I told myself I wasn't going to write an obligatory start-of-school blog; and even if I was, I wasn't going to write it until at least Thursday because by then I will have been to every class twice except for one. I almost bowed to the temptation to blog yesterday, but luckily I got side-tracked. But after today I am just too excited about my classes to wait any more. I still have one class tomorrow that I haven't been to yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it very much anyway, so we'll just start with what I've had so far:
Semantics - This is a pretty standard-issue linguistics class that all linguistics majors have to take. As far as I know so far, semantics is basically the study of how meaning is coded into languages, specifically how it is coded into word units. I think it will be an interesting class merely because I find linguistics in general interesting. I think it will probably only be my second-to-last favorite class though not because it will be a bad class, but rather because all my other classes will probably be so GOOD.
Portuguese for Spanish-speakers - I am excited about this class for several reasons; 1) I love studying new languages, and Portuguese is no exception; 2) Because this class it designed for people who already know Spanish, we will learn a lot more Portuguese in one semester than in a semester of a regular Portuguese class because the grammar and vocabulary are quite similar; 3) I will get to use some Spanish too. It's hard to tell from just the first day, but I think I'm really going to like the teacher too.
Morphology and Syntax - Another linguistics class which is required for linguistics majors. Our professor said today that this class is often called "typology" at most other schools, and from what I can tell it is essentially the study of grammar. I am not as excited about the content as I am about the professor who I have heard wonderful things about, and after today's introductory class, I think I will really like being in his class. And really, it's better to have a good professor and a subject that you are less interested in, than to have a bad professor in a subject that you love (like the two Chinese teachers from hell that I've had, for example). So this should be a great class too.
Spanish Phonetics and Phonology - I'm not sure if I should count this as a Spanish class or a Linguistics class, because really it will be both. In this class we will be learning about different sound structures of Spanish. We will be learning about all sorts of different Spanish accents and dialects. It's really a Spanish Linguistics class! I don't know what else I could possibly want in a class. I've also heard nothing but fantastic things about this professor. I think that either this class or my Portuguese class will be my favorite.
Beginning Russian - As if 15 hours of class wasn't enough, the other morning I decided on a whim to go and add another class. I was going to sign up for Arabic, but it was full, didn't fit into my schedule, and is a 5-hour class meaning that I would have had a crazy total of 20 hours this semester. But then I found Russian which had seats available, fit into my schedule (not very conveniently though), and was only 4 credit hours, meaning that I now have a slightly less-crazy 19-hours of class this semester. It is a 2-hour evening class that meets twice a week and the teacher is this jolly little Russian linguist lady. Again, I'm excited to be taking another language, and this class has some cute girls in it too... Spanish and Portuguese are in a tie for my favorite class, and this class is in a tie for second-favorite with whichever one of those ends up not being first-place-favorite.
So, those are the classes. I still have one class tomorrow, my International Affairs senior seminar, which I'm not really excited about, and I'm pretty sure it will be my least-favorite class, but we'll see. Overall I am REALLY excited about this semester though. I think this is the most multi-lingual semester I've ever had. If only I were taking a Chinese class, then I'd have classes in 5 different languages! I am a little bit concerned that I will be taking 19 hours, and I told work that I would do 20 hours for them... but hopefully it'll work out and I won't die.
And for today's obligatory start-of-school blog, here is the obligatory YouTube video. In the spirit of multi-lingualism, here is one my current favorite Arabic songs. It's called Amulet by Natacha Atlas.
8.29.2006
8.22.2006
Fixie Freaks
Kristi O. had impeccable timing when she sent me an email telling me about an article in today's Daily Camera, Look, Ma, no brakes ..., about fixed-gear bikes in Boulder. It's a good article that explains pretty much exactly why I want a fixed/single-gear bike. Because they are elegantly simple and unique.
Her timing was impeccable because her email came in the five minutes between an email from eBay confirming my purchase of a new set of fixed-gear wheels, and the email from Paypal confirming my payment for said item. These babies have black Mavic rims and black spokes and a black filp-flop hub that can be set up with a fixed-gear on one side and a free-wheel single speed on the other for when I want to be able to coast.
