BEDA #21: Happy birthday, Game Boy!

Wow does this make me nostalgic. It's the 25th anniversary of the day the first Game Boy came out! I didn't have the original, but I did get the Game Boy Pocket around when it came out in 1996. I was around 6 or 7 when I got it. I remember I had two Batman games, Tetris, and Pokemon Red. Those were the days. Funnily enough, I still have my Pokemon Red with my Game Boy Advanced. I think it's the only Game Boy game that survived all of the moves and the years in between. It was always my favorite. I might have to break it out now and start a new game.

I never really got into hand held consoles after the Game Boy Advanced. I got into console gaming with my friends and that took the place of my need to get the newest Game Boy or DS. I would have only gotten those for the new Pokemon games probably anyway. I had the Game Boy Advanced SP, but I never really used it and I don't have it anymore.

Speaking of Pokemon, I have a question for all of you guys.

Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander?

BEDA 20: A Substitute

For Gigi.

(The polar bear cubs are twins in the zoo of Munich and I've actually seen them a couple of weeks ago - they're super cute and super fluffy ^___^)

BEDA 19: If I Could Be Doing Anything Else

So I was going to talk about Pan's Labyrinth today. But I realized that I left all my pictures on my desktop at home... Soooo that's going to have to wait.

Seeing as I had no idea what to write about, I combed through the internet and came across a .pdf with 365 writing prompts. So without further ado I give you the question for today: April 19th 2014.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be,
and why? If that seems too easy, try this one: who would you
like to have spend a day as you and what do you hope they’d
learn from the experience?

I think if I could have been anyone else for the day I would have been one of those crazy wild life photographers/videographers who work for Discovery. I've always had a strange fascination with sharks. Maybe I could have been one of those crazy people who go down in the cages to film the marine biologists and television personalities hosting those specials.

As for the second part of the question. If someone else could have been me for the day, I would hope that they were a really driven and productive person. Maybe a really awesome writer who would have sat down and pumped out 7,000 words on my Camp Nanowrimo story. I'm just not sure who I would want to be my writer replacement. Do you guys have any ideas?

A Brief History of Tuning Forks

Tuning forks are a novel item in the music sphere, and are one of the most popular symbols used to represent music and related subjects.  But beyond seeing the hundreds of crappy clip art images of these fun objects, how many of you have actually used one?  The tuning fork has an interesting story, so I would like to share it with you now.

In 1711, a trumpeter/instrument maker by the name of John Snore (he was homies with Handel).  At the time, musicians would use wooden pipes to tune up.  However, this method was unreliable because the wood was easy affected by changes in humidity and temperature.  The pitch fork on the other hand, is able to maintain the same pitch and also produces a pure tone, or sine wave (fun fact you too can produce a sine wave, just whistle).

Anyway so the reason I decided to write about this is because of the following fact: tuning forks were used for medical purposes in the late 19th century.  The way tuning forks work, is that when you hit it on something, it vibrates to make a pitch, which can be amplified when you place it on a solid surface like wood or metal (or bone).  Doctors would use these vibrations to locate broken bones!  What they would do was strike the fork to make it vibrate, move it along the area of the body that was supposed to be broken, then when the patient started feeling pain from the vibration they'd be all "Found the spot guys!"

Just thought I'd share that, be thankful for x-rays.


 

BEDA 16: Literally.

There's currently a post around on Tumblr, where somebody literally translated German idioms/phrases and I find that really funny, so I thought I'd compile a list for you as well. Those are all phrases that we actually use often in conversations (I feel like I never really hear any English idioms I learned in school. "Oh man, there's really no room to swing a cat!")

Your English is under all pig.
Dein Englisch ist unter aller Sau.
What it means: "Your English is bad."

I believe I spider.
Ich glaube ich spinne.
What it means: "I think I'm going crazy."

I believe me kicks a horse.
Ich glaub mich tritt ein Pferd.
What it means: it's something you exclaim when you can't believe something

Nobody can reach me the water.
Niemand kann mir das Wasser reichen.
What it means: "Nobody is as good as me."

I see black for you.
Ich sehe schwarz für dich.
What it means: "I think it doesn't look good for you."

I get foxdevilswild.
Ich werde fuchsteufelswild.
What it means: "I get really really angry."

I understand only train station.
Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
What it means: "I don't understand anything."

Now we have the salad.
Da haben wir den Salat.
What it means: "Now we have a mess."

That's spanish villages to me.
Das sind spanische Dörfer für mich.
What it means: "That something I don't know anything about."

At the ass of the world.
am Arsch der Welt
What it means: "The middle of nowhere."

To be over the mountain.
über den Berg sein
What it means: "To be out of the woods."

To have a roof damage.
einen Dachschaden haben
What it means: to be crazy

To step into the fat pot.
ins Fettnäpfchen treten
What it means: to embarrass yourself

He has bumblebees in the butt.
Er hat Hummeln im Hintern.
What it means: when somebody can't sit still

That comes me not in the bag.
Das kommt mir nicht in die Tüte.
What it means: "I don't accept that."

Sponge over.
Schwamm drüber.
What it means: "It's water under the bridge."

He made us a line through the bill.
Er machte uns einen Strich durch die Rechnung.
What it means: when somebody spoils something for you

That's sausage to me.
Das ist mir wurst.
What it means: "I don't care."

I have now really the nose full.
Ich habe jetzt wirklich die Nase voll.
What it means: to have enough

Everything for the cat.
Alles für die Katz.
What it means: "All for nothing."

To sell somebody for stupid.
Jemand für dumm verkaufen.
What it means: to take somebody for a fool

BEDA 15: It's the last day.

This is a little overdue, but let's ignore that.

