Refraction

It’s snowing!

And I am procrastinating, so here’s a list of the songs that I have on my “Winter J-pop Mix”:

1. Changin’ My Life – Eternal Snow (Piano Swing Mix)
   This is a piano version (no vocals) of a lovely lovely song. This song needs to be sung during karaoke! >D
   

   雪のように　ただ静かに
   降り積もり　つづけてゆく

2. Yuko Sasaki – Pure Snow
   I could never leave this one out. It’s just too tied up in winter, despite being syrupy and angsty at the same time.
   

   Pure Snow　Pure Heart　ふたり出逢った日も　雪が降っていた

3. Ayumi Hamasaki – CAROLS
   I’m not a big fan of Ayu (never followed her too much because of her nasally voice) but I did appreciate the slightly more rockish feel she had going with her newer albums. Not that I’ve actually listened to anything since Memorial Address, mind you.
   

   白い雪が街を染める頃にも

4. Dreams Come True – Winter Song
   The only English song on the CD (and predictably, sung by a J-pop group). It’s kind of odd souding, to be honest.
   

   my love for you is deeper than the deepest snows of winter

5. Ayumi Hamasaki – Powder Snow
   Power ballad kind of thing from Ayu. Also very angsty!
   

   大声で叫んでもいい?
   雪止むまで

6. Gackt – 12月のLove Song
   He needs to make a French version. That is all. I mean, he’s sung in Japanese, Korean, English, and Mandarin… I’d be rather amused to see a Cantonese version, too.
   

   見上げた空に粉雪が舞い降りていた

7. CORE OF SOUL – 粉雪のきもち
   It’s not a CD mix from Catherine without a CORE OF SOUL song, after all. This isn’t one of my favourites from them but does evoke sitting in front of a warm fire at a ski lodge.
   

   しんしんとつもる
   しんしんとつもる
   粉雪

8. Garnet Crow – Crier Girl, Crier Boy ~ice cold sky~
   A laid-back track from this group which has been compared to COS (they’re even more laid back, though…) Also the first song where I can’t find a reference to snow in the lyrics! 🙁
   

   Winter night, ice cold sky
   星空 真冬の花火が
   咲いたスクリーンみたいで

9. I’VE – Last Regrets
   Recommended by Naddie, and fits very well. It is, however, the second song not to refer to snow. 🙁
   

   低い雲
   風を待つ静けさ
   もう 聞こえない

10. Mai Kuraki – Winter*Swear
    A lot more upbeat than most of the songs on this compilation, some light dancy-type pop.
    

    Say you want me
    I want you hold me
    同じ雪の街に

    I’m loving the English grammar in there, too.

11. Mika Nakashima – 雪の華
    Lots of versions of this exist, too–I think I opted for the original. It’s a beautiful ballad.
    

    今年, 最初雪の華を
    2人寄り添って

12. SPEED – White Love (Christmas Standard)
    A hahaha. Very old, I’m sure. More Japanese girl band pop. 😀
    

    真冬の星座から　舞いおちた白い恋
    胸の奥に　降りつもる
    心に染みて　涙になる

13. Changin’ My Life – Eternal Snow
    This song is so good I put it on twice. With vocals this time! My favourite version of this snow is the Route:L version, which is remixed to be a lot faster and features male vocals. Didn’t really fit in the mix, though.
    

    雪のように　ただ静かに
    降り積もり　つづけてゆく

14. Asuca Hayashi – snowdrop
    I haven’t listened to Asuca much lately… Anyway, for this excerpt before, I didn’t know what a だるま was, so I looked it up… and basically fell over when I saw that one of the definitions is “prostitute.” (This snow was featured as NHK’s “Minna no Uta” (Everyone’s Song) and I thought that surely, surely a song that talks about prostitution is not something that parents would want their kids to hear. Oh, and just for good measure, that bear song from Hikki? It’s also a Minna no Uta song.) Predictably, 雪だるま is something much more beneign: it’s a snowman.
    

    小さな雪だるま
    うまく作れたから

15. ZONE – 白い花 (Acoustic Version)
    We could all live in this video right now, given the weather. Assuming that you can wear a dress, sing and play an instrument in the snow.
    

    いつまでも降る雪に
    今はもう迷わない

This is going to be a long, rambly thinking-out-loud post filled with self-pity and teenage angst. 😛

There’s an expression in Cantonese which I think describes my mental state very well; I only wish I knew how to write it properly. I don’t, so I’m just going to take a stab at it here: 心散. I’ve always taken this (and remember, I only know things phonetically, if that) into its component pieces: 心: heart; 散: scattered, in pieces. I’m trying to find a proper definition for it, but I understand it to mean distracted and not really giving 100% to whatever you’re doing.

I don’t know if I’m really passionate about science–I really don’t. I don’t know that I’m passionate about anything.