I'm still going to have to buy a few more things for the fixie conversion, including tires for the new wheels, two new rear cog wheels, and a new chain. For tires I'm planning to buy these sweet Michelin Krylion Carbon tires in red. They last forever, are good and grippy (for added safety, ma), and they are super resiliant to puncture flats thanks to several layers of puncture protection technology. Yet they are also reasonably light-weight and have a respectable rolling-resistance rating, meaning they are still pretty efficient tires, and you know how I love efficiency.
Gears and chains are less exciting to think or talk about, but I've been doing some reading about gear ratios too, and I think I'm gonna try a 40 x 14 gear setup which when calculated with crank length and wheel size comes to a gear-inch length of 75.1 which is kind of a medium-high gear, but I don't think it'll be too high (the highest gears on most road bikes are somewhere around the 100 range, whereas the lowest gears on mountain bikes are around the 20 range). I've been riding around town on this gear ratio for the past day or two and I think it should be just right... but it might take some experimenting to get it just right too.
Of course the fixie conversion is just the beginning. Next I think I will be buying some better brakes, then probably a better seat, and then probably a new handlebar and brake levers, and finally some new pedals. But all those things can wait and be added later.
So, good timing with that article Kristi!
As for other news, I've just been working a lot. I don't care about John Karr and JonBenet, not even a little bit. And I guess that's about it. Today I wanted to leave you with a youtube video of some Chinese pop music. I had a hard time choosing between one of the many pretty cheesy Chinese pop songs, or one of the less-abundant moderatly decent Chinese pop songs. In the end I chose this song, Shi Mian Mai Fu ει’εδΌ by S.H.E., in my opinion one of China's better pop bands. Maybe next time I'll give you guys one of the cheesier songs.
Her timing was impeccable because her email came in the five minutes between an email from eBay confirming my purchase of a new set of fixed-gear wheels, and the email from Paypal confirming my payment for said item. These babies have black Mavic rims and black spokes and a black filp-flop hub that can be set up with a fixed-gear on one side and a free-wheel single speed on the other for when I want to be able to coast.
I'm still going to have to buy a few more things for the fixie conversion, including tires for the new wheels, two new rear cog wheels, and a new chain. For tires I'm planning to buy these sweet Michelin Krylion Carbon tires in red. They last forever, are good and grippy (for added safety, ma), and they are super resiliant to puncture flats thanks to several layers of puncture protection technology. Yet they are also reasonably light-weight and have a respectable rolling-resistance rating, meaning they are still pretty efficient tires, and you know how I love efficiency.
Gears and chains are less exciting to think or talk about, but I've been doing some reading about gear ratios too, and I think I'm gonna try a 40 x 14 gear setup which when calculated with crank length and wheel size comes to a gear-inch length of 75.1 which is kind of a medium-high gear, but I don't think it'll be too high (the highest gears on most road bikes are somewhere around the 100 range, whereas the lowest gears on mountain bikes are around the 20 range). I've been riding around town on this gear ratio for the past day or two and I think it should be just right... but it might take some experimenting to get it just right too.
Of course the fixie conversion is just the beginning. Next I think I will be buying some better brakes, then probably a better seat, and then probably a new handlebar and brake levers, and finally some new pedals. But all those things can wait and be added later.
So, good timing with that article Kristi!
As for other news, I've just been working a lot. I don't care about John Karr and JonBenet, not even a little bit. And I guess that's about it. Today I wanted to leave you with a youtube video of some Chinese pop music. I had a hard time choosing between one of the many pretty cheesy Chinese pop songs, or one of the less-abundant moderatly decent Chinese pop songs. In the end I chose this song, Shi Mian Mai Fu ει’εδΌ by S.H.E., in my opinion one of China's better pop bands. Maybe next time I'll give you guys one of the cheesier songs.