As I write this, it's the night before my last ever day of class in university. I almost didn't realise this until like ten minutes ago, and now that it has dawned on me, I haven't decide how I should feel about it. I've been grappling with the idea of finally being done with my undergraduate degree and leaving university for the past semester, often with a rollercoaster of emotions alongside it. But right now - it's just blank. It feels like it should be another day, but the fact is - it's not. In fact, it's pretty momentous. With the exception of sitting for two exams, I never have to set foot in a lecture hall as an undergrad ever again.

I think the main question that I need answered right now is: Where the hell did the last 3 years and 3 months go to? And how the hell did I find myself about to embark into the working world as a... *gasp* adult?

It's weird. It feels like I've outgrown the place, but at the same time, I want so much to cling onto the comfort and familiarity of this place where I've spent so much time in. Where I've learnt, and grown. Made mistakes and friends. Cried and complained. It's been the ups and downs. And in the end, it's the last day and I'll have to bid goodbye to "the best years" of my life.

In the end, the memories have been made and it's time to go. Tomorrow changes nothing.

Some of you have graduated already. Did you feel like your last day was momentous?

BEDA 14: Neville and Luna: an excuse to talk about The Lord of the Rings

So I was in a conversation recently about the semi-canon ship that is Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. I need not go into details: we all know them. But something new occurred to me about this pairing, namely that they are incredibly similar to the Lord of the Rings coupling of Eowyn and Faramir.

So my thinking goes like this:
Faramir is the younger brother. He is least favoured, and loves his elder brother dearly, not begrudging him the limelight. Through story he grows into himself, earns the love of everyone through great deeds, and in the aftermath finds himself in the company of Eowyn.

Eowyn is an oddity. Cast in a female role in a male dominated world, she wants to fight. Determined to do her own thing against social wisdom, she succeeds with the help of a few friends. Having fought and proven herself against the most fell of opponents, she finds herself in the company of Faramir.

Now whether or not a pairing of these two underdogs is suitable or not is up for debate. I personally like the pairing, but can't say why. Certainly when I first read the chapter in The Return of the King devoted to them I was slightly bored, and then decided that it was a neat tying of loose ends. But then, I was probably about 9 and mostly wanted to get back to some action.

But are they Neville and Luna?
Neville is certainly in a younger brother position in the story. Despite being an only child, he is almost explicitly cast as an alternative to Harry. Despite being, early on, something of a 'loser', he is always loyal to Harry, never begrudging him the limelight. Through the story he grows into himself, earns the love of everyone through great deeds, and in the aftermath, of the films at least, finds himself in the company of Luna.

Luna is an oddity. She is always determined to do her own thing against social wisdom, and although Eowyn's general unhappiness in life is more clearly shown, we see in Luna's bedroom a glimpse of just how much she needed the friends she made in Dumbledore's Army. She succeeds, and proves herself to everyone, and in the aftermath, of the films at least, finds herself in the company of Neville.

So if you want some inspiration for.... Luville? Nena? Read that chapter of The Return of the King about Faramir and Eowyn. I can't remember which chapter it is, and the books are upstairs, and I really need to do some studying...

BEDA #13: Superhero Movies and DC

So I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier last night, and it got me thinking about superhero movies and stuff about DC and Marvel, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about them..

Big disclaimer here: These are my opinions. I am going to be blunt about them because I get pretty passionate about these movies. It's perfectly fine if you like a movie that I didn't or if you disagree with me on certain points. Also, keep in mind that my knowledge of comics comes mostly from the movies and a little bit of research for fun. I haven't really read DC or Marvel comics. I am a fan of both DC and Marvel by the way, so this isn't a partisan attack for either side.

Also, there will probably be spoilers here, besides Captain America: The Winter Soldier probably because that just came out, but I'm just warning you that if you care about spoilers for past superhero movies, then DO NOT READ FURTHER!


Now then...

I loved the new Captain America movie. It's better than the original, which I liked as well. If you like superhero movies, I recommend it because the events that occur during it will shape the landscape of Marvel movies for years to come.

But something is really bothering me. Almost all the good superhero movies that have come out recently have been Marvel. Where is DC?

Marvel is a movie making machine. They are like rabbits multiplying. Not only that, but most of their recent superhero movies have been great. Sure there have been some hiccups. *cough* Iron Man 3 *cough* But for the most part, Marvel has been solid, and more than that, they have a well orchestrated plan of attack and they have delivered. They have movies planned into the next decade at least!

So I ask again, where is DC? What in the world are they doing that's so important that they've let Marvel had the field all to themselves?

Another Batman movie. Another Superman movie.

Marvel may have had its screw ups, but they at least are zooming around the track and have their head in the game. DC hasn't even put its foot on the gas pedal.

Why do I say this? Do I hate Batman or Superman? No! But look at what Marvel is doing with it's movies and now its TV show Agents of Shield, they are creating a universe with stories that are intimately linked to one another and broadening their scope to give even their lesser known heroes and villains a place in their shared universe. Ten years, no one seriously thought that Marvel could make an Avengers movie work. There are just two many pieces you have to movie together, and if it falls flat then you've ruined your chance at making it for at least a generation.

Then Iron Man happened. It was a great film in its own right and established the character well. Then after the credits, out of nowhere, Samuel Jackson appeared to tell Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative. All bets were off and it was going to happen. Marvel was going to try to do the impossible, and you know what? They did it. The Avengers was awesome and they continue to impress with their boldness, especially after the second Captain America movie.

On the other hand, DC hasn't made a non-Batman or Superman movie in decades besides Green Lantern (and that movie sucked). Why? Because they're scared. They know that if they keep remaking Batman every few years, they will rake in millions because of the Batman brand. Same with Superman, even if the movies are terrible. They have been totally unwilling to branch out to other equally popular DC heroes because they might not make quite as much money as if they just stuck with their two cash cows. They aren't taking risks and Marvel knows it. They're rubbing it in their faces.

