Refraction

Okay, seriously, if you expect any kind of structure from my blog, you’re looking in the wrong place.

On the job front: I make pizzas now. XD How do I like it? Well, it’s a job. And in some ways it’s nicer than Subway because there is literally no prep work to do. Everything comes pre-cut. As I keep mentioning to people, though, all the drivers but two speak a Eastern European language (I don’t know if it’s likely that a Serbian will speak Russian :blush:) so I think we were invaded by the Russian mafia. They are all quite nice, though. Not friendly, maybe, but they don’t snap at me when I’ve done something stupid. I’m starting to remember why I don’t like food service much, though. :tongue:

On the school front: Did fine in Math 200. And now I’m freeeee! Freeeee!! Except I have to do course planning. I HATE course planning. I wish I could just take the courses I want and forget about the rest of them. (Like Math 221. Who knew you had to know matrix algebra to be a chemist?) I also still can’t decide if doing Honours and a minor in an unrelated subject will be too stressful.

On the sewing front: I made myself another bag, this time out of a huge tank top my cousin bestowed upon me (it had cute things on it.) It doesn’t fit, so naturally I cut it up and made it into a totebag which is just large enough for a (hardcover) book, a clunky cellphone, wallet, keys, and emergency umbrella. The only problem is with one of the straps, which I didn’t sew properly. I’ll probably handstitch that.

On the crafty front: Last week, the B&C execs held a mini beading party–four of us were there–so that we could make things for our fundraiser. Let’s just say that needle and thread is a lot better than fishing line. I ended up making a pair of earrings and an anklet. It was supposed to be a bracelet, but I ran out of time. We’ll probably have another one soon, as we don’t have nearly enough items. I also want to make a Raven plushie, and a few things from a Japanese craft book.

On the reading front: Just finished The Code Book (Simon Singh), a very interesting history of codes, ciphers, and concealment in general. I’d forgotten how much I loved this stuff when I was younger. I admit that some of the intricacies of Enigma still escape me, but … I sure admire cryptanalysts more than ever. Too bad you have to be a math genius to really get a handle on encryption these days. I’m also halfway through Le coeur est un muscle involontaire. I’m getting there! Even if the only times I read it are while I’m waiting for or on the bus. I’m also randomly flipping through Conway’s On Numbers and Games. I can’t sit down and read the thing from beginning to end. It would hurt my head.

On the language front: Closed captioning is the best thing ever invented. I can finally keep pace with the French channel now :tongue: Although I do sometimes notice that they skip a few words or sentences. I also need to learn Russian so that I can keep up with the mafia.

On the website front: I have PHP & MySQL for Dummies on hold from the library, because I will seriously get that CORE OF SOUL fansite up this summer. Hopefully in no more than two weeks. I’m working with someone else, so I’d better have it done. (I’m the techie. :cheerful:)

On the customer service front: Apparently I have also single-handedly brought customer service back from the dead. :biggrin: Now if only I could get that lady to write me a reference letter.

On the pseudo-celebrity-gossip front: A customer who ordered a pizza today looked exactly like Keanu Reeves. Okay, well, I thought so.

On the fangirl front: HBP! HBP! HBP! HBP! HBP! HBP!

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the novels Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Digital Fortress. If you intend to read any of these novels, I suggest you turn back now and start reading someone else’s blog instead. I have a nice list of links over there. If you click it, well then…. you’re on your own.
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The psychiatrist in you will enjoy this game: Parapluesch

You have to cure insane stuffed animals. Sounds hokey but it’s really cute. It’s kinda slow, though, so make sure that you set aside a good amount of time to do it. (What I mean is, don’t do it while you’re supposed to be studying for math. That’s a pretty bad idea.)

Oh, and do read the good Herr Doktor’s notes. They’re quite helpful, even if they’re full of jargon.

I haven’t cured the sheep yet :tongue:

I just thought it’d be fun to change the header for my birthday ^^ Which is not actually until tomorrow, but I thought I’d get something done on time for once. Raven (on the right) is evidently not too happy about this surprise party.

I have recently started watching Teen Titans… and wow. That show is addictive :tongue: I think I like it because everything is so bizarre in that world. The characters aren’t realistic but they aren’t meant to be. And the show has me chortling half the time because it’s simply amusing on a juvenile level.