8.15.2006
Soapbox Time
Hmm, maybe this is too much soapboxing lately, to have two consecutive posts telling people to watch movies and get excited about them, but here it goes anyway.
The other night I went and saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and I think that every single carbon-emitting human on earth (basically everyone) should see this movie. Aside from making people even more upset than they already are about Al Gore losing the 2000 election, this movie is supposed to wake people up to the undeniable truth of global warming.
In this film he presents a lot of different scientific evidence that all demonstrates very clearly that in the last 50 years humans have had an unprecedented impact on the earth's climate. I had actually seen all this same data and evidence in a class called Climate Change that I took through the geology department as a sophomore, but it is always good to be reminded of it all again. And for those who have never taken that same class, I think that some of the data might be fairly shocking to some people.
Also, in case you weren't already upset about the 2000 elections, this movie will probably make you wish that there had been a different outcome to that florida re-count.
But anyway, unless you are an expert on global warming and climate change, you should probably see this movie, and then tell your friends to see it too, and tell them to tell their friends to see it too. As important as 9/11 conspiracies are, this movie is far more important because climate change could (and probably will) have a much greater impact on the lives of people around the world. SEE IT!
Ok, for today's video here is an interview with Al Gore about his movie. I haven't actually finished watching it yet, so it might be kind of bland, but at least you can see the trailer for the movie at the beginning of the interview.
Ok, I'll be getting of my soapbox for a bit now.
The other night I went and saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and I think that every single carbon-emitting human on earth (basically everyone) should see this movie. Aside from making people even more upset than they already are about Al Gore losing the 2000 election, this movie is supposed to wake people up to the undeniable truth of global warming.
In this film he presents a lot of different scientific evidence that all demonstrates very clearly that in the last 50 years humans have had an unprecedented impact on the earth's climate. I had actually seen all this same data and evidence in a class called Climate Change that I took through the geology department as a sophomore, but it is always good to be reminded of it all again. And for those who have never taken that same class, I think that some of the data might be fairly shocking to some people.
Also, in case you weren't already upset about the 2000 elections, this movie will probably make you wish that there had been a different outcome to that florida re-count.
But anyway, unless you are an expert on global warming and climate change, you should probably see this movie, and then tell your friends to see it too, and tell them to tell their friends to see it too. As important as 9/11 conspiracies are, this movie is far more important because climate change could (and probably will) have a much greater impact on the lives of people around the world. SEE IT!
Ok, for today's video here is an interview with Al Gore about his movie. I haven't actually finished watching it yet, so it might be kind of bland, but at least you can see the trailer for the movie at the beginning of the interview.
Ok, I'll be getting of my soapbox for a bit now.
8.13.2006
Makes You Think
I'm not usually much of a conspiracy theorist, but I came across this video today on Google videos. It is a documentary that provides a lot of compelling evidence that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were not actually terrorist attacks, but instead were carried out perhaps by our own government. In the documentary, they provide evidence that a plane did not really even hit the Pentagon, that flight 93 did not actually crash in rural Pennsylvania, and that the World Trade Center towers were not brought down by the airplanes that crashed into them, but rather that they were brought down by explosives in a controlled demolition.
Like I said, it is kind of long, but I think it is well worth the time to find an hour and a half and sit down and watch this and then decide for yourself what you think. I personally think that I will have to look into it a little more before I make my own decision about what happened that day, but I think that this is certainly important to consider. If what this documentary says is true, then it means that a lot of people are getting away with the crime of a century.
Like I said, it is kind of long, but I think it is well worth the time to find an hour and a half and sit down and watch this and then decide for yourself what you think. I personally think that I will have to look into it a little more before I make my own decision about what happened that day, but I think that this is certainly important to consider. If what this documentary says is true, then it means that a lot of people are getting away with the crime of a century.