Here's an example: Wonder Woman. How great would it be if DC came out with a Wonder Woman movie that rocked? They would blow everything out of the water. The one thing Marvel has yet to do it make a movie with a strong female lead. Black Widow may be a kickass female character, but she has never been the center of the action. If done well, a Wonder Woman movie would make huge amounts of money for DC because you'd get all the regulars to these kinds of movies, but Wonder Woman could potentially draw in a huge female audience that Black Widow just doesn't because Wonder Woman is a much better role model for little girls and teens. Besides, Wonder Woman has a rich backstory that could be used in so many cool ways. How has DC responded to this in the past? They've said they can't do it right now because they "want to get it right".

Meanwhile, Marvel's next movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy, stars a talking raccoon and a living tree. And it's going to be awesome. DC you really can't make a movie about a hero with lady parts? Really? Come on.

I understand their desire to get the movie right, but that doesn't give them a blanket excuse to never make a movie that doesn't star Batman or Superman. At some point DC, you have to get off your ass take the leap of faith. Your fans will reward you.

I have some hope that they will be taking this advice, given that they have a Wonder Woman cast for Man of Steel 2, but it's really not enough. Step out of the box you've placed yourself in. The water's fine. I know you can do better. I want you to do better. You have a vast array of superheroes and villains to work with and there's plenty of story to tell that doesn't include Batman or Superman.

I wanted to talk about DC's most recent flub titled, That One Time They Tried to Make Superman an Emo Teenager (a.k.a. Man of Steel), but I've already typed a bunch and I am hungry. Maybe next time.

Some incoherent thoughts (from places?)

This morning I took a walk, as I do almost every morning, but this particular time I was on the hunt for something pretty rare: silence. I did this week’s art assignment, and the task was to go out and find the quietest place in your neighborhood. This was pretty easy for me, due to the fact that I live in the middle of nowhere, as they call it. But it got me to think about all the places, I’ve been, and their sounds.

Maybe it’s because I just got back from Greece, where I travelled around the Peleponnesos by bus with a gang of twenty twenty-something nerds. The last time I’d been on a study trip had been when I was seventeen, and as it turns out, teenage people constantly produce noise, so when I woke up when we were driving last week, I was startled that I didn’t hear anything. I looked around, and most of my classmates were sleeping, or silently reading a book, or having whispered conversations about their stance on the Homer debate. It made me really happy. I guess that’s one of the perks of travelling with nerds.

But then again, I spend most of my time in Amsterdam, a city filled with so many different sounds that it’s hard to determine what’s what: Passing cars, bikes, scooters, footsteps, voices, ringing noises, sighs, music, air. And then the other cities I’ve been: Rome, London, Berlin, Antwerp, Liverpool. They’re all pretty much the same, noise-wise, except perhaps the languages you hear. (I can only think of one exception to this rule: I once sat in the Kop stands of Anfield stadium at a Liverpool football match, and the sounds I heard there were simply majestic. Thousands and thousands of people, mostly grown-up men were singing so loud that the entire space was booming. It was beautiful. Even though they also yelled a lot of curse words.)

I’d say there’s at least as much art in loud cities as there was in the field I ended up in this morning, which was very pretty. If you want to see it, I videotaped it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC981DW16x0&feature=youtu.be

Anxiety Presentations

Today I shall tell you about my most recent presentation experience.

On Tuesday we had a Science Day at our university. That sounds like a big deal but it isn't. In fact, I am fairly sure that despite publicizing, no one else knows about it besides the people attending the Popularizing Science course. Which is a course that I am indeed attending. The goal was to talk about a sciencey thing, like your own thesis, in a way that would be interesting and understandable to a layman audience – Science Day being open for all. Popularized science, sort of like Sci-Show – though I think they occasionally use more jargon than would be encouraged in a presentation like this.

Anyways, I was to speak about crystal skulls for about 20 minutes. I was pretty nervous. I hadn't practiced much and I wasn't even sure whether my presentation was any good, though I had written a word for word script of what I would say, even trying to add humorous tone in places. I tested it on my mother who started questioning the way I spoke (”Do you always speak in such a mixture of literal and dialect?” * ”Do you do this intentionally or...?”) and the fact that I had to repeat a guy's name several times during the presentation. Since his name is a hyphenated combo my mother thought I was repeating both the first and last names of the person. And I felt the little touch of humorous tone I had written also sounded like crap. So this really did not boost my confidence all that much the evening before the presentation.

Before the presentations, a woman sitting near me started having a chat with me (this course is odd, with these people who seem to just start chatting up with people they don't know, saying friendly good mornings and all. I am not used to this!). She was nervous about her presentation as well. Though her worries were about shaking and fainting while mine were related to forgetting things, making slip-ups and staring at my paper too much. But, during our chat, I started to fixate on another worry: what if I sound like the driest speaker ever. No humor, just monotonic reading off my notes. I thought back to all the most horrendous presentations I'd seen before. Then I realized that I hadn't actually held a presentation all alone during the whole time I've spent at the university. Which is actually pretty amazing – just, how? But really, not the best thing to realize right before a presentation.

I was not actually as scared of performing as I thought I would be, especially as a person who has become more shy over the years and likely suffers from social anxiety. I think I was numbing myself in some sort of self defense. No idea really. I just know I felt weird and my mind was trying to assure itself that no outsiders would bother showing up, and that no one in there cared. Of course my mind also nagged back about trying to lull itself into a false sense of security. But really, a presentation just happens one time, something horrendous happening didn't even cross my mind, surprisingly enough.

The thing that really made me nervous was the fact that the teacher was going to record us and we will have to watch the videos of ourselves performing and write an analysis about it. Presentations happen once. I can forget about them. I can't see myself and I seem to forget what I'm saying as I'm saying it because of the off numbness. See I generally have a problem where I over analyze just about every social interaction I have, I find that one flaw and it will bother me till the day I die. I might stay up nights thinking about it. And when I feel particularly down, while trying to sleep, suddenly I remember all of these little things whether I want to or not. This is what social anxiety does to me. On top of this, I have body image issues.

