or not it would survive in the environment. In "poetry", no word is intrinsically better than the other words. People just pick the words that they desire by "votes".

Museums Defend Fudge Factor. In one way, this completely annoys me. Why do museums have to stoop so low as to bribe people with chocolate to visit their exhibits? Do people not want to learn for the sake of learning anymore? Am I one of the rare people left who would still happily go to a museum if all they had were Neolithic artifacts behind glass cases?

Cyborg Liberation Front. One would think that the issue of rights for "post-humans" should be left up to the sci-fi pulp found at the local bookstore, but these people at Yale think it's an issue to be tackled today. It's a noble goal to try to hammer out all the ethics before technology catches up, but I can't help thinking that they'll have a hard time getting the general populace to accept it when people are still squabbling among themselves. Just a brief look at the news tells us we're still a long way from being accepting of anyone who is even slightly different--affirmative action, rights for gays, ethnic grievances and religious fanaticism, class elitism--the list just goes on. I'm just not sure that they will succeed if the majority of people continue to think in categorizations.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:02 PM : 0 comments ]

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocketful of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To put before the king?

The king was in the counting-house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird,
And bit her on the nose.

Maybe the blackbirds were tranquilized first before the cook put a crust over them. But why would they sing once they've awakened inside a pie? Well, none of it makes any sense, but I still like this nursery rhyme.

Something else:
Music 'makes the brain learn better'. I'm not so surprised that there was no improvement on visual memory. There were times that I faked my way through a recital by remembering how I played and not what I read in the music book. A former cello teacher called it "finger memory" when after many hours of practice, you just trust your hands to play the next phrase. As for correlating music lessons with improved analytical skill--maybe. Is it because musical kids are just more inclined to be academically successful because their parents care about that? Or does music really help the brain? Anyways, I guess now we know why we're all called "band nerds".

Seven deadly sins of web writing. This article was written for business websites, but I think it pretty much applies to anyone who is writing for the web.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:02 AM : 0 comments ]

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Chocolatada! This weblog is all about chocolate. Lots of interesting trivia. Like how the church used to think that chocolate was evil.

America Yawns at Foreign Fiction. This really sucks. There are a lot of awesome books out there that were originally written in a different language. This insular outlook in the publishing world will only make it harder for me, as a reader, to find these books. (But of course, the publishing world doesn't care about people like me--I'm not their average reader.)

Prime Numbers: What Science and Crime Have in Common. So these researchers think it's all about getting the chicks. Sorry, but no thanks. Sure, I'll be impressed, but even if a guy has ten Nobel prizes behind him, I don't think I'll marry him (or in the evolutionary psychology stand-point "have access to my reproductive resources") if he has the personality of a jar of mayonnaise. I have my own happiness to think about.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:44 AM : 0 comments ]

Monday, July 28, 2003

An Observational Aside

It's been a while since I've gone to the medical center. The medical center is part hospital and part research center, which to me, seems like two different worlds at odds with each other. On one side, there are the armies of doctors and nurses in lab coats and scrubs as well as the multitude of patients in wheelchairs. On the other side are the labs--which are kind of spooky if you know nothing about research because everything (from the hallways) looks clear and silent.

I went there today to speak with someone who was an expert at cell culture. We discussed mainly about the caveats on cell lines and human donors when using them for experiments. One thing that sparked my interest was the ethics of using human donors. One question was: what if you're doing some experiments using donor cells and then find out something weird about them? Do you go on about your experiments and just chalk it up to error, or do you really try to find out what's wrong and inform the donor? At any rate, there's supposed to be some class or seminar which discusses all these things.

The strange thing about this entire excursion, though, was at the very end, when I was waiting for the bus to take me back to campus. Almost everyone who passed by me during my wait was smoking in clear view of the hospital. This annoyed me to no end even when I knew that it is human nature to be contradictory.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:16 PM : 0 comments ]

Batman's Symphony No. 3

I've started listening to Mahler again. I've forgotten how overly dramatic and moody his music is. And for some reason, it also makes me think of brooding superheroes in black spandex standing on rooftops in the rain.

Oh no, don't get me wrong. I'm not making fun of Mahler or his music. A comparison between comic books and classical music is apt though. For anyone outside the fandoms, everything may appear overwrought and perhaps more than a little silly. However, comic book fans look past the pulp and the exaggerated drawings to examine the story beneath. A classical music enthusiast is the same way. Sure, there is the stuffy convention of wearing dress shoes and listening to the proverbial fat lady belting out Wagner's Ring Cycle, but someone who looks a bit deeper will see the thoughts and the psychoses of the composer.

What's so appealing about Mahler is that his music is so identifiable. He takes that innermost, darkest part of himself and reveals it for the world. Like an excellent thought-provoking novel, his symphonies give listeners the courage to look inside themselves and not be so afraid and ignorant of their "shadow" selves.

Of course, one doesn't have to be so over-analytical about these things either. Even as a comic fan can enjoy the latest comic book only for its drawings, I usually just sit back and enjoy the mixture of orchestral sounds.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:38 AM : 0 comments ]

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Living in Television Static

I'm on the fourth floor of one of the libraries at a desk next to the window. A couple yards away is a glass door leading out to a narrow brick balcony which rims the top of the building. Unfortunately, that wall obscures half of the view so only the tops of a few trees and the sky are visible.

It is the sky, however, that is slowly (and insidiously) driving me nuts. Right now, it's a uniform gray, but even just an hour before, it was white. Only white. I'd rather have those obnoxiously sunny days or when it's dark and raining, because even then the atmosphere isn't completely homogeneous.

A white sky is like living in television static: all sensory deprivation and mindlessness. It's one of those things that can make one into a gibbering and drooling fool. I want something to smell, touch, taste, hear, see. Sensing nothing goes against everything.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:22 PM : 0 comments ]

The Alarm Clock

Back when we were only hairy fledgling humanoids wandering around the African plain, hunting down whatever that moved and searching for edible plants, did we ever have that concept of time--that concept that we had to get up right about now so we could get things done? I assume life was a bit more idyllic then than the present, if only being concerned about your next meal could be considered that.

Today everything is so hectic, so required, that a rat race doesn't even begin to describe how life is. Perhaps a more accurate analogy would be that of automatons in a computing industry. We work like machines, getting things done at a specific time. We must continually upgrade as things get exponentially faster or we'll get dumped into the next landfill with the human equivalent of the Commodore 64.

We are only made of flesh and bone, though, and biological processes no matter how wondrous and strange have limitations due to their own complexity. We are not the simple little photons that go along happily at the speed of light, but we try to be that and more, ignoring all the way the warranty that comes with our bodies. Instead of trying to understand how people work so they could be outfitted with a compatible lifestyle, what we want overpowers reason and lifestyles are thrust upon us whether they fit us or not.

One prominent example is the clock. No one can argue that the clock didn't compartmentalize our lives. One can't argue either that the clock hasn't rearranged our days so that morning, noon, and night are no longer relevant. Who cares when the sun rises or sets when working shifts can begin at 2AM as well as 2PM. In theory, the clock may make us more efficient, but how many times do you remember sleeping in, trying to stay awake, falling asleep in the middle of a task? Probably too many times than you care to remember.