8.10.2006
Insomnianiac
First of all, no, insomnianiac is not a real word. And it probably isn't actually insomnia if you've only had it one night, but I had almost no sleep last night. Here are some signs that you might be having a sleepless night if you find yourself lying in bed thinking about these kinds of things:
Luckily I don't have this problem very often as I think I inherited my mother's skill at sleeping. The last time I couldn't sleep like this was back in April when I had MINI Mania (Part I, Part II). I just couldn't stop thinking about all things MINI. Last night was actually kind of similar because I just bought a new (old) road bike, and I kept thinking about how much fun I'm going to have with it and stuff and all the upgrades I want to get for it. Here's a picture of it (you can click on it for a full-size version if you want to):
I'm pretty happy about it. I found it on Craigslist and drove down to Aurora with Casey to get it last night. It was a little over $100, which I think is a pretty good price. I've been wanting a road bike for awhile now and this will be a good way for me to get into road biking for cheap. It's an older Motobecane bike (1970's I think?), but it's all in great shape and has some character to it. I think riding a decent old bike is pretty equivalent to driving old cars. It may not be quite as good or as fast or as efficient as a new one, but they just provide a different kind of feel that you can't get on the newer ones. Also, it has some neat details, like the frame is lugged which just has more neat visual details compared to a non-lugged frame. Also, when I buy a newer bike someday when I have more money, this bike will be perfect to build into a fixed-gear single-speed, which is also something I've been wanting for a long time; perhaps even longer than I've had MINI Mania...
- You start planning out what your are going to write about insomnia in your blog the next morning.
- You begin to wonder, what is the etymology of the word insomnia? I remember talking about it in my etymology class last semester, but I don't remember the details. I think in- is a prefix meaning "not," and SOMN- is a base meaning sleep?
- How do you say, "didn't sleep a wink" in Spanish? Turns out it's no pegar ojo or pasar la noche en claro. And in Chinese? Um, I have no idea. I guess just 睡不好觉。
- Your watch just beeped on the hour again and you have lost count. Is it 4:00am or 5:00am now?
- In an effort to fall asleep, you try to force your brain to shut off by focusing on something, like blackness, or an imaginary dot and try not to let your brain think about anything else. But then you are focusing so hard that you start think about how hard you are focusing on not thinking about things like focusing on not thinking.
- You realize that you are finally starting to doze off, but that realization wakes your right back up.
- Just as the sun starts coming up in the morning is when you finally nod off and get some quality slumber. Unfortunately you have a hard time sleeping when it's light outside, so you end up only getting a few hours of hard-earned sleep.
Luckily I don't have this problem very often as I think I inherited my mother's skill at sleeping. The last time I couldn't sleep like this was back in April when I had MINI Mania (Part I, Part II). I just couldn't stop thinking about all things MINI. Last night was actually kind of similar because I just bought a new (old) road bike, and I kept thinking about how much fun I'm going to have with it and stuff and all the upgrades I want to get for it. Here's a picture of it (you can click on it for a full-size version if you want to):
I'm pretty happy about it. I found it on Craigslist and drove down to Aurora with Casey to get it last night. It was a little over $100, which I think is a pretty good price. I've been wanting a road bike for awhile now and this will be a good way for me to get into road biking for cheap. It's an older Motobecane bike (1970's I think?), but it's all in great shape and has some character to it. I think riding a decent old bike is pretty equivalent to driving old cars. It may not be quite as good or as fast or as efficient as a new one, but they just provide a different kind of feel that you can't get on the newer ones. Also, it has some neat details, like the frame is lugged which just has more neat visual details compared to a non-lugged frame. Also, when I buy a newer bike someday when I have more money, this bike will be perfect to build into a fixed-gear single-speed, which is also something I've been wanting for a long time; perhaps even longer than I've had MINI Mania...
8.07.2006
New Fanciness!
So, I spent far too many hours today playing with my blog making it pretty and stuff. Except for all of the functional sorts of codes (the ones that make the blog work properly), all the cosmetic stuff is my very own handywork. I think I like it. Let me know what you think, if you have any suggestions for fonts, colors, formatting, etc...
Update: Hmm, I see that Internet Explorer is messing things up... I'm working on that...