So what I am saying is that I am scared to death of watching a recording of myself do the presentation. I'm worried that I will find all the flaws I hadn't before, and that I will roll them in my head over and over again. I will be thoroughly embarrassed by them and then I'm going to actually be terrified of holding a presentation ever again. Rational or not. The ironic thing will be that this is the exact opposite of what the recording is supposed to do. A part of the point of us watching the recording is that we will see that our nervousness doesn't show. This is supposed to make us feel better about performing. I am just hoping that I will go numb again and just push through it, which is probably what I am going to do since I do have to do this in order to pass the course.

I think the actual presentation went well, though! I got a positive experience out of it (which is also a part of the reason I don't want to ruin it by watching the recording). Turns out I barely looked at my notes and I didn't end up being dry and monotonic. Something about the situation made me able to have the humorous tone in a natural way, even throwing in some added comments. I got chuckles out of the audience, which felt great. It was just easier to play off of a real audience, well, at least this particular audience. What was even better was that when it was time for questions, I got asked the questions I had hoped would be asked, because I couldn't fit the information in the actual presentation in a way that would make sense, and it bugged me. I also actually remembered things and sounded like I knew what I was talking about, unlike I had feared. The written feedback I got was also positive. The main critique was that I had too much text on some slides, which was something I was already fully aware of and didn't mind.

The thing that I would like to solve though, is that my mouth gets really dry during presentations or when I'm nervous. It makes it harder to speak when the inside of your lip wants to cling to your teeth like a desperate koala bear and your tongue feels like it's passed that cow skull every desert seems to have for the fifth time. I think I might actually have to start using a water bottle, though I'm not sure even that will help.

So. If you ever want to know something about crystal skulls... don't ask me. I've written two articles about them, I have talked about them with my friends, and I have held two presentations about them, as well as watched two shitty documentaries about them more often than I would have liked to, making me pretty sick of talking about them. My written feedback mistook this for me being passionate about the subject. I am not. It just happens to be an easy subject for me.

Okay, fine, you can ask me. Mitchell-Hedges was an amusing character and I will talk about him.

Do you have any worst/best presentation experiences to share? Do you get extremely anxious about presentations?

*Spoken Finnish is, in most regions, different from written. Speaking completely grammatically correct Finnish sounds weird to most, including me. Also, we do not have accents, we have dialects.

Student Government

So I don't know how things work at all of your schools, but here we have a student government called ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California). They are comprised of a President, Vice President, a few other positions I can't remember, and a 20-member senate.

We've been having elections this week; they actually end at midnight tonight. So everyone running and their supporters have been pestering all their friends to vote for them, to care about their platforms, etc. And I'm honestly very disenchanted by it all.

Here at UC Berkeley we pay completely ridiculous amounts of money for a less-than-useful degree...

We have a UC President whose work experience involved Homeland Security, aka deporting thousands of immigrants, separating them from their families, sometimes killing them at the border and leaving them unidentified...

http://www.dailycal.org/2013/07/16/against-the-napolitano-nomination/

And I hear most of the candidates go up there and say "Our school is great! Let's have school spirit! Let's improve the room reservation system! Let's hold people accountable! Let's be transparent! Let's make positive change!"

It feels like the students here who have power don't want to use it to really change the shitty stuff going on. Which is making me pretty upset, if you can't tell. And the same people are going to keep getting elected, because they have the time to run for office, because they don't have to work, because their parents make enough to send them here. And because they're the popular cool kids.

Hahahaha I am very frustrated about all this

Do you guys have student governments and are they similarly artificial?

BEDA #9: Favourite Directors and Filmography

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this post in the last few days and I've come to a conclusion. I do not have one favourite director... I have multiple.

So here goes nothing:

Honourable Mention: The German Expressionist Movement.

Not a director... but a movement in film history.

I love this stuff. While the US was busily trying to make movie magic make sense and be as close to real life as possible, the crazy German filmmakers decided, you know what. Let's take our crazy fever dreams and put them up on the big silver screen.

German Expressionist film is obsessed with light versus dark and good versus evil.It's characterized by it's wacky sets and overacting. These guys were so dedicated to creating their dark and twisted worlds they went as far as painting objects shadows on the ground because they couldn't manipulate the light to do what they wanted.

German Expressionism went on to influence Hollywood popping up in things like detective movies and influencing current directors like Tim Burton.
 
I RECOMMEND: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Calligari & Metropolis

Christopher Nolan

I really like Nolan's obsession with gritty city scapes. The first movie I ever saw by Christopher Nolan was Memento. It had been recommended to me by a few people when I first started making noise that I wanted to go into film. It wasn't until my first year at university did I finally sit down and watch it.

Stop and think about movies for a moment. There is a certain language to cinema that we're all fairly accustomed to. As a viewer you know that if the screen is showing a man looking at something and then it cuts to an object that it is telling you: hey, that man is looking at that object. As we've grown up with movies and tv we've been taught this language.

In Memento Nolan throws all of that out the window. The story is told backwards, trust me it makes a lot of sense when you watch it. At the same time it always reminds me of this xkcd comic:

http://xkcd.com/270/

Since the Batman movies, Nolan hasn't really done anything too experimental. The closest he's come to that being Inception, but that was more story than playing with the actual medium of film. I'm interested to see what he comes up with now that he's able to go off and do his own stuff again. Only time will tell.

I RECOMMEND: Inception, Memento

Guillermo del Toro

I love del Toro's style. I don't even know how to put it into words. Pan's Labyrinth got me through my Lord of the Rings withdrawal in high school. I love how he uses symbolism throughout the film. I'm not going to go too much into Pan's Labyrinth now and save that for my next post, look at that all of my posts are starting to connect! 

del Toro is passionate about what he does and his passion shines through in his movies. Look at Pacific Rim. That film new exactly what it was, it was giant robots fighting giant monsters. It was big, it was dumb and it was lots of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you watch this one on a large screen to get the full experience.