I don't propose that we go back to our willy-nilly ways of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It would undoubtedly wreak havoc on what we've built up now. What I do suggest is that we don't take such a breaking-all-limits approach to our lives. Challenge is good and even necessary to better ourselves, but we can't rely solely on that "clock" by setting that alarm earlier and earlier every day until we no longer get any sleep.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:34 AM : 0 comments ]

Unconscious Mutterings

Partner:: Do-si-do
Goddess:: Head
Village:: People
Relationships:: Sour
Irrational:: Fear
Volcano: Erupt
Fabulous:: Fashion
Unencumbered:: Hair
Coyotes:: Howl
Fulfilled:: Career

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:36 AM : 0 comments ]

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Maybe I Should Keep a List

One should feel guilty for something he or she has done wrong. But I don't think taking out the garbage is one of those things. If I'm going outside and I see that the trash happens to be full, I'm not going to just leave it there. I take it out so the garbage collectors can pick it up on their daily rounds. No if's, and's, or but's accepted.

Some people just aren't satisfied with anything.

* * *
Crazy Science Links:

Monkey clue to male sex appeal. So the BBC is making some hand-waving correlations from monkey behavior to human behavior. I'm not sure about other people, but I find that guys who are red in the face are either drinking too much or in a fit of temper--in other words, not very appealing.

Kansas Is Flatter Than a Pancake. Where are the freakin' controls?! They used just one pancake. How do they know that particular pancake is representative of all pancakes? They should have taken several pancakes from several different breakfast restaurants. They could have tested homemade pancakes too. This article would never hold up to peer review.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:55 PM : 0 comments ]

Update on Version 1.7

I managed to fix what was wrong with the Blogsnob ad this morning. It's still acting a little funny, but now I know why (even though at the moment I'm too lazy to tweak it some more). The background appears odd when comparing a regular monitor with an LCD, but then again, both of them always render things differently.

It looks okay on Windows 2000 and Windows XP; I'll probably test a Mac tomorrow. I want to see how it looks on Linux, but I don't know anybody who has access to one. As for browsers, it's fine on MSIE 5, MSIE 6, Netscape 7, Opera 7, and Mozilla Firebird 0.6; however, it looks like crap on Netscape 4.8 (I hope nobody's still using that one except to run particular applications--in my case, a biomolecular imaging program). I suspect this won't look good on other older browsers either, but most people aren't using them anyway.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:24 AM : 0 comments ]

Friday, July 25, 2003

Version 1.7

This one is called "I learned just enough css to be dangerous." The logo is in Dactylographe, 36 point. The rest of the blog is in the much maligned Times New Roman (used at the recommendation of Mezzoblue). The background pattern was borrowed from Squidfingers. Yes, I know the body is off-center. It's supposed to be that way. Otherwise, things haven't changed that much.

I guess it was a mixture of wanting to waste time on a Friday night and the typography article that spurred me to change the template. I liked the pale green color of the last design, but on certain monitors, it looked like the school mascot: the color pine green. I shouldn't be dissing the school mascot simply because it's a color and not an animal or a person, but well, it was the wrong shade. Besides, a change now and again would do one good.

Addendum: The Blogsnob ad is doing weird things. I have taken it off for now until I figure out how to fix it. Hopefully the people in charge of that isn't checking this site this week. Also, I have not checked the new layout in other browsers and operating systems yet. If anything looks weird, leave a note with a description of the error.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:49 PM : 0 comments ]

Vague Personal Lab Notes

Slowly, I've been settling down at the lab I've chosen to work in for my thesis. The last couple of weeks I've been reading too many papers to count and formulating The Project and making sure I have all my bases covered. Just the controls themselves make me want to cross my eyes. And like any other project, there is always an element of risk, that what you find might not be of any significance at all. That's why I have The Backup Project.

Recently, I've been trying to figure out what cell line to use. Of course, I found my answer in the primary literature. But for those of you who don't know about any cell lines let alone the famous HeLa cells or more controversial human stem cells, there's a whole list online at the Cell Line Database.

Rabid bioethicists can breathe a sigh a relief, though. The Project won't be using any sort of stem cells at all. This line is more akin to HeLa cells, although not really. I'll just say that these cells originally came from a 37-year-old Caucasian male during the 1970's. (I wonder who this guy really was, what he did, how he would feel about donating his cancerous cells to science. But of course I don't know what he would say. He's probably not around anymore.)

Cancerous cell lines can't guarantee any sort of results though, even if they're human. It's their very nature--a cancerous cell has many genes mutated in order for it to become virtually immortal and a side result is that they display undifferentiated characteristics. Down the line, the cells of an actual blood donor should be used just so I know the results aren't due to an artificial cell line. The funny thing is, this very point makes me feel like Dr. Jekyll. If nobody donated their blood for science, I'd have my own blood drawn to be used in my experiments.

That wouldn't be particularly objective, but there are things you've got to do no matter the obstacle.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:21 PM : 0 comments ]

Blogging by the Numbers. So contrary to popular belief (possibly fueled by just looking at popular blogs), about the same number of males and females have blogs. But maybe because of those popular blogs, more men then women read blogs. Or maybe the women think they're reading journals instead of blogs. The income difference between reading and writing blogs is sort of odd though. I can't really tell what the demographics of what my readers are since most hits come from search engines.

Internet tops TV in battle for teens' time. Quality of the sites nonwithstanding, if they're spending more time on the net, it's also more likely that they're reading something instead of vegging out on a reality show.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:57 AM : 0 comments ]

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Oh geez, look at what I found on PubMed while searching for recent molecular bio experimental procedures. I hope somebody's fixing the search algorithms.

Addiction. 2003 Jun;98(6):733-8.

Video lottery: winning expectancies and arousal.

Ladouceur R, Sevigny S, Blaszczynski A, O'Connor K, Lavoie ME.

AIMS: This study investigates the effects of video lottery players' expectancies of winning on physiological and subjective arousal.

DESIGN: Participants were assigned randomly to one of two experimental conditions: high and low winning expectancies.

SETTING: Participants played 100 video lottery games in a laboratory setting while physiological measures were recorded. Level of risk-taking was controlled.

PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 34 occasional or regular video lottery players. They were assigned randomly into two groups of 17, with nine men and eight women in each group.

INTERVENTION: The low-expectancy group played for fun, therefore expecting to win worthless credits, while the high-expectancy group played for real money.

MEASUREMENTS: Players' experience, demographic variables and subjective arousal were assessed. Severity of problem gambling was measured with the South Oaks Gambling Screen. In order to measure arousal, the average heart rate was recorded across eight periods.

FINDINGS: Participants exposed to high as compared to low expectations experienced faster heart rate prior to and during the gambling session. According to self-reports, it is the expectancy of winning money that is exciting, not playing the game.

CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the level of risk-taking, expectancy of winning is a cognitive factor influencing levels of arousal. When playing for fun, gambling becomes significantly less stimulating than when playing for money.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:00 AM : 0 comments ]

Willful Assimilation

One of my roommates told her husband not to speak any Korean while he is taking an ESL (English as a second language) class during the summer. This advice is supposed to help him master English faster.

Unfortunately, this reminded me of my pitiful childhood effort for trying to learn Mandarin. I was in third grade and my parents had enrolled me in Chinese school. After one year, they never forced me to go again.

The thing is, I hated it. Not only did I have to memorize so many ideograms (most of which I have since forgotten), but I had to learn how to speak a supposed beautiful language which sounded to me like really, really screwed up Cantonese. It didn't help that I was placed in a class of younger students--all the stereotypical overachiever Asians. I felt dumb. And I felt the pressure to conform.

Perhaps I should be ashamed of myself for turning my back to the opportunity of learning a language from my culture. But for reasons I can't quite articulate (Outside influence? Stubborn personality?) I'm not. I totally respect others who can speak many languages, but I'm just not one of those people. I don't like being made to feel guilty when I have to respond negatively to the question, "Do you speak Chinese?"

I don't see myself any differently than any other descendant of immigrants from European countries who can't speak German or Polish or Italian.

Writerly Links:
How to Write a Short Story. This guy gives the opposite advice. He says to not write what you know. I think he's just afraid of people of either going into mind-numbing detail or no detail at all. There's also the problem of going off into a tangent about your expertise, but I would assume that anyone aspiring to be a writer knows to stick to the point.

Random Science Fiction Story Ideas. Probably helpful for grade-school writers. I would only use this if I were really desperate.

Your bottomless notebook of story ideas. At least two notebooks, huh? I have several. Some have brief ideas, plot outlines, and character sketches. Others have actual parts of short stories and novels. And since nowadays I'm practically attached to my notebook computer, I also have various writing stuff stored electronically too. None of it is organized in any coherent manner, but at least I date everything.

* * *
The Thursday Threesome: Chicken Pot Pie

Onesome: Chicken- Chicken, beef or pork? What's in the barbeque or on the grill this summer? ...or is it just too hot and a salad is all you're up to putting together?

I generally can eat anything. But as some people have observed, if left to my own devices, I eat very little meat.

Twosome: Pot- Okay, really, did you inhale? I mean, what happened to all the side dishes that were served with the meat? ...and what side dish is essential to make your meal complete?

I have never abused drugs.

There should always be vegetable side dishes with meat. In fact, I would argue that the meat isn't really that necessary. Just eat the vegetables.

Threesome: Pie- Hey, are you a pie or cake kind of person? ...or is it ice cream that 'floats' your dessert boat?

Pies and cakes are equally good, although pies are more fun to make, especially if you're doing it from scratch. I eat ice cream very rarely. Like once every three months.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:10 AM : 0 comments ]

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

It's absolutely pouring outside.

Am I the only one who delights in terrible weather?

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:48 PM : 0 comments ]

Science Friction. An extensive article by Nicholas Thompson detailing the rift between current politics and scientists.

Some scientists have joked that if they were ever to gain more funding for their research in the future, they would have to put a militaristic spin to their grant proposals.

The simple fact that this isn't really a joke makes me sad and more than a little bit livid. As far as I'm concerned, the people "in charge" are already deep in the quagmire of obtaining knowledge for self-destruction. And if it doesn't suit them, they attack the data that has been accumulated by people far more knowledgable about the subject than they are and make up something to make their agenda sound plausible.

What really angers me is that all this boils down to is the age-old struggle of belief versus fact. The two aren't completely mutually exclusive, but right now, it's precariously tipping toward that part of the venn diagram where belief no longer intersects with fact. One could argue that it may be the nature of things: evangelists are much more impressionable and charismatic then logisticians. But the only things evangelists do are talking and bullying. And if they are center stage all the time, not only will reason evaporate, but everything will fall apart.

* * *
Less Frothing at the Mouth:

Webcam at the Eiffel Tower. And it's all live!

Caught between two books. A little "insider" information about book publishing deals. Personally, I don't think editors have any idea what the reading public wants. That's probably why authors come away disappointed--wrong expectations. Of course, I don't have anything published so what do I know?

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:56 AM : 0 comments ]

The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clich�s. An extensive list of overused plot lines and devices. If you're not up to reading the whole thing, may I suggest that if you're writing a science fiction story, not to use anything that has been put up on screen (i.e. movies and television).

Purple polar bear brings in the crowds. "Officials claim medication given to the bear to treat a case of dermatitis is responsible for the colour change." It's not just a hint of lilac.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:02 AM : 0 comments ]

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

One-Sided Conversations

Have you ever experienced one of those conversations which technically involves two people but where only one person talks and primarily vents? The other person just nods, says "Uh huh" or "Oh no!" at appropriate times, and generally appears to be lending a sympathetic ear.

I admit, I've been the listening party for more times than I care to remember. If you're paying the other person any modicum of attention, he or she is usually talking fast and furiously and repeating over and over again how "the problem" is bad, stupid, and frustrating. Personally, I usually can't see how "the problem" can be such an evil thing, but I find it is best to just stick to the grunts and exclamations that pass for agreement than to have acidic vitriol thrown at me.

Perhaps all this ranting is serving some therapeutic purpose, but that doesn't prevent me from becoming a little uneasy that anything I do might set them off to explode again.

Interesting:
The Newton Project. An archive of Newton's works. Besides all the usual science stuff, Newton also dabbled in alchemy and religion. And from this biography review, I found this little tidbit:

Newton had few friends and virtually no social life until the fame occasioned by publication of the "Principia" brought him lucrative appointments at the Mint, whereupon he moved into a fashionable London flat (which he decorated almost entirely in scarlet, the biblical color signifying royal dignity) and enjoyed the acquaintance of Samuel Pepys and John Locke. They stood by him even when, in 1693, he came completely unhinged, accusing Pepys of popery and Locke of trying "to embroil me with women." Not that women were ever an issue; Newton, an archetypal unbending Puritan and preoccupied scholar, evidently never had sexual relations with anybody at all.

Ah, Newton. What a crank.

Information in the Holographic Universe. "Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram." Reminds me of that ridiculous little 80's cartoon, Jem and the Holograms.

Maze Maker. One possible use is to generate little mazes out of garish colors and to tile them on your webpage. That is one guaranteed way of making your visitors dizzy and vowing never to visit your site again.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:13 PM : 0 comments ]

Monday, July 21, 2003

Hormone therapy's rise and fall. Well, I definitely hope those drug prescriptions aren't for this.

Answer to the mystery of life is four. (via Metafilter) Science reporter? Pah! He doesn't know what he's talking about if he has "struggled through School Certificate maths."

The Real Enrique. (via Iconomy) For the love of all that's tasteful in the world, do not click on the listen link if you want to save your eardrums.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:33 PM : 0 comments ]

Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It

Health care insurance is a pain in the ass. I got one of those really large urgent envelopes in the mail today with one of those notices announcing that now, I have to pay more than an hundred bucks more each renewal cycle.

Why?