Update 2: After clicking around a bit it seems that ALL blogs on blogger when viewed with IE on a Mac have that top bar all messed up, so it's not my fault. Sorry...
You should be using Firefox anyway. It's better (for most things. Sometimes IE is still better) . You can download it for free here:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Update: Hmm, I see that Internet Explorer is messing things up... I'm working on that...
Update 2: After clicking around a bit it seems that ALL blogs on blogger when viewed with IE on a Mac have that top bar all messed up, so it's not my fault. Sorry...
You should be using Firefox anyway. It's better (for most things. Sometimes IE is still better) . You can download it for free here:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Strange Dreams
I've been having a lot of dreams the past couple nights. Does that mean I'm not sleeping well, or that I'm sleeping really well? Here are some of the snippets that I remember.
- I was walking down a dirt road to try to find Casey's car when suddenly I realized that there were venomous snakes all over the road and whenever I jumped away from the bite of one I was jumping right into the strike zone of another. I've actually had this kind of snake dream before and it's very unpleasant.
- Ding (a.k.a. Justin), Da (a.k.a. Amanda) and David were sitting on a couch together and I was laying on a different couch. They started wrestling with each other about something and David's foot ended up in Ding's mouth. Wrestling continued for a few more minutes and then Ding stopped and looked really uncomfortable/sick. He said that his tongue tasted like feet. He then kneeled over and started to do what looked like praying to Buddha, but then he started vomiting. Luckily Da was holding a plastic bag for him and she threw it away and the wrestling continued.
- I somehow gave Da pink and blond dreadlocks, and she looked pretty cool with them.
- I was crawling up The Hill in Boulder in a sleeping bag and it was pitch black out and really creepy. I had a flashlight that I was shining in peoples houses, and then suddenly I wondered, why am I crawling up the hill in the pitch black in a sleeping bag shining my flashlight at the houses? Granted, it is a pretty cool flashlight, but in the dream I was having trouble operating it very efficiently, pretty frustrating...
- Hmm, it seems like there was one more that I was going to try really hard to remember, but alas, I don't remember it. Anyway, they have all been kind of strange dreams, nay?
- Oh, now I remember. At camp we learned a dance to this one song that we all then performed on this special "International Day." Anyway, I dreamt that one night at camp they put this song on and we were all supposed to do the dance that we had learned for it. Well, we all did it, but we weren't very excited or energetic about it. At the end of the dance, the song ended and there was complete silence for like 5 seconds, and then the "DJ" or whatever, trying to get us all pumped up said something like, "Does everyone love that song or what?!" really energetically. Again, silence, and then some Jamaican guy says apathetically in a Jamaican accent, "yes, we love it." And then someone coughed. I thought it was so funny, that I think I actually woke up laughing.
And today's YouTube video... I can't say I'm a big Justin Timberlake fan, but this song Sexyback is pretty catchy, and I like the suits that he wears in this video.
PS. After having to go through my blog and delete a barrage of spam comments, I am going to require that you people fill in a word verification thing to post comments. It's pretty simple. Basically on the comments page below the window where you type your comments, there will be some random letters or numbers that you will have to type into another box. This is a way to verify that you are a real human being and not a spamming computer. I know it's kind of annoying, but so is deleting a bunch of spam comments... Thanks!
- I was walking down a dirt road to try to find Casey's car when suddenly I realized that there were venomous snakes all over the road and whenever I jumped away from the bite of one I was jumping right into the strike zone of another. I've actually had this kind of snake dream before and it's very unpleasant.
- Ding (a.k.a. Justin), Da (a.k.a. Amanda) and David were sitting on a couch together and I was laying on a different couch. They started wrestling with each other about something and David's foot ended up in Ding's mouth. Wrestling continued for a few more minutes and then Ding stopped and looked really uncomfortable/sick. He said that his tongue tasted like feet. He then kneeled over and started to do what looked like praying to Buddha, but then he started vomiting. Luckily Da was holding a plastic bag for him and she threw it away and the wrestling continued.