I RECOMMEND: Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 2 & Pacific Rim

Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick directed my favourite film in the whole wide world: Full Metal Jacket. I don't generally like war movies but my fourth year seminar was in war in fiction and film and because of that I've developed a grudging respect for the genre. I was assigned to give a presentation on combat film with a list of movies I needed to look at. I had watched FMJ before, but it had been years. Over the course of my research I watched the film at least four times. On my final watch through, the night before the presentation I was sitting on my couch almost in a trance from exhaustion and that's when I saw it. I saw the pattern of the shots in the film, the poetry of scene length, and how everything blended together into one perfect whole.

Stanley Kubrick was a perfectionist when it came to his films.There are many stories about how he harassed his actors (read anything about the Shining) and how they would spend days only focuses on specific scenes.

It's really cool to spot the influences that 2001 still has on science fiction movies.

2001 A Space Odyssey on the left and Elysium on the right

I RECOMMEND: Full Metal Jacket, 2001 A Space Odyssey & Dr. Stangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

BEDA #8: Question Tuesday!

Best and worst thing about being a ginger?
The worst thing is definitely the sun burns! I spend 15 minutes in the sun and I turn the color of a tomato, and I'm only slightly exaggerating!
The best thing is probably all of the people telling my how much they love the color of my gorgeous auburn puff. It happens at least a couple of times a week and it's usually little old ladies.
Funny story: when I was very young, 3-5 years old I think, my mom took me tot he grocery store and a couple of nuns came up to me to tell me that they loved my hair, and in response I did an impression of a T-Rex, my favorite dinosaur, by rawring at them like a T-Rex and putting up my fingers like claws and that freaked them out. (This also relates to what job I wanted when I was a kid, which I'll come back to in a sec.)

How is your Nanowrimo story going?
Not as well as I'd like. I have only 2100 words right now... Encouragement? :)

What are your hobbies?
I like writing, obviously otherwise I'd be even more crazy to subject myself to Nanowrimo, but I also really like to watch the show Arrow. It's really good.

Pie or Cake?
Cake! Though it's got to be dairy free.


What was your least favorite subject in high school?
My least favorite subject in high school was math, but specifically Algebra 2/Trig. I had a horrible teacher who thought I was insubordinate and who refused to give me any help when I was floundering in her class because I was "passive-aggressive." I had a 504 which was a documented physical disability, which allowed me to get extra time on tests and she refused to let me get extra time, so I was failing her tests because I wasn't finishing them, until I got retested to make sure I actually needed it (Spoiler alert: after several multi-hour tests on weekends, we figured out that my fine motor skill issues didn't fix themselves). Then after that she treated me like I was a toddler who couldn't understand English. It was humiliating, so yeah. I hated that class and I didn't particularly enjoy math to begin with.

Weirdly, I didn't enjoy English classes very much until my senior year of high school and college. Just goes to show you that things change!


What was the first thing you remember ever wanting to be when you grew up?
I desperately wanted to become a paleontologist when I was five. I knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs and I had watched all the documentaries ever made on dinosaurs. Jurassic Park then scared the crap out of me in the first thirty seconds. I still wanted to be a paleontologist for a while, but I eventually lost almost all of my knowledge about dinosaurs sadly.

Super hero or Super villain?

THOR! ... ahem. Superhero. :)

BEDA #7:***!ANIME!***

So for the majority of my life, I was one of those people who refused to watch anime because I was intimidated by the stereotype of an animated show with tennis ball-eyed school girls, consistently loud, passionate dialogue, and generally odd ball scenes where you start to wonder, "Why are these vegetables committing suicide?"(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzEQ1n7EHPM)   However, college has made me more open-minded to other nerd cultures and, after watching a few, I have come to find that they're actually right up my alley.  So far I've only really ventured into action anime, but who knows, maybe I'll soon find the courage to watch My Bride is a Mermaid.

I started with Cowboy Bebop, which seems like a decent gateway anime.  It's pretty much the animated Japanese version of Firefly, but instead of Nathan Fillion doing what Nathan Fillion does, the rag-tag space crew is led by super cool Spike, a crime syndicate member turned good-guy bounty hunter.  It lacks the extremely crazy bits of the genre, but maintains the comedic anime touches in healthy sprinkles.  Probably one of the best parts about that show is the Jazz theme, which can be seen in the titles and heard throughout the soundtrack.  Tank! is one of the best theme songs I've ever heard, and the title sequence immediately sold me on watching. Also, Ein is the most adorable animated corgi on the planet so bonus.

Go dance to this now.

My next show choice was Fullmetal Alchemist, both FMA and Brotherhood, which focus on two brother alchemists trying to recover things lost to an alchemic transaction gone wrong, all while mastering their "science" and eventually playing a huge role in saving humanity. FMA (the first series to be made) captivated my attention quickly.  It is much heavier in subject matter but makes up for it by adding a lot more comedic relief, mostly in the form of making fun of Edward's height.  Side note, is Edward a popular anime name?  I've seen it in at least 3 different shows so far.  Anyway, FMA is excellent, but Brotherhood just blows it out of the water.  The last season is non-stop intensity until the second to last episode. (My face was all : OOOOOOOOOOO)

Characters of FMA:Brotherhood

I just started Attack on Titan, which immediately got dark (much like FMA), although the mood is (so far) always in battle mode, especially since the main character bursts with rage every 5 minutes.  His sister is much more quiet but waaaaaay more of a badass.  This is one of those shows where it gets so intense that sometimes serious scenes turn into comic relief just because you're so on edge and you need something that isn't death, lordy.  Also the Titans (gigantor human-looking beings who would like the taste of crow (for all those who saw the GOT season 4 premiere) ) are flapjackin' terrifying with their big smiles. 

Creepy as hell.

