| I hate Bayesianism |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|07:19 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Cure - One Hundred Years | ] |
I want no more equations in my philosophy readings!
To be fair, I would probably hate it less if I actually understood it, rather than having to essentially guess what a particular equation means. But as it is, I reiterate: I hate Bayesianism. |
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| 5 Things I Like, 5 Things I Don't Like |
[Nov. 1st, 2008|06:39 pm] |
Five Things I Don't Like Today
- Daylight Savings Time. I have no use for morning light - in fact, it continues to irritate me by waking me up before I have to wake up. I would definitely like the light part of the day extended into the evening, not into the morning.
- My perpetual headache. Stupid sinuses.
- Pinky toe blisters
- The new diet. I am glad to feel like I'm in control of myself again, but a part of what I enjoy about the eatification is the excess. For example, I prefer the big box of Sweettarts to the tube, not only because the box contains thinner (and thus more dissolvable) tarts but because the tube is much more finite. You eat one and eat one and suddenly they're all gone. The box is big enough that you can absently reach for a handful of them all afternoon without running out. Or there are foods where a large part of the experience is not just the taste, but filling your mouth with it. (Molasses goks - nibble them and they're okay. Stuff a whole cookie in your mouth - devour - and they're quite wonderful.) I enjoy devouring and devouring is just not an option in my near future.
- 156! My god!
Five Things I Do Like Today
- Record show tomorrow
- Apple cider vinegar (as a primary component in the salad dressing I make, which makes eating large amounts of salad appealing)
- The mediocrity of Crunch bars, which means I can resist devouring the leftover Halloween candy
- It's only Saturday, even thought it feels like Sunday
- I worked out
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| Destruction on the Porch! |
[Jan. 21st, 2008|01:43 am] |
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Things kind of like this have happened before: Several times, Shaun's ashtray out on the front porch has been mysteriously emptied. A week or two after Halloween, as my pumpkins began to decay on the front steps, I went to throw them out, only to find that they were already gone. We've assumed fastidious neighbors; I've quietly been annoyed at the tacit judgment of the way we keep our porch (it's not shared, it's just ours), but it's not really an issue. Tonight, however, Shaun went out to smoke, and found the ashtray, previously stuffed with butts, empty and smashed. The weather's been odd, so I wondered if it (heavy glass) could have shattered on its own from shifts in temperature, or extreme cold, but that would be a cracking, not like this, not in several (like 8) pieces, some on the table, some on the floor. Someone smashed it. Whether it's the same person who emptied it, we aren't sure. Either way, it's very worrisome. I guess the possibilities are fastidiously neat neighbors who empty our ashtray and throw away our pumpkins, plus a random smasher, or fastidiously neat neighbors who empty our ashtray, throw away our pumpkins, and get very angry when we don't empty the ashtray ourselves. Neither of which is very good. At best, it's a random act of destruction; at worst, a deliberate expression of hostility towards us or him (in the middle, a deliberate expression of hostility towards smoking or poor porch hygiene? I guess?). Either way, I'm creeped out by it. |
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| Comforts |
[Jan. 14th, 2008|08:27 pm] |
In no particular order.
- '80s music. Not just any music from the 1980s, but that stuff that is '80s Music - the songs everyone knows and associates from the eighties. New wave and pop mostly, a bit of hair metal... the kind of things that get played at '80s events.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Stuffed animals large enough to properly hug
- My kitty, when she's behaving herself. Like a stuffed animal, but warm, and prone to licking one's face if you let her. Very nice if one has been crying, although her tongue is really too rough for it to actually be comfortable.
- Being curled up under a large amount of blankets
- Certainly there are foods, but I'm having a hard time identifying which ones, exactly.
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| Covers I Love |
[Jan. 14th, 2008|03:27 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | music | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Birthday Party - Junkyard | ] |
Cradle of Filth - "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (Iron Maiden original): dedicated Maiden fans and dedicated Cradle of Filth deprecators all hate this song. I think it's everything a cover should be - the original song has a definite presence, isn't obscured by the changes the covering band has made (as is, say, The Cure's cover of "Purple Haze," which barely even has the same melody as the original), yet the covering band has a definite presence too, has definitely made it theirs. If you either hate the sound of CoF, which is undeniably infused in the song, or consider covering Iron Maiden to be blasphemy, I can see why you'd hate the cover. But if you don't, I think it's a really awesome cover.
Judas Priest - "Diamonds and Rust" (Joan Baez original): I'm not a Joan Baez fan, so I can't really say that I like the song in and of itself (I've heard the original maybe once?) but I absolutely adore the cover. Of course, I also absolutely adore the covering band, so I am somewhat biased.
Judas Priest - "The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)" (Fleetwood Mac original): again, I have only heard the original a few times. But this song is pretty awesome. Not as good as Diamonds and Rust, but definitely one of the songs that would make my top... 25? 15? Judas Priest songs.
Lydia Lunch with Rowland Howard - "Some Velvet Morning" (Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood original): I downloaded this as part of a compilation and didn't listen to it for a long time. When I finally discovered it, I was decidedly impressed (I really like the sleaziness of the male vocals in particular). It turns out I'd also had the original for a long time, too, also unlistened-to. The original is pretty cool too, although predictably more poppy and less dark. It's a very compelling song.