The explanation that the school gave was cost inflation. And people taking prescription drugs--which accounted for more than a $3.5 million deficit from the past year alone. I work with biohazardous materials all the time and so far I haven't gotten sick. What are people doing to themselves? And why are they getting so many prescription drugs? You would think that this college is running a nursing home, for goodness sakes.

All I can say is, if I graduate without ever having to go to the emergency room, I want all my money refunded back.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:07 PM : 0 comments ]

Post Pulling

So some people delete posts for one reason or another. Maybe they wrote it in the heat of the moment and later regretted it. Or maybe they offended someone's feelings. I don't really care what other people do to their personal weblogs. It's theirs, and not mine. (Blogs that proport to be rivals of traditional journalism, on the other hand, is a totally different matter.)

But would I pull one of my own posts? Probably not. It feels rather dishonest to me to delete something and go about the rest of the day as if nothing were wrong. Spelling edits and addendums are things that I have done, but I haven't gone so far as to change the entire tone of a post or eliminate it altogether.

Have I written things in reflex because of something that had immediately riled me? Of course. But I have never gone directly to the blogging software and hit "publish". I write all of my posts on a word processing document first. Besides spellchecking, if I remember to do so, it affords me a little space between my emotions and the world wide web.

In the future though, we might get transistors implanted into our brains. Then you'll know exactly what I'm thinking all the time--a scenario that my paranoid self already thinks is happening with mind-readers.

Links:
Nothing Random. (via 2Blowhards) A fascinating look into the publishing industry where the media owners, publishers, and editors are in a constant tug-of-war between money and literature as well as class elitism and mass pandering. That the CEO and chairman of Random House owns stuffed animals and gives all his employees a CD with his wife's picture on the cover is particularly telling.

Clinic destroys cancer patients' sperm. So what was that proverb again about not keeping all your eggs in one basket?

Psychedelic Sheep: Custom Wool Hairpieces. This is where all those weirdos who go to anime cons go to shop for the finishing touches of their favorite character costumes.

Utterly Outrageous Recipes. For those of you who want to lose your appetite for the rest of the day.

iMate Computer Mirror. I need one of these. I'm totally paranoid about people sneaking up behind me when I'm in the library.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:07 AM : 0 comments ]

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Yo Yo Balloons at the Hanover Street Fest

More pictures from last week's Hanover Street Fest can be found here.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:03 PM : 0 comments ]

Unconscious Mutterings

Wizard of Oz:: Emerald City
Ford:: Taurus
Wrinkles:: Cream
Extravagant:: Luxury
Conventional:: Wisdom
Stewart:: Patrick
Offensive:: Words
Heartbeat:: Chest
Chaos:: Pandemonium
Jiffy:: Lube

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:08 AM : 0 comments ]

Saturday, July 19, 2003

What Should Be

There should be more prissy librarians at the library telling hyperactive people to be quiet or get their mouths duct-taped shut. They should also tell certain people to quit pacing around with apprently no purpose. If people want to work out their leg muscles, they should go to the gym.

People with colds and allergies shouldn't come to the library either. Not only are they spreading germs whenever they sneeze, they're causing a disturbance every time they sniffle. Unless they need to borrow a book or get something photocopied, sick people should stay at home until they get better.

And there shouldn't be any windows. The pretty blue sky is too much of a distraction. Instead, there should be concrete walls with creepy paintings of former professors with expressions that say, "Get back to work, stupid kid!"

Non-Library Stuff:
Frankenstein the Musical. You know, after listening to all those parodies, I can't take this seriously at all. But you can download the entire soundtrack from their site.

As an aside, Frankenstein reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They're the stories of mad scientists forsaking everything for their dreams but in the end crashed and burned. I guess one of the morals is that you can't live life one-sided.

Ars Verbum. This is a self-governing writing community where you can submit your short stories and get critiqued.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:53 PM : 0 comments ]

Amused.

Last night I commented on one of those high traffic blogs with tons of groupies. I got bashed by one of the groupies with the implication that I don't know anything about physics and drug delivery.

So they're saying that my expensive education so far has been all for naught, huh?

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:31 AM : 0 comments ]

Friday, July 18, 2003

For those of you curious about this AOL Journals thingeemajig that the blogosphere has been harping about for the past week, Jeff Jarvis from BuzzMachine is tinkering around on his own AOL Journal prototype (via Becoming). I love how it asks for your mood. Don't they realize that mood can be conveyed simply by the post itself?

Or maybe the developers figure that AOL users are too dumb for subtlety.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:20 PM : 0 comments ]

A Wacky Dream

My sister and I found an orphaned bear cub in a clearing that was bordered by a forest and a lake. For some reason, we decided to take it with us and smuggle it over the "border" where we might find a better place for it to live. We took a car and got on the highway for the harrowing ride. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I never have any control over vehicles in dreams.

The border crossing looked like a grubby subway station. We decided to put the bear cub in a suitcase and act like tourists. Unfortunately, a woman in a tight and short pink dress found us. She called up her army of military brats to strip us of our belongings. But before they could do that, I got into an argument with the woman. I think it was about liberty, freedom, femi-nazism, and the right to live--I don't remember the exact words. But I do remember waking up angry.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:53 PM : 0 comments ]

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Inspired by: Girlism's Good Guy/Bad Guy and Girl-ick-ism.

A thought on two seemingly contradictory views on feminism:

I don't get it.

Yeah, I know that is a foolish answer, but for some reason, I can't really take any of this verbal prancing very seriously. Maybe we should have some pseudo-archetypal-celebrity death-match: fertility goddess vs. witch-crone.

I never thought that feminism was something that could be polarized. There are multiple viewpoints with varying gradations between all of them. Besides the "hot chick" and the "old hag" there are plenty of other types of people who are probably more interesting to begin with anyway.

So I'm rooting for the wallflowers, the fat, the ugly, the brilliant, the hopelessly dumb, the unconventional, and the eccentric. I vote for empowering the ordinary because the media is fantasy and history (although important) is past.

* * *
Something probably in bad taste:
Silence! Silence of the Lambs: The Musical. Another musical parody. I'm not a fan of this story so it doesn't seem as funny to me. I liked the first song though.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:33 PM : 0 comments ]

Digging for Googleholes. Sure, there are problems, but aside from how information is linked on the web, searching is also user oriented. If you want to find specific information on a particular type of thing, modify searches. And please, put quotation marks around words that you want to appear together. I can't tell you how many ridiculous searches reach this weblog because each word in the search appears in different posts.

As a sort of experiment, I have been following the Google rankings of my name weblog once it was launched under a new domain name. On the first day, it wasn't anywhere. Yesterday, it was ranked first. Today, the first search is the dictionary meaning of the weblog's name. But the second search is a different weblog, one that has linked mine, and other than that, it has nothing to do with "hypocorisma". I assume it has been pushed down due to the number of people that have linked that weblog. It doesn't show up when you search for weblog on names but with quotations, it's the only search result. Let's see what Google does this coming week.