So in review, this is what I've learned about anime:

1. There are a lot of flashbacks to one pivotal event

2. There are a lot of title sequences featuring upbeat Japanese rock over intense fighting sequences

3. There is a lot of passionate yelling

4. Sometimes weird things happen but if you accept it you can fully realize the brilliance behind them

5. Things can fluctuate from intense to corny in the blink of an eye and a lot of times without warning

6. Blood has a tendency to explode rather than squirt or leak in a more natural way

7. Physics isn't a thing

8. Eyes

9. Bangs

10. Little Chibi versions of characters everywhere

11. The shiny glasses thing (you know what I'm talking about)

I would love to know what anime you all are in to, and please send recommendations my way for both anime and manga!

BEDA #6 Thoughts from a tutor

On and off for the past two years, I've tutored students who are retaking subjects that they had failed, as well as current students conducting their own research. But that was always one-to-one or small groups. For the past three months on the other hand, I've been a part-time graduate tutor - teaching tutorials to groups of 10-15 students. It's good fun, and can be very intrinsically fulfilling if you're into imparting knowledge and those sort of things. But it can also be extremely frustrating when you can't get through to someone, or nobody ever answers you in class. These are some things that have popped into my head at least once in the last three months. 

When everyone seems stupid

" Stupid people should not be allowed to procreate" 

" How did you ever get into university?"

" JUST. READ. THE. GODDAMN. TEXTBOOK. THE. ANSWER. IS. THERE. "

" Please don't fail, please don't fail, please don't fail"

When everyone seems smart

" Oh wow Why did I not think of that? "

" That was a smart question. Shit. I don't know the answer. HEEELLPPP"

" You most certainly must be thinking that I'm stupid right now. Maybe I am" 

" I definitely did not understand that when I was in your shoes"

When I can't believe I'm being tasked to impart knowledge. 

" Why are you people so motivated to come for an 8am tutorial. I'm getting paid. What's your excuse"

" Oh, if only they knew that I don't actually know anything but am just really good at bullshitting"

" Has anybody even been listening? "

There's a mantra that a fellow tutor told me at the start of my tutorship. "Assume maximum stupidity, and start from there". It sounds horrible, but it works. It's helpful for people who really do need the help, and it's helpful for me because it feels like my work is half-done when I face moderately intelligent people (which is most of the time). Ah, life. 

Beda #5: Favourites

I don't really have any specific topic to blog, so I'll picksomething from our theme list.

Recent Favourites

Defining 'recent' as 'so far in 2014'.

Books

I have read four books so far this year: The Cuckoo's Calling (J.K. Rowling), a german book, A Storm of Swords (George R.R. Martin) and Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell). I kinda liked all of them (gave all of them 4 stars and The Cuckoo's Calling 5 stars).

The Cuckoo's Calling was definitely my favourite book this year so far and also one of the best ones I've read in a while. First of all, J.K. Rowling. I love her writing style, it was already great in Harry Potter, but in those adult books it's especially good. Secondly, I like classic crime books. I know many people thought the book was boring because there is not much action in it, but I think it doesn't need that. I like books where there is a sleuth who goes to person A and asks questions and then he goes to person B and then he wonders if person A told the truth. That's really all I need. 

I didn't know that the second book (The Silkworm) is already coming out in June - that's definitely something I'm looking forward to!

The second half of A Storm of Swords finally got me really into the whole saga. So far I found the books a bit boring, not really that much happening, especially when you've watched the show, but I think it really got turned around. Everybody dies! I know that's what everybody said, but everybody dies! What I didn't like about it was that the first part of the book was extra super mega detailed (I mean, in what book do you know exactly when which person went to pee and to poop etc.?), but in the end he just skipped weeks without even really mentioning it. That didn't really fit together for me, but I guess after page 1000 you gotta wrap up the stories. I now started to read A Feast for Crows and I'm already excited.

Movies

Yesterday I finally watched 12 Years a Slave and it was really a great movie. I think it really deserved all those Oscars and thumbs up for Benedict Cumberbatch as a good-hearted slaver. The story is so touching and 'based on a true story' always adds extra sadness for me. If you haven't watched it yet, go and do so!

When it comes to comedies, We're The Millers was my favourites I've watched this year. It's nothing special, but I just found it very funny. Many comedies have completely used up jokes, but this one was a bit different. I also still like Jennifer Aniston.

And an old one that I rewatched lately: Forrest Gump. How good is this movie?

Music

I must admit that I haven't listened to a lot of music so far this year. New music, this is. Currently I'm listening to the Forrest Gump soundtrack, it's excellent.

TV Shows

Hannibal. Hands down. This show is absolutely amazing, great cinematography, great characters, great actors, great creator-and-fans-interaction. Besides this is one of the only shows that actually gives me shivers and one of the few murders in media that are actually still creative and to some degree shocking. Plus, cannibal puns.

Fun fact: When I was 13 I bought Silence of Lambs (the book) because I was into murders and stuff (like any normal teenager, what, that's not normal?), but my parents thought that it's not appropriate for me and took it away from me. That was a BIG fight. Eventually my father called the school's psychologist (I didn't even know we have one) and she said that I can read it. I am convinced that I would not be so much into Hannibal Lecter if that wouldn't have happened. The same story actually happened with my first Eminem CD. Parenting advise: don't try to forbid your kids things like that. They will end up liking it even more.

From comedy shows I currently only really like 2 Broke Girls (everything else got so weird). This show really makes me laugh out loud every episode.

And Pretty Little Liars. It might be weird, it might be crappy, but damn it's addicting. I WANT TO KNOW WHO A IS GODDAMMIT.

Now I'm looking forward to Game of Thrones which continues on Monday (Sunday, but it will be Monday until we poor Europeans can watch it). 

Food

Lately I like to eat tuna. I didn't like tuna as a kid, but somehow my taste changed. I also eat salami now (always hated it) and I slowly start to eat seafood. Is this growing up? I still don't like most vegetables though. Maybe not that grown up.