Sometimes I think I can salvage by BSc and become a technical writer instead; in fact, this is a notion I’ve been considering ever since I heard of the technical writing profession. But when I look on scientific writing sites, they all seem to demand a BA in English for some odd reason. No offense to all my English major friends, but I’d rather read a scientific text from a Chemistry major than an English major. Heck, maybe I’ll take a BA after I get my BSc.

Sometimes I think my situation is un-salvagable and that I am really in the wrong major–which is probably a slap in the face to all those people I scored higher than (I’m not trying to boast, but getting a Trek scholarship does ensure that you scored higher than someone somewhere.)

I wonder what I would do if I weren’t studying chemistry. Were I to stay in science, I’d probably become a biochem major. Or possibly genetics. All I know is that I need to get as far away from physics as possible. If I switched to Arts? French is the obvious choice (I have the most credits towards the program), with Linguistics and English Language not coming far behind.

I was walking around the career fair today and realized more than ever that a BSc does not mean guranteed employment any more than a BA does. Seriously. The companies weren’t really interested unless you happened to be an engineer. I know people a lot smarter than I am who are looking into accounting programs after graduation. Why? The money’s better.

On the other hand, I’m fairly used to things coming easily; it means that I don’t always try as hard as I should. Plus, I’m a procrastinator to boot.

Heavens. I’m tired.

Je veux que ça soit fini. Enfin, on n’y peut rien.

I really prefer the French expression “ça ne vaut pas la peine” instead of the English equivalent “it’s not worth it.” For an anglophone like me, “la peine” is what sticks out in that phrase, car il y a certainement des choses qui nous font mal, et je pense qu’il faut reconnaître cette peine.

[/giggles]

My lamentations about being a Chem major honours student seem to be starting earlier than usual this year. Oh well. I should hopefully be embarking on a good non-school work term soon–inasmuch as one can actually get away from “school” when one is embarking on a chemistry co-op work term…. but I hate hate hate hate cover letters.

WordPress hates me, though. I couldn’t properly import the database–it choked every time Asian characters showed up. In the end, I gave up, so if you poke through some of the older posts, you’ll see some odd gibberish (and if you don’t, that’s because I spent a long, long time fixing it.)

Oh yes, I have moved hosts, so I’m on a pay-as-you-go hosting plan. It’s an interesting idea, but it does mean that I will try not to host bandwidth-intensive sites here. Well, unless I move to another host, anyway.

I like this Chinese drama, Yummy Yummy. It is not the cake one that several of you are familiar with. Rather, it’s about a Singaporean boy who goes to Hong Kong to chase his (former?) girlfriend Jane. Yes, that’s right. JANE. Does this ring any bells for anyone out there? Anyway, I like it despite this because this Singaporean boy speaks an odd mélange of Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. (No, his name is not Jason. It’s Terry.)

Speaking of Ja(y)ne–I love Firefly. Watching episodes with commentary is even more fun!

Disclaimer: I am not clever. In fact, one of my favourite songs from Ping Pung’s CD, Love&Hate, which I now own legally (:D) is a song whose title I like to translate as “Not Clever.”

I’ve always wanted to do one of these random picture posts.

Here we have Domo-kun, of Internet kitten-eating fame (however wrong that may be), and he’s going to be your tour guide for this post. He actually looks much better in daylight. Less… black. Domo-kun is made from suit material, I think, with felt for his mouth and two huge buttons for his eyes. He also has some cotton balls in his feet. His arms are a bit uneven, though.

First stop, JAPAN! Domo-kun hangs on to my precious CORE OF SOUL CDs. On the left is the BEST collection, and you may recognize the colour scheme from the CD on the right from one of my previous layouts. Those are some awesome CDs, right there. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the little car, but I daresay that after my next Yesasia shopping spree, I’ll have another to play with. Next!

Next stop, bad-thriller-land! The blacked-out barcode on this book point to its former existence as a library book. I can’t believe I actually bought this book. Deception Point is probably the weakest of Dan Brown’s works. It is decidedly cookie-cutter and utterly uninspired. This one gets the Domo angry grimace.

Around the bend, we see the best comic book I’ve ever gotten for free. Owly is a nearly wordless young readers’ comic, but it is irresistably cute. Look at the eyes on that owl! They’re even bigger than Domo-kun’s! Go on, try it, I DARE YOU. Plus, you get to learn fun life lessons! Isn’t that fun? 😀

Finally, we come to another Jane Austen book I have yet to read. (I’m working on Pride and Prejudice… again.) Some Jane Austen aficionado is going to have to tell me what works I have left to read if I have Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice under my belt.