Besides, it’s nice to have something to look forward to after school–er, math class.

One of my favourite tracks on F.I.R.’s latest album isn’t really a song at all; in fact, I’m not sure how to describe it. It reminds me of a read-a-long story set to some medieval-sounding music, or at least what medieval music sounds like in the movies. A little like the Fable demo that was online before the game came out.

Long ago, there was a bird who sang but just once in her life
From the moment she left the nest
she searched relentlessly for a thorn tree
never resting until she found one
Then she began to sing
more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth
But, carried away in the rapture of the song
she impaled herself on the longest, sharpest thorn
But as she was dying
she rose above her own agony to outsing even the lark and the nightingale
The thorn bird traded her life for that one song and
the whole world was captivated to listen!
And God, in His heaven, smiled upon her
As her very best was brought out only at the cost of great pain
Driven by the thorn, with no thought for her death to come

But when we push the thorn into our breast
We know …
We understand …
And still … we choose the pain of the thorn …

The title is “The Legend 傳說” and it’s beautiful in a sad way. Right now, I’m just puzzled over its meaning. The last few lines, especially.

Is the song suggesting that great beauty can be born of great pain? Or that it’s stupid to subject ourselves to something like that?

Wasn’t she outsinging “the lark and the nightingale” even before she pierced herself with the thorn? (Unless nightingales and larks aren’t “creatures on the face of the earth”, but that’s even less likely.)

Oh, and isn’t there some reference to larks and nightingales in Romeo and Juliet?

Things are slowly getting back to normal on my computer.

I realized last night that I had lost the lyrics (in kanji!) to over half of CORE OF SOUL’s songs. This makes me sad. It makes me even more sad that I lost about ten translations. They take a long time, especially when you’re only going on a bit of knowledge.

On the other hand, my sound card is not fried as previously thought (I only had to re-install the drivers) and my video card is up and running too. I have to admit, it’s nice to have over 15 GB of free space on my hard drive again :cheerful:

My poor MSN icons though 🙁

Lesson 1: Using your computer during a lightning storm is not a good idea.
There was a lightning storm last night—a pretty intense one, in fact. I had just finished watching CSI (in case you’re wondering, I don’t watch that on a regular basis) and I decided to do a few things online. About ten minutes later, my computer froze. Yikes. (Apologies to anyone I was talking to on MSN at the time.) So I pressed “RESET,” hoping for the best, and I see this message:
Invalid system disk
Press any key to continue
“Aiyah~!” I think. Needless to say, the next hour and the better part of this morning have been devoted to hunting down disks, installing programs, and fervently wishing things would work.

Lesson 2: When you need to find installation disks, it will be next to impossible.
There are two drawers in my computer desk. I know I keep the one for Internet on the left-hand side. Lo and behold, it’s not there. Aigh. I find it half an hour later in a box in the right-hand side. What was I thinking?

Lesson 3: Backup often.
I think I lost 10 GB of music last night. I am not a happy camper. Luckily, I backed up all my music about three weeks ago, so I’m only missing the most recent downloads (including F.I.R.’s new album! I hadn’t even listened to it yet.) I can’t think of much site work that can’t be recovered (thank goodness I upload as soon as I finish working on something.)

So far, I’ve re-installed:
Windows XP
Office XP with Frontpage
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Norton Systemworks

For some reason, sound is not working (I hope my sound card isn’t fried! Not that I could tell anyway) and I haven’t re-installed the printer drivers yet. Or the router, for that matter. *sigh*

Progress report at 12:33 pm: I am working on re-downloading Unlimited, but I’ve installed AVG antivirus (should I go for Sophos instead?) and ZoneAlarm’s free firewall. Oh, and I have Firefox back. I am most incensed, however, that I have lost all my bookmarks. I must have had at least 50 different webpages for language learning and tools. Arrrrgh.

Progress report at 3:01 pm: I think my sound card is fried. Darn. I want to open the case and double check that. Lesson 4: Never buy a computer with an integrated sound card. Or, if you do, don’t leave the computer on during a thunderstorm.