Anyway, tuna. I like to make a salad with green salad, corn, red beans, onion, olives and of course tuna. It's heaven. And because even one can of tuna is too much for me, I can eat corn and red beans with tuna for the next two days.

Great, now I'm hungry and my mother just called to tell me that we eat half an hour later. So I will end this blog post and go look for something to snack. Tata!

BEDA #4 Question Friday

I have a sinking suspicion I haven't posted here in over a year..... Oops.

Also I realized that I forgot to actually post this. Meaning I'm late too!

QUESTION FRIDAY:

What's My Favourite Tree Smell?
I love most tree smells but if I had to choose I would probably say cedar or pine.


What Have I Been Reading Lately?
Next month is Tamora Pierce month over at Death of the Author, the teen blog I contribute to, so I'm trying to read as many Tamora Pierce books as possible. I'm about halfway done the Songs of the Lioness Quartet and I'm really liking it.

I've also been working my way through Kurt Vonnegut, I just recently finished Mother Night and next on my list is Cat's Cradle..

Favourite Books?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa HARD QUESTION

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Johannes Cabal: The Detective - Jonathan L. Howard
Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
American Gods - Neil Gaiman

A Job You Say?
Yes! I finally got myself a job that isn't in the Waffle Wagon (but now that summer is on its way the waffles will be calling....)! I'm a receptionist at a printing company. Basically they print posters for movie theatres or other kinds of advertisements for stores and company events. I've been told it'll get interesting when the Toronto International Film Festival rolls around. My job is to answer the phones, ship out the posters and do filing. It's all relatively easy but its not too boring. The other people are great. It's only part-time but it's a start!

Tell us about your favourite film director and write a little tour across his/her best movies from your perspective
I think I'm going to save this post for my next BEDA post, that way I can go into more details!

And finally:

What's Your Cat Doing?
Conquering the mindless sheep of humanity. Conversing with demons and other things that go bump in the night.


I'm joking or at least I hope I'm joking. Lucy has been spending her days following the sun through my house. She had different places to sleep at different times of the day. She enjoys pestering my Mom and begging my Dad for treats. Speaking of her relationship with my Dad. They have a daily ritual where my Dad goes outside and leaves bread for the squirrels by the window and then the two of them sit there and watch the squirrels eat while Lucy goads them to come closer.

When she's not doing stuff with my Dad or normal cat things she takes it upon herself to be extremely creepy. Whether it be waiting in the bottom of your bed to bite your toes or sitting on your chest watching you sleep... She's there and she's ready.

This is the first thing I see most mornings

The Fact That This Is Two Days Late Is Telling

In the past few weeks I have been...

1) Writing a Harry Potter-based script for my a cappella group's show in May...

Excerpt:

Harry and Ron rush over to the Cal Quidditch team booth. Two students are manning the booth

RON (to HARRY): Wowowowow! This is crazy! I didn’t think they had Quidditch outside of Britain! Or even outside of the wizarding world!

QUIDDITCH TEAM MEMBER: Hey, are you two interested in playing Quidditch?

RON: Are we ever! When do you all hold tryouts?

QTM: Well, we have two teams, and there are tryouts for the more competitive team.

RON: Well, sign us both up!

QTM: Just fill out your email addresses and phone numbers here.

RON: Huh?

HARRY: Those things, remember? The numbers and letters and things, with the funny little circly a-symbol…

RON: Oh, right. Dad helped me figure it out.

RON starts fishing around in his pocket for a slip of paper. He takes it out and copies down, out loud…

RON: I, Ronald Weasley, am definitely just a muggle circly a-symbol berkeley. (Pause, like the end of a sentence) Edu.

2) Thinking a lot about/doing a lot of music-related stuff. I just went to a music department panel about listening; how we listen to music, how we listen differently, what active listening means, etc. It was super interesting; it's amazing how much there is to pay attention to and how much I miss most of the time.

3) Listening a LOT to Janelle Monáe...

4) Having a lot of senioritis...

5) Getting an iPhone! I am finally part of the 21st century.

I'm planning to go into San Francisco this weekend which will be nice. I haven't been there in months. I miss the ocean. Probably gonna get some Ghirardelli.

There are protests going on right now by the grad students on campus about unfair labor practices. The university does not pay them well at all and basically uses them as cheap labor. The idea is that they have to work to get their PhD, that it "builds character", but it's really pretty crappy. I hope all goes well for them. 20 students at UCSC were already arrested, and based on the track record of campus response to protests here lately, I am not feeling too positive about it.

Also we're in a drought here...which really sucks...it's rained a bit but not nearly enough. It's been super clear the last couple of days...

My next post will be much more exciting, I promise. I'm just kind of braindead from school. I need summer now, but it's still a month and a half away.

Gunk and Guild Wars 2

Once upon a time I picked Thursday as a day for blogging, thinking that I would have something to say because I would have one class to attend on Thursday. I foolishly assumed that would give me material to talk about. Well, it might have, but it turned out we did not have that class this Thursday. I have been at home all day. I did clean, but I doubt that you are interested in hearing how much I'd neglected my room and how I found mysterious dust covered gunk on my floor. It was like sticker glue. But not.

Enough about gunk. I've been up to very little things that I actually want to include in a blog post so I'm just going to go with something related to what I was doing today: I have been playing plenty of Guild Wars 2, especially in World vs World mode, in which servers are pitted against each other.  So, players against other players. The main goal is to capture camps, keeps, towers and such from enemies. It can be pretty fun, especially if there are a lot of people around, and if there is a commander around (a player who has purchased the commander ranking and works as, well, the commander of the troops). That's when the large group of people will follow the orders of this commander, usually running very close to them - this large group is often referred to as the zerg and running with it is usually the best for your own survival. The commander is often on Mumble, a audio chat service like Skype but less user friendly and for large conference calls. It's good to be listening in on the conversation because that's when you understand what the plan is better and the commander can issue quick orders.