They should know better: Humanities scholars spend lots of time reading, so why can't they write? Maybe they're busy trying to sound smart. I'll have to say that actual quantum mechanics is a lot easier to understand. And as someone who has managed to slog through a couple of quantum mechanics classes and still pass, that's saying a lot.

This pretty much sums up the feelings of many students: What to do? The students fake it, usually. They pretend, for as long as necessary, to take it seriously. Northrop Frye used to say that if you don't care about being educated, a little animal cunning will get you a degree. My guess is that students confronted with pomo-babble go into animal-cunning mode, get an acceptable mark by hiding their opinions, and then find better teachers or escape to the outside world, somewhere beyond critical theory and cultural studies, somewhere that respects reality and art. All it requires is endurance, a light heart, and the ability to believe that this, too, shall pass.

How to Write Good. The best ending to anything: "Suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck."

Early Voices: the Leap to Language. A New York Times article about scientists making progress on finding the origin of languages. What's really interesting is the research into a family that has an inherited language disorder where "the pattern of inheritance suggested that a single defective gene was at work." Evolutionary biologists speculate that it is a mutation in this gene that helped separate us from other non-language primates.

Religion 'could offer model for delusion'. "Studying the mechanisms of religious belief could lead to a better understanding of what goes on in the minds of people with psychiatric delusions."

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:38 AM : 0 comments ]

Stupid Personal Gossip

So Roommate #6, who at first I thought was fairly blunt, is actually quite hilarious and talkative. And she has a green thumb. (Unlike me. Remember rosemary "Bob"? It died two months ago despite everything I did.)

It turns out that she bumped into soon-to-be Roommate #7 a.k.a. e-mail nick "Princess" yesterday. (Roommate #7 is moving in about a month from now once Roommate #5, who just got married, moves out with her husband.) And judging from Roommate #6's description of Roommate #7, it sounds like her nickname is well-deserved.

Oh boy.

The Thursday Threesome: Bell, Book and Candle

Onesome: Bell- Belling the cat: What have you taken on lately that you really, really didn't want to do? ...and did it get taken care of?

I'm doing what I want to do, otherwise, what would be the point of being a graduate student?

As for other chores, I don't really want to do the laundry or go shopping but I have to do them once a week whether I like it or not.

Twosome: Book- What was the last radical departure in your reading habits? I mean, you were reading one genre for a while, what did you switch to?

I read anything. Except westerns and popular magazines.

Threesome: Candle- Do you burn candles around the house? use them for decoration? ...or are you more into flowers and tablecloths?

Is that a choice? I don't go into decorating. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, the only thing brightening my living space is a Leonardo Da Vinci calander.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:53 AM : 0 comments ]

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Being Disgruntled

On a certain group blog to which I had been invited to post quite a while ago, the conversation is decidedly political even though the topic under discussion is supposed to be wider than that. I wish the discussion weren't so one-sided and narrow, but as far as I can tell, most of the members to this group blog are rather passive.

Or perhaps group blogs weren't meant to exist in the first place? Putting bloggers together is like herding cats. Blogging is primarily a solitary and opinionated activity. When a bunch of people try to talk, everyone is trying to convince the other of a point of view and it's difficult to get anyone to be receptive to other ideas.

I don't know. Maybe I'm not articulating this correctly. Perhaps what I worry about are visitors and readers. On this blog, I am the sole author and I control the content. I make sure the viewpoint I put out is the one I want to convey. On a group blog, it is not that simple. If it becomes dominated by one poster or a group of posters with a certain agenda, readers could come away thinking that every member of that blog agrees or is concerned about this.

I guess it's the problem of individuality again. A weblog is supposed to bring individuality to the internet. A group blog, on the other hand, comes dangerously close to breaking that original concept.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:34 PM : 0 comments ]

With all the talk about "nodes" in networking systems like the web, maybe it's more like a squid than a web: there's a central body with outgrowths of...tentacles!

A Shoggoth on the Roof. The musical! It's a parody of The Fiddler on the Roof and all things H.P. Lovecraft. I was so tickled by their "documentary" and their songs that I actually ordered a CD (which is saying a lot since I rarely order things over the internet, let alone on impulse). I wish they could have it staged. I'd go see it.

I just can't get the music out of my head: Mis-ka-ton-ic, Mis-ka-ton-ic, Ivy League wannabe, Mis-ka-ton-ic!

Bill Gates' Hotmail Inbox. Here's a little glimpse of what his hotmail account looks like. I see he gets gibberish spam too.

BlogTree. The blog genealogy site. It's interesting that the further up you go, the blog ancestors are all male. This has probably something to do with the tech sector traditionally being a male realm. But as you go down, females start filtering in just as blogging becomes popular.

This site isn't technically a "child blog" of Rebecca's Pocket since I had seen plenty of other blogs before I found hers, but it was her article Weblogs: a history and perspective that probably pushed me over the line from no way to okay.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:58 AM : 0 comments ]

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Shoes

Do all kids go through a "dress-up" phase where they try on adult clothes or at least think about trying them on? I remember one instance when I succumbed to this particular curiosity. I was maybe ten or eleven. But it wasn't really clothes, per se. No dresses or hats or ties for me. It was the shoes.

They were my mother's: pumps the color of straw and of a basket-weaving design. These shoes were new, too, and they were nestled into the corner of the closet. My mother never wore shoes with heels though and she wasn't meek about her opinion on such scandalous shoes. Women who wore pumps had "horse-feet" and she told me that constant use completely ruined their feet. How was I to argue? It seemed reasonable enough to me considering the abnormal positions the shoe put the foot in.

My mother never bought those pumps. I think some trendy relative gave them to her. But nonetheless, those shoes held some sort of fascination. Was it because it made me taller? Gave me a glimpse who I would be when I grew up? Was it somehow that these shoes made me more trendy and pretty than I normally was. Or was it only false confidence?

I never had many shoes. When I had been in grade school, my shoe collection consisted solely of a pair of worn sneakers and an unsightly pair of low-heeled white dress shoes. It wasn't because my parents didn't want to spend money on shoes; they just thought the money would be spent better elsewhere. Even now, I don't have that many shoes: just some worn boots for winter, hiking boots for summer, the sneakers, the low-heeled dress shoes.

But I have a thing for shoes with heels. Once, on an emergency shopping trip looking for black shoes to go to an orchestra concert (I had forgotten them at home, 2,000 miles away), I came across a pair that would give anyone nosebleeds. They were shiny and black and had thick heels that would increase the height of the wearer by four or five inches. If my mother had been there, she would had shaken her head and adamantly had me try on a different heel-less pair. But she wasn't there.

So I bought them.

Perhaps my fascination with heeled shoes, or any shoe for that matter, that gives the wearer extra inches in height stems from my dissatisfaction with how short I really am. People don't really take you as seriously when you're the shortest person in the room. But with those black shoes, I felt more like an equal. And at moments, I could even sample a bit of the domination and intimidation powers that naturally tall people had all the time.

