School's out for winter (not Winter), Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, blah blah blah.
That universe I keep making oblique references to in other posts? Let's put it down here.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Random Thoughts #11
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
--Popular Vietnam-War era sentiment.
What if they gave a war and only one side came?
--Valkri's (and a hundred other people in my made up fictional universe) rebuttal.
--Popular Vietnam-War era sentiment.
What if they gave a war and only one side came?
--Valkri's (and a hundred other people in my made up fictional universe) rebuttal.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Random Thoughts #10
I haven't gotten karyotyped or anything, but Klinefelter's syndrome would explain A LOT.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
One Heck of a Voice Box
I've been on something of a Kaito binge the past few days. Here's one where his voice mutates into a saxophone! (Amongst other things)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps7daa3_Qgs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps7daa3_Qgs&feature=related
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Shineba Iinoni!
Synthesized J-pop from a man whose tastes include Original Rags and older music! LE GASP!
But I really like the tune. For some reason it feels like a nice "suck it!" to all the death metal I listen to off the dorm speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqcfew2JCes&feature=channel_page
You wake up an hour late because you've hit the snooze button every five minutes.
You had two tests today, which you're pretty sure you botched.
You have a big research paper due next week, and you've only just begun.
And the speakers of the dorm play horrible tunes 16/7.
Sometimes life just sucks, and your retreat is childish fantasy.
I've got one now, and I'd like to share it with you!
I-wish-you all would die! I wish you all would die!
I wish that every last man would just drop dead!
I wish you all would die! I wish you all would die!
In a land so far away...!
(I don't know how that translates in Japanese, but hey, why not?)
But I really like the tune. For some reason it feels like a nice "suck it!" to all the death metal I listen to off the dorm speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqcfew2JCes&feature=channel_page
You wake up an hour late because you've hit the snooze button every five minutes.
You had two tests today, which you're pretty sure you botched.
You have a big research paper due next week, and you've only just begun.
And the speakers of the dorm play horrible tunes 16/7.
Sometimes life just sucks, and your retreat is childish fantasy.
I've got one now, and I'd like to share it with you!
I-wish-you all would die! I wish you all would die!
I wish that every last man would just drop dead!
I wish you all would die! I wish you all would die!
In a land so far away...!
(I don't know how that translates in Japanese, but hey, why not?)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
We are for Social Justice!
We cannot sanity check our figures!
Back in high school, the local advocacy club ran a poster campaign intending to draw attention to the problem of world hunger. Problem was, they couldn't agree on a number of people affected--I saw figures citing "deaths from hunger-related causes" ranging from 8 million, to 10 million, to 12 million, and one unfortunate soul made a poster consisting entirely of the line "30 million people a year die of hunger" repeated...when no less than thirty feet away was a poster citing a smaller figure.
Now in college, I run into another poster campaign, this time for rape and violence against women. I'm not in a position to check some of their figures (31% of women report being sexually assaulted by a significant other in their lifetimes--that's 46.5 million, but since it says "in their lifetimes" and doesn't give an explicit definition of sexual assault, I'll have to take it at its word). One poster, however, caught my eye. It said "One woman in the U.S. is raped every two minutes", and cited as its source the U.S. Department of Justice.
Quick multiplication tells us that 1 woman per minute = 30 an hour = 720 a day = 262800 a year. A quick Google search for the U.S. Dept. of Justice turns up a figure that conflates rape and sexual assault and gives a figure (trending down) of just over 200000 for 2008. Another search for the FBI places "forcible rape" for 2008 at just under 90000. Depending on how generous you are, the number given by the poster is either 20% off or 200% off, which doesn't speak well for the advocacy group.
Same place, different time--an advertising group claiming environmental holiness. Its claims: Americans waste 96 billion lbs. of food per year, and 25% can feed 4 million a day. Implications--each American wastes about 10/11ths lb. of food per day, and your average person eats 3 tons of food a day.
Does claiming you're working for a good cause free you of the burden of checking your numbers or something?
Back in high school, the local advocacy club ran a poster campaign intending to draw attention to the problem of world hunger. Problem was, they couldn't agree on a number of people affected--I saw figures citing "deaths from hunger-related causes" ranging from 8 million, to 10 million, to 12 million, and one unfortunate soul made a poster consisting entirely of the line "30 million people a year die of hunger" repeated...when no less than thirty feet away was a poster citing a smaller figure.
Now in college, I run into another poster campaign, this time for rape and violence against women. I'm not in a position to check some of their figures (31% of women report being sexually assaulted by a significant other in their lifetimes--that's 46.5 million, but since it says "in their lifetimes" and doesn't give an explicit definition of sexual assault, I'll have to take it at its word). One poster, however, caught my eye. It said "One woman in the U.S. is raped every two minutes", and cited as its source the U.S. Department of Justice.
Quick multiplication tells us that 1 woman per minute = 30 an hour = 720 a day = 262800 a year. A quick Google search for the U.S. Dept. of Justice turns up a figure that conflates rape and sexual assault and gives a figure (trending down) of just over 200000 for 2008. Another search for the FBI places "forcible rape" for 2008 at just under 90000. Depending on how generous you are, the number given by the poster is either 20% off or 200% off, which doesn't speak well for the advocacy group.
Same place, different time--an advertising group claiming environmental holiness. Its claims: Americans waste 96 billion lbs. of food per year, and 25% can feed 4 million a day. Implications--each American wastes about 10/11ths lb. of food per day, and your average person eats 3 tons of food a day.
Does claiming you're working for a good cause free you of the burden of checking your numbers or something?
Friday, October 23, 2009
Communist Party!
One of the dorms on campus is advertising a COMMUNIST PARTY tomorrow, with posters with Soviet Union propaganda pictures and slogans like "Red is the New Black" and "We Have Zeppelins!". All in good fun, I'm sure, and mocking old foes is a good way to ensure they don't rise again (see Mel Brook's repetoire [he's Jewish, by the way]), but I can't help but wonder if the school would approve of something else along similar lines. Say...
Fascist Party! Black is the New Black!
Maoist Party! Let a hundred shots be quaffed! Let a hundred minds be expanded!
Nazi Party! Heil to the King of Beers!
Fascist Party! Black is the New Black!
Maoist Party! Let a hundred shots be quaffed! Let a hundred minds be expanded!
Nazi Party! Heil to the King of Beers!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sleeeeeeep...
Sleep is good. Especially 12 hours worth. Which my roommate gets all the time. Now I know why. Sleeeeeeeepp...
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Fall Break!
Unfortunately, it's only two days, but at least I can catch up on my sleep (or maybe posting?).
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