Domo-kun thanks you for your time and hopes to see you again on Domo-kun tours. Until then, “Do~mo!“

Here are ten guaranteed ways to make a sales associate like me ticked off:

1. Try to scam me at the register. Let’s get something straight. Buy one, get one half price means that you get another item of equal or lesser value for half price. You do not buy something for 5 dollars, and something for 60 dollars, and expect to pay 35 for both. That’s just stupid. Also, I will give you the best deal that I can without getting fired. I’m trying to be on your side, people, but you’re not making it easy.
2. Point out that, “In the States, this is a lot cheaper.” And your point is…? I can’t do anything about it; I don’t set the prices.
3. Ignore a greeting. Look, a simple “Hi” will suffice, or if you’re not feeling very verbal, even a smile is better than nothing.
4. Be needy. We are understaffed as it is, and I simply do not have the time to be your personal shopper. Especially if the store is full of other customers wondering why there’s no one coming to help them.
5. Interrupt me when I’m in the middle of dealing with another customer. It’s selfish and I end up losing when I have to deal with one angry customer and one selfish one. Wait your turn, or try and catch me as I finish with someone else.
6. Steal merchandise. Personally, I don’t really care, but it makes my manager crack down even more, which is annoying. (Some store loyalty, eh?)
7. Make a mess. Or, worse, try to fix your mess and wind up making an even bigger mess for me to clean up. It’s just not cool, people.
8. Whine about how we don’t carry out-of-season merchandise that you like. I’m sorry, it’s summer now, and we don’t have any winter boots left. I don’t care if you’re climbing Mount Everest.
9. Whine that we don’t have enough selection. You’re in the middle of a huge tourist trap shopping area. Go to another store if you don’t like us.
10. Start a sentence with “Why don’t you just…”
    First: I think I know how to do my job better than you do. Unless you work in retail, you have no right to say this. Second: Chances are I’ve already thought of that and rejected it. Third: I will admit that 10% of the time, customers have some worthwhile points after the ellipsis. That doesn’t change the fact that it comes off as presumptuous and rude. Finally, if I tell you my register can’t do something, guess what: You and I are both stuck with it. Wait the extra minute.

People are idiots. Luckily, 90% of customers are decent enough people to deal with that don’t increase my stress-o-meter. Here are a few things that make me happy:

1. Saying “thank you” sincerely, especially if we’ve really done a lot for you. Yeah, it’s my job to help you look for stuff, but it’s still nice to hear a “thanks for trying anyway” or something.
2. Making small talk at the register. It’s a nice break from what can be monotonous work sometimes, and it’s just nice to be able to talk to people without trying to sell them anything.
3. Acknowledging how busy we are, in general. Thank you for understanding. :cheerful:
4. Being happy, and cheerful. As a professional, I’m not supposed to let customers’ moods rub off on me, but I’m a thin-skinned person as it is, so it really does help if you’re nice. Besides that, it’s always a pleasure to serve a pleasant person.
5. Buying lots of stuff. :tongue: Just kidding.

Sometimes I feel I just work at my store, and not for my store, if that makes any sense. Another day like today and I’ll be ready to quit. Seriously. I’m not working past this December for sure, since I got in co-op (:star:) and I’ll have my first work term in January, but I’m questioning if I really need this job after all.

We now have a Linux box running downstairs. Linux is the operating system that real geeks use :biggrin: For anyone out there with a clue to how this stuff works, it’s a SUSE distro.

To be honest, I’m just poking around at this point.

My first thought on booting up the computer was: Hey, this reminds me a lot of a Mac. The desktop is nearly empty, there’s no taskbar at the bottom, and it’s all very clean-looking. Like the Macs I used to use in elementary school, there’s a bar along the top that screams “Mac” at me: it offers access to programs and a bunch of other things. There’s no dock, though, and I wonder if that might be something to look into installing.

My second thought was: Great, how do I do anything without a mouse? (I have only one PS/2 and/or USB compatible mouse.) It turns out it’s quite similar to coping with a mouseless Windows computer–the numpad can be converted into a crude sort of mouse. Besides, I’ve always been a keyboard shortcuts kind of person, anyway. Unfortunately, the Windows key on the keyboard does nothing.

My third thought was: It’s nice to see they have their priorities in order. By alphabetical luck, the first option under the “Applications” (that’s another Mac word, isn’t it?) is “Games.” Awesome.

My fourth thought was: The games on this thing are so much better than the ones on Windows. Yeah, yeah, XP ships with Solitaire (Spider and Klondike), Minesweeper, Hearts, Pinball, and a few others. This distro has clones of Bubble Bobble (with penguins! :D), Tetris, Super Mario (with penguins! :D), Yahtzee, and Snake. There are at least 15 games on that sucker.

