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Thursday, July 31, 2008 Memes Booking Through Thursday: Endings What are your favourite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line? Like I said last week, I have a terrible time remembering actual lines from books. Yes, even if it's the last line. The Thursday Threesome: Terms of Use Onesome: Terms-- of endearment: do you have any you particularly like to use? How about one others use that just grates on you? I don't use terms of endearment for anyone. I'm not that kind of person. As for other people using them--I guess it doesn't matter so much if it comes from a woman because it sounds sincere. If a man is addressing somebody else with an endearment, I can just ignore it. If it's directed at me, I always have the urge to pummel his face. Twosome: of-- the several types of access to the Internet, which one do you use? Dialup, DSL, Broadband, WiFi? Just how connected are you? Dialup and WiFi. At the moment, I have no inclination to throw money at the other types. Threesome: Use--less labels: seen any good ones lately? You know, the ones that were issued by the Department of Redundancy Department. ...or maybe by the Darwin Awards Review Committee. I'm thinking this crowd probably has some real winners... I haven't seen any labels lately, but I do recall redundant phrases that people cite as examples of pleonasms like "fatal murder" or "advanced planning". [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:12 AM : Tuesday, July 29, 2008 A Belated Hey Tangled Bank #110 is up at Pharyngula. So go read some science on birds, plants, and living forever. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:56 AM : Monday, July 28, 2008 Man, I Feel Like an Outlier Dustbury recently mused about some articles on women bloggers which I found interesting but anecdotal. I've never really contemplated if the blogging styles are different between males and females because I'm an out-of-the-loop blogger who mostly lurks on other people's blogs and could care less about the number of people visiting my own. But, some brief (possibly unrelated) thoughts on the commentary: -Maybe other women are outspoken with their empathy, but I'm not. I view it on the same level as sidewalk preaching. All show but completely empty. -I like one-liners. It succinctly gets the message across. Blabbering on and on and on convinces me (others may think differently) that you have no substance. -It's hooey and hubris if you think women are sharing wisdom on the blogosphere. Very few bloggers, if any, are sharing any wisdom. If it looks like wisdom, it's probably a turd disguised with blowhard smugness. The blogosphere does have some information, but it's mostly opinion and daily mental debris. -On fearlessness: it depends on what you mean by that. Some people are fearless about spouting off their opinions--like heated controversies on political blogs, for instance. I personally do not find this fearless. It's just your opinion, after all. What's truly fearless is sharing stuff about your personal life. You turn into an exhibitionist with no privacy. -Call me cynical, but I am skeptical when people say that they blog because they want to make people happy. It sounds like a stock Miss America answer for something that can't be quite articulated. -I have no idea if women bloggers really do respond faster to comments than male bloggers, because I certainly don't. Heck, I usually answer e-mails only when they can't be put off any longer. I don't have time to sit around waiting for comments. -I take all bloggers with the same amount of seriousness. Which includes liberal amounts of eye-rolling. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:00 PM : Sunday, July 27, 2008 "Dark" Certainly Describes It The problem with not seeing certain movies on the opening day is that you hear other people talking about it, unsuspectingly getting your expectations up. The Dark Knight is one of these movies. Acquaintances of mine have raved about it, even going so far as to watch it more than once. I, however, have yet to watch any film in which I could justify a multi-theater experience. At any rate, I was thinking, if what people say about The Dark Knight is even ten percent true, it's going to be a decent action flick. Another reason why I was feeling a bit leery at the prospect of seeing this movie was that this would be the first movie I've seen in a theater since Casino Royale. I'm not even going to try to convince anyone that I was too busy to go to a theater since the Christmas of 2006. It's just that I'm beginning to believe that going to a theater is pointless unless it's playing a movie with lots of fighting and explosions. It's the whole sonic experience. The DVD is not the same. While I enjoyed Christian Bale's performance in Batman Begins and would say that it was a really good film, I never really compared it to the previous Batman films because it was all about Bruce Wayne/Batman rather than the villains. The Dark Knight on the other hand is all about the villain--Batman, despite the title, is actually more like a strong secondary character. When people say that the antagonist is the foil to the protagonist, I'd say the protagonist is the foil to the antagonist. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker steals every scene. While Jack Nicholson's Joker in the original 1989 movie was like an obnoxious and petulant teenager hopped up on too many happy pills, the Joker in The Dark Knight is devoid of all self-preservation, psychotic and compelling all rolled into one. He creeps you out even while he makes you laugh. The more philosophical bent of the film was interesting. Some might argue that this elevates this beyond the superhero genre. Partly it's about the concept of morality as being not so black and white. It's also about rules and the lack thereof. While law-abiding citizens follow rules, the usual criminals and the mob do things for money, and even Batman follows a code of his own while sinking deeper into moral ambiguity--the Joker follows no rules which makes him far more dangerous than all the other crooks in Gotham combined. I'd have to say that The Dark Knight was probably better than all of the previous Batman films. Or at least I liked it better than the others. Sure, there was plenty of action, cool gadgets, and angsty characters. But I think my favorite scene probably made me understand why some people might want to throw more money at the local theater: the Joker in a nurse's uniform blowing up the General Hospital before escaping on a school bus. Evil and insanity wrapped up in something white and wholesome--the physical embodiment of practically every other characters' (or everyone's, perhaps?) psychological state. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:58 PM : Friday, July 25, 2008 A Sleep-Deprived Note from the Lab I've never been fond of country music. I can barely tolerate it. But after being subjected to almost twenty-four hours of non-stop country music accompanied by bad sing-alongs that should have been confined to a soundproof bathroom, I'm ready to gut someone with a pipette. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:36 AM : Thursday, July 24, 2008 Memes Booking Through Thursday: Beginnings What are your favourite first sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its first sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the first line? I am terrible at memorizing lines to anything. I do not remember first sentences, last sentences, or even middle sentences of books. Nor do I remember lyrics, speeches, poems, Shakespearean monologues, quotes, or anything with more than three words in a certain order. I remember characters and plotlines though. The Thursday Threesome: Toys 'r Us Onesome: Toys--? Any new tech toys at your place? No? What would you like to have that is all sorts of "new and improved" and just hard to live without? None lately. And I can live without quite a bit of technological gadgetry. As for work in the lab, well, anything new and improved would be great. But like all things, one has to consider the budget and whether or not you really need it. Twosome: 'r-- you ready for school to be in session again? Good grief, it's only July, but the Back to School sales have been in place for a few weeks now. Do you have a trinket you're planning on buying for yourself or the kids for this next year? I suppose I'll be as ready as I ever will be. And no, I do not plan on buying anything for school. Threesome: Us--? Nah, nothing fancy going on on this blog space. How about you: any changes planned on your site in the upcoming months? None. Don't have any time to alter the layout. Or the inclination. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:49 AM : Monday, July 21, 2008 Stuff To Read Lots of free books of the SFF variety are available until Sunday. Now I'll have to figure out if I even have time to read any of it. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:02 PM : Sunday, July 20, 2008 An Example of a Typical Weekend I come into lab in the morning thinking that I'll do something that won't take that long and leave me time to go do, oh, some grocery shopping or laundry. And then one thing leads to another and the next time I'm looking at the clock, it's seven in the evening and I've completely missed lunch. Dammit. This makes me feel vaguely resentful of certain grad students who take off Friday for "three-day weekends" and then come back Tuesday to ask me how my weekend went. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:37 PM : Thursday, July 17, 2008 Memes Booking Through Thursday: Vacation Spots Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday? Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip? What/Where are they? This depends on the vacation. If it's mostly for relaxing or I'm going to museums or I happen to be in a place where a bookstore is located nearby, of course I'm going to go in and at least browse. Sometimes I come away with a book and sometimes I don't. I don't really have a favorite bookstore that I visit on trips--probably because I try not to vacation in one place over and over again unless I have good reason. Almost completely unrelated: I recently got an mp3 player and I'm thinking about hacking it so I can read ebooks on it. It's not so much how as "do I really want to do it?" I'll probably end up mulling about this idea over the next week or two. But at least it would be more portable than the laptop. The Thursday Threesome: Guys and Dolls Onesome: Guys-- do the darnedest things, -right? What's the darnedest thing you've had a male acquaintance do that you just know a gal would never even think of? (Okay, girls, toilet seats do not count on this one!) Of course it doesn't count--especially if a girl learns to pee standing upright. And unless it's related to his physiology, if a guy does something weird, I usually chalk it up to that particular individual. It rarely crosses my mind that "this is something only a guy would do" or conversely, "this is something only a girl would do." I'm an equalist--which means that I believe that both sexes have the capacity for stupidity. Twosome: and-- to turn it around, what's the darnedest thing you've had a female acquaintance do that you just know a guy would never even think of? (Okay, guys, that hair-flip move doesn't count either...) See above. Also, I think some things are socially conditioned. The other gender may be thinking it (there's always the possibility, of course, since no one has invented a mind reading machine) but he won't do it because he was taught not to do it. Besides, I've seen guys with long hair do hair-flips before. Threesome: Doll--ing yourself up? What is your idea of dress-up? Hmmm... Let's go with Summer wear for now! My normal mode of dress is jeans and t-shirt. So pretty much anything else is dress up. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:02 AM : Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Written Word Immersion So I was reading this article about dismantling the assumption that most romance readers "self-insert" in the novels that they consume. This made me wonder how people approach any type of reading. Judging from the comments, it's probably foolhardy to make generalizations about groups of readers. Nobody reads the same way. Sure, there will be those who will read as if they were the main character. Others, not so much or not at all. I read fiction as if I were the Sphere peeking into Flatland--only with the added dimension of getting into the characters' heads. Yet I don't want to be a character at all, which probably explains why I dislike most books written in first person. For some reason, this also reminded me of the forums for National Novel Writing Month. Every year, there will be some writers posting about how their muse will give them ideas or how their characters will talk to them. And every year, I will roll my eyes about those posts. But hey, if that's how those people write, then let them be, no matter