- I somehow gave Da pink and blond dreadlocks, and she looked pretty cool with them.
- I was crawling up The Hill in Boulder in a sleeping bag and it was pitch black out and really creepy. I had a flashlight that I was shining in peoples houses, and then suddenly I wondered, why am I crawling up the hill in the pitch black in a sleeping bag shining my flashlight at the houses? Granted, it is a pretty cool flashlight, but in the dream I was having trouble operating it very efficiently, pretty frustrating...
- Hmm, it seems like there was one more that I was going to try really hard to remember, but alas, I don't remember it. Anyway, they have all been kind of strange dreams, nay?
- Oh, now I remember. At camp we learned a dance to this one song that we all then performed on this special "International Day." Anyway, I dreamt that one night at camp they put this song on and we were all supposed to do the dance that we had learned for it. Well, we all did it, but we weren't very excited or energetic about it. At the end of the dance, the song ended and there was complete silence for like 5 seconds, and then the "DJ" or whatever, trying to get us all pumped up said something like, "Does everyone love that song or what?!" really energetically. Again, silence, and then some Jamaican guy says apathetically in a Jamaican accent, "yes, we love it." And then someone coughed. I thought it was so funny, that I think I actually woke up laughing.
And today's YouTube video... I can't say I'm a big Justin Timberlake fan, but this song Sexyback is pretty catchy, and I like the suits that he wears in this video.
PS. After having to go through my blog and delete a barrage of spam comments, I am going to require that you people fill in a word verification thing to post comments. It's pretty simple. Basically on the comments page below the window where you type your comments, there will be some random letters or numbers that you will have to type into another box. This is a way to verify that you are a real human being and not a spamming computer. I know it's kind of annoying, but so is deleting a bunch of spam comments... Thanks!
8.02.2006
Blogging
Hmmm... I haven't blogged much lately. I've been pretty busy between an almost-full-time job, moving, house-sitting, socializing, and sleeping. Last night I finally managed to get all my crap unpacked and crammed neatly into every spare nook and cranny in this little room in Granny's basement. It was kind of like a puzzle figuring out where to put everything so that it wouldn't have to end up just living in the middle of my floor permanently (that spot is reserved mostly for my dirty clothes). I did have to move a few of Dwight's old appliances out into the living room to make room for my desk, but I think that's probably ok.
Despite being a small room in Granny's basement with only one electrical outlet (one with no 3-prong outlets at that!), I actually kind of like this room. It has a lot of character with the vintage 1960's red carpet and painted oak walls and dark shutters. Also, perhaps its best feature, it isn't a million degrees like my apartment was. It is also a shorter walk to the bus stop, and a shorter bike ride to school as well. And with the money that I'll save on rent I can maybe afford to have more fun. (And even though it only has one electrical outlet, at least I got some wireless cable internet set up, so I won't have to do dial-up this year).
In other news, my new job is going fine. I'd rather get paid to not work of course, but who wouldn't... Speaking of work, I should probably do some work tonight before I go to bed.
Now that I'm not at camp anymore, I can start adding YouTube videos again. In honor of my lovely new black MacBook, here is a funny spoof on the Mac commercials.
Despite being a small room in Granny's basement with only one electrical outlet (one with no 3-prong outlets at that!), I actually kind of like this room. It has a lot of character with the vintage 1960's red carpet and painted oak walls and dark shutters. Also, perhaps its best feature, it isn't a million degrees like my apartment was. It is also a shorter walk to the bus stop, and a shorter bike ride to school as well. And with the money that I'll save on rent I can maybe afford to have more fun. (And even though it only has one electrical outlet, at least I got some wireless cable internet set up, so I won't have to do dial-up this year).
In other news, my new job is going fine. I'd rather get paid to not work of course, but who wouldn't... Speaking of work, I should probably do some work tonight before I go to bed.
Now that I'm not at camp anymore, I can start adding YouTube videos again. In honor of my lovely new black MacBook, here is a funny spoof on the Mac commercials.
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