Placebo - "Running Up That Hill" (Kate Bush original): another where I've never heard the original, but I really like the cover. (It was in the soundtrack of a TV show, and struck me enough that I hunted it down.) I generally think Placebo is... okay. I'll probably always be able to call "Pure Morning" to mind from the heavy radio play it got in that short stretch when I actually listened to radio, but don't even have an mp3 of it. I swear there was at least one other Placebo song I used to know, but I can't figure out what it was... Anyway, the band does not particularly impress me. And while I've never heard the original, I get the impression it's a lot poppier and a lot less dark than the cover. So this one, okay band + okay song = good cover, which is a more interesting equation than some of the others (good band + good song = good cover, good band + okay song = good cover, okay band + good song = good cover). |
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| You all won't care, but... |
[Jan. 11th, 2008|07:38 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | crafts | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Mission - Daddy's Going to Heaven Now | ] |
...My Deep-Sea Anglerfish that I made for Wally is a Featured Project (on this crafts website where I spend a lot of time)!
There's about 30 featured projects a month - I have no idea how many projects are posted total monthly, but it's a website with over 100,000 members so it's a lot! Yay!
Nobody else will care, but I'm happy about it (obviously, I've used three exclamation points in four sentences). |
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| On The Move |
[May. 7th, 2007|09:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pleased | ] |
So the lack of posting is indicative not so much of nothing happening but of happiness. I've always used my livejournal more for complaining (and close relatives of complaining, such as moody contemplation) than anything else. But here, I have something that is actually legitimately worth saying: I have an apartment! Shaun (boyfriend) and I are moving in to a lovely 2-bedroom apartment on June 1st; we found out today that the landlord accepted our application. I am enthused. It's a beautiful apartment and I'm looking forward to living with him.
( A Few Pictures )
Unfortunately I don't have some of the most impressive pictures, such as the one of the room that will most likely become a combined study and TV room (I have a picture of its ceiling - but I doubt anyone is as interested in this as I am anyways). We also acquired a nice dresser set in dark wood at a garage sale on Saturday. Eee, it's so exciting!!!
Also, since I don't think I've ever mentioned it here, I'm going to University of Rochester (hence, the apartment-getting in Rochester) in the fall (for a PhD in Philosophy, for those who aren't aware). I'm still working at the second assignment I got through the temp agency, and it's working out quite well. The work itself is not bad, and the atmosphere is very casual and pleasant - even elsewhere within the company it's not so relaxed. I'm now working full-time and shall hopefully continue to do so until such a time as school prevents it.
So, life is good, and soon I will have a pretty apartment with my pretty boy. Yay! |
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| Gadzooks! |
[Dec. 20th, 2006|03:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Hagalaz' Runedance - Wake Skadi | ] |
I've just completed my last final - which is, to say, I've just completed my undergraduate career. I am done, for real.
Also, I've just submitted the last of my grad school applications, serving as a reminder that I am by no means done being a student, just done with here.
I've applied to: Arizona, Brown, Cornell, MIT, NYU, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Rutgers, Stanford, and UMass.
As to what happens now, I'm going back to Rochester tomorrow, and the plan is to get a job and live there (and, I'm afraid, probably at home, unless I get a good job and the school I end up going to isn't in a heinously expensive city) until it's time to move to wherever grad school is. I'll find out where I got in in March-April. |
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| I'm totally, totally lame, if you didn't know. |
[Oct. 25th, 2006|07:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  dorky | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Kiss - Keep Me Comin' | ] |
This is dumb.
A guy proving that vampires couldn't exist. Well, okay, yes, I don't believe that vampires exist; it's not his conclusion that bothers me. But first, I think society has much larger problems than some people believing in zombies or vampires, but apparently this guy thinks that these things are serious matters. I suppose that is a matter of opinion, but I still think it's a pretty silly project in the first place. Second, his alleged means of disproving is flawed. Considering the population is an interesting approach, but he's clearly operating under a specific mythology - and of course, any person who is at least slightly dorky and "dark"ly inclined can rattle of details of several distinct vampire mythologies (I myself am fairly well-versed in at least three, and I can think of several other sources with which I'm not familiar, but many are, right off the top of my head). Many of these mythologies have it that vampires do not create other vampires instantly - therefore meaning his exponential calculation - one creates another, those two create one each, so there are four, four becomes eight, and so on - isn't applicable. If we accept, for example, the vampire mythology and rules of either Anne Rice or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and related), vampire victims do not necessarily become vampires themselves; most vampire victims in these two mythologies die, and are just dead, not undead vampires (to become a vampire, the victim must, after having been fed upon, brought close to death, consume some of the vampire's blood). Therefore his calculation doesn't really show anything. Of course, the mythology he is using may be more in keeping with traditional lore about vampires (I don't know, in fact, and I have my doubts that every version of vampire myth clearly described the way in which new vampires were made), but the mere fact that it's traditional doesn't mean it's "correct." So if we accept his project in the first place, all he's done is show that traditional vampire mythology could not be true. Which isn't going to be very convincing to anyone who really wants to believe in vampires.
It's really kinda cute, though, that he does this. I wonder if it's a side project, or if he really does devote his time to figuring out ways to convince people who genuinely believe in vampires and the like to do otherwise. I wonder what his "proof" that zombies couldn't exist is.... |
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phades's journal