how irrational and idiotic I may privately think their methods are. That's the sort of approach I have with other people's reading habits: they can read however the heck they want, even if I think it's stupid or politically incorrect. How one reads is a matter of interpretation, not right and wrong. Aside: Recently, I was in a conversation about fantasy books and the subject of a Certain Novel came up. Although I have not read this book, I had already formed some negative opinions on it due to a variety of reviews and the author's background. However, I managed to hold my tongue before completely shooting down a fan's enthusiasm. Because I haven't read the book, my opinion on the matter probably holds little water anyway. And even if I had read the book, that doesn't make someone else's opinion invalid. As for other people pontificating their negative views on things they haven't read and looking down on people who have read it, well, they run the risk of looking like self-important chumps (even if they are literature profs, editors, book critics in the New York Times or somebody's grandmother). [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:29 PM : Saturday, July 12, 2008 Rash Decisions In a recent conversation, a young woman--not yet twenty but eager to get married despite her parents' disapproval--articulated to me of her anxiousness to be grown-up. Her idea of being grown-up is of the white picket fence variety. (Mine involves more abstract concepts--like tediousness and responsibility.) But it's probably not about being grown-up at all. Although I suspect this is the result of hormones and a religious upbringing, I'm not foolish enough to think that any advice I might give will have any weight. Yet, even though I'm of the opinion that people should have the freedom to make their own mistakes, I can't help inwardly cringing about life altering decisions with a high probability of future grief. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:54 PM : Thursday, July 10, 2008 Memes Booking Through Thursday: Doomsday What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable? Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop...what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit? I don't really have a favorite source for books. I go to a bunch of different places to get my book fix--and if none of the stores/libraries have what I want, then I turn to the internet. Now if I did have a favorite source and for whatever reason, it went out of business or burned to the ground, I would be sad, sure. But that wouldn't be the only place that purveyed books so I wouldn't be too worried about getting my book supply suddenly cut off. The Thursday Threesome: Filling Out Forms Onesome: Filling-- the ol' fuel tank is getting to be real interesting lately...What are gas prices doing in your area this summer? Last time I checked, it was $4.11. Twosome: Out- and about and you're out of cash: the ATM or the store for a few bucks over on the check? Oh! ...and debit or credit? ...or are you a 'cash economy' person? I try not to rely too much on plastic. Threesome: Forms-- can be a real pain! Do you have a 'favorite' you dislike even to think about? (...and no, the income tax forms are 'exempt' from this question!) Any paperwork involving budgets. It's not about the math--I just don't like thinking about money. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:55 AM : Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Science Linkage Hey, it's Tangled Bank #109, the LOL Evolution! edition over at Greg Laden's Blog. I'd tell you all about this collection of articles, but I think the subtitle says it all. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:02 PM : Sunday, July 06, 2008 A Game DayMare Town 2. If you're playing this in a dark room, some of the characters will scare the crap out of you. Then again, try taking the balloon away from the librarian without giving him something to read--and laugh hysterically. It's creepier and funnier than the first one. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:35 PM : Saturday, July 05, 2008 Overheard Conversation About Black Sheep "My brother lives with my parents, but at least he's still not in jail." "Well, some people just take the harder road." "And my mom was really happy when my daughter was born. She was her first legitimate grandchild." [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:30 PM : Thursday, July 03, 2008 Memes Booking Through Thursday: Holidays It’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S., so let’s keep today’s question simple–What are you reading? Anything special? Any particularly juicy summer reading? The only remotely salacious thing on my immediate reading queue right now is Matt Ridley's The Red Queen. Otherwise, I'm currently making good headway through The Difference Engine by Doron Swade (previously mentioned here). The Thursday Threesome: Summer in the City Onesome: "Summer--time and the living is easy"... Are you taking it easy at all this Summer? ...or are you grinding along day by day with no "days off" planned? My advisor's pretty laid back about vacation time, but I really don't feel like taking advantage of his good will like some other grad students in the lab. So I've only taken two vacation days this summer--and only because my parents were visiting. Otherwise, I'm working. How much? Well, there's this rumor going around that I don't sleep. Twosome: in the- Onesome is the first line from a song that was taken from a lullaby. Yeah, how about that, Laurie! Do you recognize it or the play it is taken from? First off, my name is not Laurie. (Aside: That name and its similar derivatives, however, remind me of a girl who lived next door when I was about ten or eleven. Her mother decided to hold her back and make her repeat a grade--not because her grades were bad, they weren't--but because she wasn't "mature" enough. I don't know what the hell that means, especially in regards to kids who aren't even in their teens, but even in my young age, I thought that was an idiotic bit of parenting.) Anyways, I think the song might be from Porgy and Bess. I'm probably wrong though. Threesome: City-- lights? Fireworks tomorrow for you? Do you have a local show to attend? ...or do you kick back with sparklers and and a fountain or two? Have a safe and fun 4th, gang! I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow. If I do anything, it would be a spur of the moment thing. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:50 AM : |