I rarely wear those shoes, though. They're too dangerous to handle on a daily basis.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:01 PM : 0 comments ]

Monday, July 14, 2003

Gratuitous Self-Linking

Hypocorisma. Tell this to your expectant friends and relatives, the hardcore RPG players next door, and your writer-ly acquaintances who continually complain about sneaking around the library with baby name books for research. It's the ultimate in name-filtering and niche blogging--a weblog all about names! And even if you don't have the slightest inclination of naming anyone, it'll be a great place to waste your time on.

By the way, if you know of any other weblogs about names, please don't hesitate to suggest their URL.

(I am, however, in no way responsible for anyone who ends up with a stupid name. I only provide the resources.)

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:07 PM : 0 comments ]

The Various:

Going for the Look, but Risking Discrimination. While hiring by looks has a long history, some sociologists and retail consultants agree that the emphasis has increased � not at Wal-Mart and other mass marketers, but at upscale businesses. I hardly ever shop at upscale places. Not only is it because I hate throwing away fifty bucks for a pair of jeans I could get elsewhere for ten, but the salespeople always make me feel like I'm a potential thief. These niche places cater to particular class and societal snobbery aside from more obvious discrimination issues. Oh, and A&F have been in hot water before. They might as well hire identical androids with big boobs to work the cash register.

Burgers are as addictive as drugs. I'm not surprised. The chemical structure of fats and cholesterol are surprisingly similar to that of hormones and it doesn't take that many chemical reactions to convert them into hormones. I don't really get the law suits, though. Eating fast food is a choice, not a requirement. I personally choose to cook instead of going out to eat. I avoid the snack food section at the grocery store. I would expect others concerned about their health to make similar choices and to take responsibility.

The Periodic Table of Dessert. Well, this isn't particularly healthy, but it is pretty amusing. Especially the "structures" based on the "elements". This bit of internet debris is brought to you by the same guy who made classic IF games such as Hunter, in Darkness and So Far.

Construction bugs find tiny work. "Bacteria are being enslaved to do minuscule building work. Researchers revealed at a meeting in New York this week that 'biorobotic' bugs could help to construct microscopic electrical circuits or other devices."

Generation of taboo breakers are a selfish lot. Some baby boomers are definitely quite weird. But this takes the cake. You would think that your elders would know better. Instead, they've regressed into a sniveling pack of child-wannabes.

Fishy end for feline sleuth. "Police believe it was a contract killing, Russian Ren television reported."

The neurochemistry of psychedelic experiences. Here's some evidence that religious visions may be all in the head: "In a 1961 experiment known as the �Miracle of Marsh Chapel,� Boston Divinity Students were given psilocybin or placebo in a double-blind design; most subjects in the psilocybin group (and none in the placebo group) reported profound religious experiences with lasting beneficial consequences (Doblin, 1991)."

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:26 AM : 0 comments ]

NITLE Blog Census. (via Boing Boing) Good grief, that's a lot of data. Or rather, stuff that looks like data. And just think, all of my and your ramblings online are in that database for all of posterity. I wonder what people in the future will make of all that self-referential and self-absorbed writing.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:04 AM : 0 comments ]

Sunday, July 13, 2003

The Bright Stuff. This guy's rhetoric totally rubs me the wrong way. We don't need another pigeon-hole to put people in. Can't we all just be individuals and not just an arm of some faceless, conceptualized group?

WISH 55: What's In A Name? For you writers out there, here's an interesting article on naming your fictional characters. Me? I typically go through baby name sites, geneology sites, random name generator sites, and the citation section at the back of textbooks. And sometimes (gasp!) I make up a name from the top of my head. I tend to avoid my own name and names of people I know unless it's ridiculously common. I used to have a blog about names but it went kaput many, many months ago from a technical reason I could never fathom. I'm starting it up again sometime soon, elsewhere.

Unconscious Mutterings

Natalie:: Portman
Concrete:: Block
AIDS:: Cure?
Rubber hose:: Long
Paper clip:: Insert
Route 66:: Pasadena
Summer camp:: Lake
Coin purse:: Heavy
Orion:: Star
Instigate:: Investigation

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:01 AM : 0 comments ]

Saturday, July 12, 2003

Pretty and Pretentious

Main Street was cordoned off for the Hanover Street Fest so that traffic at the intersection had trickled into near non-existence. Finally, without fear of being run over, I crossed the street armed with only a camera and a fist full of film.

Vendors had completely taken over the road with tents, tables, and merchandise. Many local artists had dropped by to hawk their wares: pottery, paintings, and purses. Colorful summer dresses adorned racks. And there was so much jewelry--mostly loud and tawdry--but it did not fail to attract women and curious children. Tiny Mexican toys in the shapes of animals sat on a table wagging their heads and tails whenever a breeze happened by.

A stage was set up in front of the bank for a band. Nearby, there was a stand set up for musician lovers displaying guitars and violins. The book lover wasn't neglected either. Several local presses were present pitching their recent publications. The physical stores on Main Street had set up tables on the sidewalk in front of their store filled with bargain items.

And amidst the music and smells of hot dogs and kettle-cooked popcorn, there were the political activists armed with their clipboards. They had recruited a young boy to carry their signs. He's obviously too young to vote and it is doubtful that he understands what the political messages mean except for maybe the enthusiasm his elders have. And it is curious, isn't it, that all of these political activists are Democrats. Where are the Republicans? Or the crackpot Independents? But nonetheless, I gingerly avoid all the clipboards--they are as bad as the religious nuts several stands away. I'm here for fun, not an epiphany.

After a while, "window" shopping loses its shine. There is only so much looking that I can take. It's a haven for women looking for clothes and necklaces. There was even a Mary Kay stand selling perfumes and makeup (although the rather large saleswoman with her garishly painted face was enough to inspire a thousand nights of nightmares). The men, oddly enough, had scurried to the vendors tucked into the alleyways. These vendors sold camping and sports equipment. Boots. Jackets. Those knit caps you wear while skiing.

But hiding in alleyways was vastly uninteresting. I headed to the nearby Hood Museum for a bit of quietness, cool air, and lack of sunlight. I had been there before, of course, and I quickly passed through the familiar antiquities and historical paintings. On the second floor were the changing exhibits and here, I was confronted by the masterpieces of local artists.

I don't remember the names of any of the pieces, but I do remember the tone of the explanations next to them by the curators and the artists themselves. Exactly what sort of meaning can one ascribe to a towering edifice built with branches taken from New Hampshire forests or gigantic charcoal sculptures that, in form, look suspiciously like the fire gratings of French gothic cathedrals?

I had the museum to myself, and alone, I tried to grasp what was meant from this self-proclaimed modernism, post-modernism, post-post-modernism. What is it about these computer projections, random splashes of paint on canvas, and crudely blown glass that makes me think of it as only an afterthought--that the explanations printed in the brochures was actually the real piece of work being done?

The only thing that fascinated me was a glass case filled with the refuse of the museum patrons. A couple of dentures. A jar full of lint. A small case of broken glass collected from the nearby town. A pair of dirty socks. The discarded notes of a local poet. It was strange--there was more life within this discarded trash than the mixed-media compositions consisting of plastic, wire, and staples.