I’ve spent bits of the last several days playing an educational video game (yes! shocking! :shock:). I know that educational video games are generally designed for children under the age of 10, but I can’t say no to a game of Carmen Sandiego.

Or Slime Forest Adventure (SFA), for that matter.

SFA is a very simple old school RPG. You live in a hut with your brother and you grow potatoes (a plot point which has very little to do with anything.) Your brother sends you to the village to sell the potatoes, where you hear that your princess is missing.

Obviously, the plot isn’t the strong point of this game. Much more interesting is that in order to kill the slimes, you have to type in the pronunciation or meaning of a Japanese kana or kanji. It’s designed to sharpen your recognition skills. It does its job well; the drills don’t seem that tedious and some of the slimes are pretty cute. (There’s one with a little hat! :cheerful:)

Gameplay is simple. There aren’t many commands to memorize (“Oh no! I forgot how to do the hero’s super-awesome killer combo attack!”); instead, you memorize kana and kanji. In fact, when a new kanji is introduced, the game will give you a mnemonic.

The graphics outside of battle are–to be honest–pathetic. But you’re not here for eye candy, now are you? In battles, they’re a lot better than you might expect.

I have a few gripes about the game, though:

1. It’s not designed for the beginner. The game is best played if you already have a working knowledge of kana. (You don’t need to know any kanji; the game walks you through all of them.) It doesn’t introduce the kana at all, and it could get frustrating while you’re being killed by slimes and trying to match squiggles with sounds.

2. There is a preponderance of obselete and obscure kana. I don’t even know if the ones for “wi” and “we” are used anymore; I think they’ve been replaced by “i” and “e.”

3. There is little direction. The game tells you how to fight, but I couldn’t figure out how to save (sleep–preferably at the inn) for the longest time.

4. The game has never heard of synonyms. For example, it will not accept “round” for “circular.” In addition, Japanese often has several readings for the same kanji, and it’s not always possible to guess which one the game wants.

5. The game has specific romanization rules. “acchi” is not acceptable for “a~?,a~??a~??”. Only “atchi” will do.

That being said, the wacky mnemonics make up for it. I actually find myself recognizing a few more characters in Chinese subtitles because of this game. :happy:

Apparently, I write like a man.

Analyses of my blog entries from The Gender Genie consistently identify my writing as a man’s. His algorithim is supposed to be 80% accurate, but from the looks of the stats, it’s closer to 60%.

I just plugged my extended essay in there–over 4000 of my, and sometimes Orwell and Burgess’s words–and I got male. Again.

Actually, reading some of the links, it’s not that surprising: none of the stuff I inputted was that personal (certainly not the essay!) and I have a hard time believing that ‘the’ is inherently male. >_>

Ergh, maybe I won’t be going back to Subway.

I talked to the manager today and he said the only shift he could offer me was “six o’clock to midnight.” 😮 MIDNIGHT?! Luckily, there is a nightbus which runs every half-hour, but if I don’t get out of there in time, I might be better off just walking home. Even though this place is only seven blocks from my house, and I can walk there in fifteen or twenty minutes—but walking by myself, at midnight, is a prospect I really don’t look forward to.

Arrgh. Oh, and it’s on the weekends, which is something I wouldn’t be able to keep up during the school year, and my major goal is to find a job not just for the summer, but throughout the year as well.

Complicating the problem is that no one else has called back yet. Well, it’s more and more applying, I guess, a bit of calling, and–if I’m desperate–I guess I could take the job. :tensed: (Despite all I say, he did seem keen on hiring someone for that position.) I would really rather not, though, for more reasons than one.

The manager/owner has a very heavy East Indian accent. Or maybe my hearing’s just bad; in either case, I have a tough time understanding him sometimes.

There are washrooms, even though this Subway is even smaller than the last one I worked at. I kid you not. What you see is what you get in that place. Washrooms = me washing them. 😥

On the other hand, my memory is fairly good; I could rattle off (with hesitation) the formulas for several sandwiches. Unfortunately, when I made a sandwich (he wanted to see how much training I’d need) I forgot it was Tuesday and that there was a special. 🙁

He kept reiterating how “nothing much had changed.” I’ll say. Same touchscreen, same formulas… only one new bread, but they got rid of my favourite. Alas!