Running with the zerg feels like running of the bulls really, if you were one of the bulls - you stampede across the hills with dozens of people and if anything gets in your way, you destroy it if you can. If you are that unfortunate lone player out and about and happen to be on the way of the enemy zerg, though? Well, it's like being Simba in the middle of the wildebeest stampede. If those wildebeests were actually hungry for your blood, and kind of a bunch of dicks.

A portion of a small zerg I was running with tonight just to give you some pictures. 

I'm pretty sure I'm somewhere in this picture, dunno where

It is exhilarating though. You work as a team, a large team, listen to the commander's orders (which can sound like a fast-talking auctioneer in a auction with plenty of bids when there's a lot of action going on), prepare, reply and resupply, while trying to defend and avoid. There are scouts - people who follow the enemy's moves or keep an eye out on locations. Sometimes there are groups separated from the main zerg doing any number of important tasks. And the commander or commanders are at the center of it all, trying to keep everything together, trying to win, trying to get all the intel and sort out what is needed while running around.  And it's exciting when you feel like the commander has a plan and that plan is to do something big. So yes, it is kind of addictive, even when you are on the losing side, die a lot, and things get frustrating. It's a nice change of pace to the main game and it's what I've liked doing for the past few days.

Guild Wars 2 did an April Fools thing, turning almost every character into a bobble-head. Made emoting about 90% more fun!

One of my characters, making a face, as a bobble-headed dork

BEDA 2: this BEDA thing is going well

So well in fact that we were organized enough to schedule people for the 32nd and 33rd of March. Shame we forgot. So much shame...

Anyway, here is something. A day late, but it's something. I shall pick the theme "something that has frustrated you lately".

Because I have spent the last couple of days playing around in the boot menus of laptops trying to get them to run Linux. And that is a very frustrating thing. 

Linux is an open-source operating system kernel that has many people working on releasing new variants all the time. Computers running Linux tend to be slightly behind on ease of use compared with Windows and Macs, but they also tend to be simpler in the essentials, and they let you do whatever you like with the computer if you know how. Also if you don't know how, which can get a little dangerous if you're not careful. 

Since I have a decent idea of what I'm doing most of the time I prefer to run an operating system that wasn't written for laymen, and there are many people who agree with me, which is why Linux's market share (if you can say that something free has a market share) is increasing. Naturally, Microsoft and Apple don't like this.

Now for Apple there's not much they can do: their computers are already locked up and pretty secure against anyone running any software that hasn't received their blessing. If you buy a Mac, you run Mac OS*. If you are Microsoft, then your reaction to this is two-fold: start making computers, and write more defensive software.

Now, I wasn't stupid enough to try to install Linux on one of Microsoft's "sufaces", but I didn't realize just how well Windows 8 and the Microsoft Boot loader could cling to a computer. I spent a day with a new laptop, trying first to get the computer to recognize that there were other boot options than just Windows, and then to get it to actually boot them successfully. Eventually I took it back. Luckily I had explicitly asked the shop assistant if I would be able to install Linux and he had said yes, so the guy behind the help desk who was of the opinion that obviously that PC wouldn't take Linux was willing to refund it as I was wrongly advised. Half a day of research and a different shop later and I had a new laptop. The one on which I am now typing. 

It appears that, for the most part**, ASUS make computers that are not hardwired to defend Microsoft's territory. Acer are not so good. I assume money exchanged hands. But I now have a Linux Laptop***, so I'm happy. 

So that's what I've been doing the last couple of days. I hope your Aprils have all been more rewarding so far.

* Unless you're Linus Torvalds, the guy who started Linux. He reputedly runs his own OS on a Mac. But he seriously knows what he's doing. 

**Check before buying, don't take my word for it, if you want to do this...

***The particular variant of Linux that it runs is called Fedora. That's right, my computer is a Nice Computer. 

At Last: Sarah's Secret Santa Present (SSSP)

I planned to do that right after Christmas, but excuse-excuse-excuse-too busy-no time-abroad-excuse and so I've decided to finally post this today. (Actually it mostly failed so far because I was too lazy to take pictures. Shame on me.)

I got my SSSP from Ali (and James) :) I got two packages from Amazon, one was nicely wrapped (I didn't know they actually wrap it so nicely) and one was not wrapped, but had a sticker on the box saying "This is a gift for you" or something like that, so I knew not to open it too early (and Ali, I completely don't mind the not wrapping part, just for the record and that does sound stupid now stop writing Sarah okay). Amazon is actually pretty awesome.

Anyway.

I got two books. The first one is the "Colouring Book for Grown-Ups" which I've already seen on Pinterest and it's really awesome. It has all those pages with activities and I think it will be a lot of fun (I haven't done anything so far, but you know, I will)!

Below are some of my favourite pages:

The second one is a little book called "All my friends are dead". On the back it says All my friends are dead is both the saddest funny book and the funniest sad book you'll ever read. Oh, how true this is!

I took pictures of the first few pages:

It continues like this and I find it absolutely funny. Exactly my humour, good pick, Ali! Thanks a lot for those cool presents, I really like them :)

What else is up in my life? I have vacation now and in March I start the last "proper" semester of my life. Growing up is scary. I also finally got around to get a topic for my dissertation (I call it dissertation when it's really a diploma thesis, but it's kinda similar and I'm a Dr. med. after that) and I should really move my ass and go to collect data (my topic is "Longterm outsome after treatment of intracranial aneurysms" and first we have to make a database with all patients who were treated in our hospital for an aneurysm). My boyfriend is flying to Sochi on Thursday which is absolutely terrifying, so maybe I can work then to get my mind off a bit and so that I don't check the news every five seconds if there has been a terrorist attack.

I promised myself to be productive today, but instead I watched seven episodes of several shows and now I'm gonna eat ice cream. Because I can.

What is up with you? I would find it nice if we could blog more again. Or at least talk on Facebook. It's been awfully quite there. And I want to know what YOU got as Secret Santa presents!