* * *
And while we're on the topic of long (and in my case, rambling with occasional incoherence brought on by possible sunstroke) personal essays read Chad's excellent piece on Hope.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:30 PM : 0 comments ]

Friday, July 11, 2003

I feel so terribly old when people younger than me start talking about personal engagements and marriages as if it was perfectly normal.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:54 PM : 0 comments ]

In Brief:

Harvard Takes Back Hornstine Admission Offer. It's one of those train wreck scenes. You just can't not look.

Incredible Shrinking Y. (via Blogsisters) Biased social commentary about observed natural phenomena is a dangerous thing.

Meet the Metrosexuals. Do I really care about how men groom themselves? No, although I would probably prefer to sit next to a man who knows his face creams because he smells better than the manly man who just finished cutting down a tree with an axe (when he could have just rented a bulldozer).

Ric Frazier Productions. Hyper-real underwater photography.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:19 AM : 0 comments ]

Based on accounts from neighbors and other onlookers.

Peculiar Type #10 - The Arsonist

There was only one gallon left. She poured the gasoline across the porch, splattering it in random patterns. When she was done, she tossed the jug into the house and shut the front door. The house soaked in the fluid like a sponge sitting on the kitchen counter--from the bottom up.

She struck a match and tossed it on the soaked porch. She struck another match and tossed it into the damp interior of the station wagon parked in front of the house, on the grass. She walked to the street and sat at the very edge of the lawn.

The flames started slowly at first--tiny sparks licking their way across the wood. But soon, the entire front of the house was in a halo of light and the flames feeding from seat upholstery began peeking out the car windows.

Smell and heat buried themselves in her lungs and skin and slowly but surely, she felt everything being drained from her. The fire was cleansing and purifying--eliminating everything. No more of him. Clothes, furniture, photos, nothing. Not even the poetry that she had spent countless hours penning and agonizing over. Or that sweater he had given her on their first date.

Nothing. Who was he again? Why was she doing this?

Her muscles felt limp and relaxed and her mouth naturally moved upward. The fire was beautiful, she mused as sirens in the distance wailed inching ever closer.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:41 AM : 0 comments ]

Thursday, July 10, 2003

The Thursday Threesome: From the Summer Picnic Basket

Onesome- Honey: Hey there! Not that you personally need any sweetening, but just in case: what goes in your summer drinks to sweeten things up? Honey? Sugar? Artificial sweetener? ...or are your taking things straight up this time 'round?

I don't put anything in my drinks. I prefer water.

Twosome- Mustard: Okay, what condiment has to come to the table for that burger or hotdog? Ketchup? Mustard? Salt? Pepper? Just what is it you 'relish'?

I eat things plain. No condiments. People think I'm strange for doing this, but oh well.

Threesome- Sauce: ...and along with that, which sauce do you simply have to have around? BBQ? A-1? That special sauce you learned to make when you worked fast food at the mall? How about it? You brought those napkins along for a reason!

Well, I have to admit that I use soy sauce and sesame oil when I'm cooking. But no BBQ or A-1. They taste really weird to me for some reason. I never worked in the fast food industry so I never learned how to make this "special sauce". However, I have learned how to make a dipping sauce for various Vietnamese dishes from my parents even though I don't particularly like it because it contains fish sauce. Believe or not, I actually have the recipe posted on this site here.

* * *
Linkage:

Where Have All the Lisas Gone? Yet another piece lamenting the popularity of certain names. But perhaps the author is going about this all the wrong way. In western culture, people have the history of using the same names all the time and this becomes a difficult habit to break out of. After all, most people are more comfortable with tradition than breaking into new frontiers.

In the east, or at least with Chinese parents, the naming of children is a process in which uniqueness is valued. It's downright bad luck for a child to have the same name as a living relative. But then again, that's tradition. I've noticed that when Asians have moved to the West or wish to become more well-known in the Western world, they typically choose a popular English name in order to integrate. Ah, all those Jennifers and Harrys--there's a stereotype somewhere.

Peter Jennings takes up U.S. citizenship. In the response threads, there is a lot of vitriol against Jennings for both taking up U.S. citizenship and retaining his Canadian citizenship. Most of it is political which I don't understand at all. Both the U.S. and Canada are known to be countries where varying political views are tolerated, in fact encouraged (or at least should be). Sure, Jennings is in a position where his views can and do skew the coverage of news, but the beauty of it is that if you want more objective broadcasting, you can look elsewhere for your news fix.

Citizenship is a more encompassing thing than the politics of the administration du jour. It's the people and the country as a whole. I'm in the exact same boat. I have ties to Canada yet I live, work, and get my education in the United States. It's like choosing between two children that you love dearly. You can't.

Anyone who has lived in different countries or have even visited them understand this. Citizenship isn't about petty politics. If somebody said I could be a citizen of anywhere, I would choose to be a citizen of everywhere.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:02 AM : 0 comments ]

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

The Interesting and the Insane

Here's a scary e-mail I got just a few minutes ago:

The U.S. Border Patrol is in the local Hanover/Lebanon/West Lebanon area stopping cars at random to check immigration documentation. According to U.S. law, all foreign nationals are required to have in their possession, at all times, their passport and I-94 card, or green card if you are a legal U.S. permanent resident. It is wise as well to have your current SEVIS I-20 form (if an F-1 or F-2), current DS-2019 form (if J-1 or J-2), or current I-797 approval notice (H-1B or H-4 or O-1 / O-3 status).

Why the hell wasn't I informed of this earlier? Now I have the extra inconvenience of carrying all this documentation with me at all times instead of just leaving it at home when I go to school or the grocery store a few blocks away.

Harry Potter's Magic, for Some. Here's some letters in response to A.S. Byatt's criticism of the books (see July 7 post). This comparison is interesting: I would suggest that with books as with dining, sometimes you want a nutritious meal, and sometimes you just want chocolate-chip cookies and milk. Except I would call them earwax jellybeans.

The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps. It's very topical yet it lends itself so easily as a cool resource.

The Big & Beautiful People Network. This is disturbing on many levels. It's just like that stupid cereal commercial I ranted about back in June.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:11 AM : 0 comments ]

More Than Just Hot And Cold

This morning wasn't so bad, but the past few days--weather-wise--was near unbearable. It was like water torture, both literal and metaphorical, as everything was being heated and steamed while the clouds refused to give up anything. Summer is not one of my favorite seasons. There's too much sun, too much heat, too much humidity. Without air conditioning, skin becomes sticky and damp in a moment. I think of it as not quite dried apple juice that never goes away even when frequent showering is in order.

I don't understand those who look forward to the summer. The bugs seem more malicious than usual and the cute woodland animals are hiding in their cool burrows. Even in the strong sunlight, the flora which was so alive during the spring look wilted, even burnt. Nothing is pretty because everything is a fantasy concocted by someone who has had his or her brain fried by too many hours in a tanning bed during the winter--just like those idiotic commercials showing sexy and buffed construction workers drinking Coke. In reality, those construction workers next door are old, beer-bellied, and hairy.