Next: I wonder how it plays with my USB drive. Not too well, it seems. I don’t understand this concept of “mounting,” since I’m never given an option to mount the thing, and when I try to “un-mount” (ie, “remove safely”) I can’t, because I’m not signed in as the root user. Still, with some attention, I can transfer files back and forth.

What kind of files, you ask? It comes with OpenOffice!! AWESOME!! OpenOffice is an open source, freeware alternative to MS Office. I’ve only tried the equivalent to Word so far, but it seems the two programs can read each other okay. Fonts are a bit of a problem, but since I only have a printer hooked up to the Windows computer, I’m not too fussed about this: one can always change the font as necessary on that box, instead. I still need to install Asian font support, though–I hope it exists.

More exploring yields… The GIMP!! Super-awesome! The GIMP is a freeware alternative to Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop. We’re not talking Paint, with its complement of approximately three tools. Full-fledged Photoshop, my friends, with layer editing and a whole lot of other stuff. I have a portable version on my USB drive. 🙂

There are a few multimedia programs, but as I have no speakers, either, I didn’t get a chance to test those out.

Still, this is exciting 🙂

I hope none of you ever has to subsist on a liquid diet, but in case you do, I have a few pointers:

1. Get a blender and a strainer/sieve. NOW. You may also want to get a food mill, which is what they use for baby food, apparently, but it just looks like a strainer with a few attachments to me. No doubt it makes life easier, but it might not be worth coughing up the money for a few weeks’ worth of food.
2. Fiber is hard to come by. I just bought some wheat bran, which I plan to start adding to the milkshakes I’m drinking. Don’t forget about applesauce and other purees.
3. This is a basic recipe for cream of anything soup:
   • Finely chop an onion (and a leek, if you want :D). This is very quick in a blender. Anyway, you’ll want to cook those in some fat of your choice over medium heat until soft.
   • Finely chop whatever other vegetables you want to add. (I’ve only made cream of carrot and broccoli.) Add those to the onions/leeks, and cook for 5 minutes or so.
   • Add enough chicken/vegetable stock to cover the veggies, more if you need a thinner soup.
   • Bring to a boil, and simmer for a good 10 minutes.
   • Remove from heat, let cool slightly, and ladle into your blender in small batches. Have a second pot handy to collect the blended soup. Blend to desired consistency.
   • Add some milk to blended soup. Re-heat as necessary. Add whatever spices you like.
   • Ladle and serve! 😀

   I didn’t add any spices, since I cooked my onions and leeks in butter. 😀 Also, I don’t have any spices.

4. Spices may become your best friend. Nothing tastes like anything on a liquid diet. I just added salt and pepper to everything.
5. Milkshakes can also be made from soy milk 😀
6. Even a little jar of baby food holds more than it looks O_O I can’t say it really tastes like much, though.
7. If you thin foods, thin them with broth, milk, or juice, as opposed to water, which will only dilute the taste further.
8. A lot of things can be pressed through a strainer: I usually have a mashed potato through a strainer as part of my dinner.
9. Remember to drink a lot of water to keep hydrated. It sounds ridiculous, since everything is liquid, but water is still important.

One week to go before I start eating overcooked mac and cheese!

I miss work, a little bit. But not that much. In any case, I was sent for extra training today, which I think sucks, since I’m on a leave of absence. On the other hand, I will get paid four hours for sitting there three hours (heh, they screwed up booking th room) and doing nothing, so that’s also good.

Anyway, I figure I’d dedicate this post to my shoes, since I work in a shoe store, after all.
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I love this “free time” concept.

I spent today reading Speaker for the Dead, the sequel to Ender’s Game, and I like this one a lot better. A lot. I hadn’t realized a sci-fi novel could get so emotional; I must have cried five or six times reading that book.

See, Game left me feeling like I didn’t really want to read the next one, but Speaker really invites me to go on. Fun stuff. :biggrin:

I have to point out, though, that I really, really, really don’t think Card is a scientist. His explanation for the piggies’ life cycle makes no sense, unless he’s purporting that their genetic material behaves differently from ours. That implication doesn’t seem to be present, though, as it’s referred to as DNA. And DNA, as I know it, can’t do the things that he suggests it does.

A last-minute-uni-student style note to Sarah, who has officially hit the two-decade mark today. 😀 Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le! :star: (And psst, lemme know if you want a redesign on your blog (I’m thinking Vienna Teng. Or is that too fangirly?) I have TIME now.)

I haven’t looked at my marks since yesterday, which only reported my French marks. I’m really scared to look at my chem marks. Really, really scared.

I finished reading Ender’s Game a little bit ago, and while it’s quite good, I was a bit disappointed–I suppose I’d expected something different. Maybe I’d like it more if I were actually into military strategy and stuff… I’m also reading random chunks from Ender’s Shadow, which I like better, because Bean is a more interesting character overall.

(Rest of post contains spoilers for Ender’s Game.)
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