My consolation prize is that I get to work in a temperature-controlled environment. Which is nice because I could spend up to twelve hours or more being busy. I also get to spend an inordinate time in the library. Libraries, in my mind, are little pockets of perfectness in the world. Quietness and discrete looks between patrons make it a rarified atmosphere, as if I had somehow stumbled onto something wonderful and secret.

I'm not afraid to admit that this is an escape. And I can't help but compare this need as to something so childish as an escape from physical realities (the summer) to something more cerebral (the library). What is it about those dark basement stacks with their aging tombs that attract me so when others tell me that the darkness and the coldness of the silence and all those dry words frighten them to no end?

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:45 AM : 0 comments ]

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

The 50 Book Challenge. The challenge, specifically, is to read fifty novels in the year 2003. Good thing I started the habit of keeping track of what I read in August last year (a.k.a. bookrolling). The last book I finished (the 14th for 2003) was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It was good, but I hated the ending.

If you notice, I have excluded the hundreds (thousands?) of scientific papers and multitudes of textbooks I have read since (not because I don't consider it real reading, of course, only that I'm focusing on the form of the novel). What is left is mostly trash--but you've got to forgive me for wanting some brainless fare during my down time. But even so, I think I can do this fifty books a year thing. In fact, I think I can read more than fifty books a year if I weren't so preoccupied with other stuff. Normally, I can plow through a three to four hundred page book in a morning if I have nothing else to do.

What I am amazed at are individuals who read one book or less in one year. I always have this fear that reading is a lot like handwriting. If I don't practice enough, I just might forget how to do it.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:31 PM : 0 comments ]

Some small facts I ran across while reading:

"90% of the cells of the human body are actually bacteria, resident on the skin, and in the respiratory tract, oral cavity, oesophagus [sic], gastrointestinal tract and the urogenital tract." This brings up the very interesting question of how these microbes interact with our own cells. How can we tell self from other? And how can our bodies prevent these microbes from proliferating? Sadly, very little is known about cell-microbe communications let alone microbe-microbe communication.

"[Traveller's Diarrhea] is thought to be caused by indigenous intestinal populations being displaced by ingested strains from the new environment." So whenever you're traveling and eating, a war is being waged in your gut.

Related Link:
The Intestinal Microflora. (pdf)

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:52 AM : 0 comments ]

Strutting Season. (via Blogdex which has now changed their domain name!) These people seem so alien, so far removed from what I know. Prime people-watching material if you ask me.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:20 AM : 0 comments ]

Monday, July 07, 2003

Harry Potter and the Childish Adult. (via Metafilter) Ha! If J.K. Rowling wants to pander to the lowest common denominator to become richer than the Queen, then so be it. Byatt really shouldn't care so much that other people are reading Harry Potter books but she does hit some reasons that point to why I (and perhaps some others) find Harry Potter less than scintillating. I think the reason that most resonated with me was this: Ms. Rowling's world is a secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature � from the jolly hockey-sticks school story to Roald Dahl, from "Star Wars" to Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper.

Oh, and by the way, if you haven't read Susan Cooper's stuff, please do. Especially The Dark is Rising sequence. That one still brings a delicious tingle down my spine whenever I read it.

Cowboy pressured by Starbucks. I have never frequented any coffee shops let alone the Dirt Cowboy Cafe, but still, this sounds like a really bad idea. What "quaintness" is left of Hanover will be gone if everyone goes to Starbucks. (But on the other hand, if regular bus routes including weekends are instigated because a major corporation has moved in, I think it'll be a small price to pay.)

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:15 PM : 0 comments ]

Campus Politics

After reading Insignificant Thoughts' generalizations about college campuses being overly liberal (this recent post is an example), I thought I would put my two cents worth about the state of campus politics today.

I am by no means an expert. I haven't gone to all college campuses and polled the beliefs of students. Neither have I joined any political-minded clubs. I tend to shy away from argumentative types. I don't like to be shouted at, especially if there is only emotion behind the rantings, not logic. So most of my opinions have been formed after observing what people actually do.

When I was in California, many students appeared to be ultra-liberal. During the 2000 election, they proudly proclaimed that they voted for Nader. Whether they voted because they truly believed in the ideals Nader espoused or because the third-party candidate represented a rebellion against the establishment was a blurry line indeed. Then again there was the other side. My roommate at the time voted for Bush because she believed that his isolationist ideals would actually prevent a war. Little did she know.

Here in New Hampshire, there too is a liberal side--represented by a small group of Green Party students, a weblog or two, affirmative action proponents, and the few elderly people picketing outside of the student center for the end to the war. But the conservative force plays a much stronger role. There is the school paper which is entrenched in conservative roots. And then there are the conservative students who think liberalness is a taboo and a disease. Whether the distaste stems from tradition (some of the more vociferous students come from rich, conservative backgrounds) or something else could be debated. It should also be noted that some people have also railed against the conservativeness of the faculty.

What I question is: do these students really know what they are cheering for? Youthful idealism looks like a good thing, but its very naivity is its flaw. College students talk about living in a bubble while they are in school--where nothing from the outside world affects them let alone being aware of it. It is almost like Hermann Hesse's Castilia in The Glass Bead Game where the scholars only concern themselves with academics, the pursuit of truth, and the perfection of the glass bead game (the apex of art). And in the matters of the outside world (represented by money, politics, and women), the scholars completely ignore it as if it were only dirt beneath their feet.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:59 PM : 0 comments ]

Compendium of Lost Words. I always get the feeling that my vocabulary has been steadily going downhill ever since I stopped memorizing vocabulary lists in high school. And although these "lost words" will never make it into ordinary conversation, I find this a fascinating resource.

* * *
Science historians ponder naming 'enemies' in science literature. I'm not an ecologist, but I completely understand this plight. Communication of science to the layman is problematic at best. What best highlights the prevasive problem, however, are public seminars and lectures. In order to make things sound interesting to the non-biologist, the lecturer almost always resorts to clever metaphors. Someone find out that protein X binds to protein Y during the fertilization process? Then let's call it marriage! Is there a project about the process of courtship in flies? Let's call it Sex, Flies, and Videotape! Geez.

This isn't confined to biology, though. I think this failure of communication begins at the very bottom level--with budding scientists. When I was an undergraduate, the administration instituted an additional required class which emphasized writing about science so it would be accessible to the educated* layman. Ninety-nine percent of the students thought the course was either stupid or a joke. Why take this class when the majority did not plan on going into writing careers (excluding scientific papers for peer-reviewed journals)?

The divide is seriously becoming something like a language barrier where important ideas are lost in translation. A colleague of mine has completely given up on trying to explain her work to her boyfriend who is a computer engineer. And he has given up explaining his work to her. One problem is the specialized terminology that must always be explained--and if one ignores this terminology, one strays dangerously to the side of incorrect metaphors. Something must be consciously done--even on my part, because even now, I struggle with explaining to my parents what I do without feeling like I'm leaving out chunks of important facts.

*The "educated" layman. Someone who is at least vaguely familiar with scientific terminology due to either taking an advanced science class or has learned it through taking a side interest in science on his own.

[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:35 AM : 0 comments ]