Philosophy

Dennis sent me this from the BBC. Made my brain hurt.

Movie: Stranger Than Paradise

So in researching this flick, I'd forgotten that Jim Jarmusch also did "Broken Flowers", an excellent movie with an excellent soundtrack. And the excellent Bill Murray. But anyway - this is an odd flick but had me hooked from the start with the fact that two of the main characters are Hungarian. And the bit where they visit the Hungarian aunt in Cleveland (Cleveland! Of all places!) was great - reminded me of my grandmother. It was something of a novelty back when it came out. Anyway, I liked it, if you like weird, half-foreign-language "absurdist comedies" check this out for sure.

More info: Wikipedia entry

Movie: Kicking and Screaming

Yeah Noah Baumbach. This was my boyfriend's favorite movie in college and I can see why - a bunch of humanities/English majors coping with life after graduation. But in reality, this could be any college seniors at pretty much any college in America where people don't want to grow up. I saw more than just a little of myself in Max, hanging out at the dorms (but not chasing freshman tail). I spent pretty much the first two years of grad school essentially living my fifth and sixth years of undergrad back at my old dorm. I'm not going to extrapolate further on the negative effects this may have had on my subsequent graduate career.

Anyway, the movie is cute, has some great lines in it. The character of Chet, the n^th year undergraduate who works as a bartender and has a kid with a professor, hit a little close to home for me, especially the line where he says "this is my life". Kind of scary.

If you've seen anything else by Baumbach - in particular, The Squid and The Whale - I highly recommend this too.

More info: Wikipedia entry

Why I Hate Christmas "Cards"

OK. So, I like getting Christmas/holiday cards from people. Emphasis on the "card". A piece of paperboard, folded in half, with things written on it. Sometimes photos are enclosed, or are a part of said "card". This year, in particular, I have been getting photos being passed off as "cards".

A LOT of them.

This aggravates every neuron in my cerebral cortex.

Here's why: you know what these cards come across as? A very irritating, impersonal way of saying, "look how un-screwed up my life is because I got married/had a baby/(insert happy life event here) and as such, I am too busy to write you anything personal but I am going to shove my happiness in your face at one of the most emotionally unstable times of the year."

Now, in the unlikely event you are one of the several people who sent me such a card AND are reading this: chill. You probably didn't INTEND for your card to come off as such an obnoxious gesture. And I don't hate you. And, a few of you I actually talk to on a regular basis and you probably didn't think you NEEDED to write anything on the card. Here's some friendly advice: YOU DO. And, I am not the only person to feel this way - a few of my other friends as well as family received these kinds of "cards" and they all had pretty much the same reaction as I did. It's not cool. If you don't want to make an iota of effort to send a card that is personal, that makes your recipient feel like they are more than just an entry in your computerized address-book-label-printer-database-of-people-that-you-keep-to-feel-relevant, then save yourself the trouble.

So, please do me a favor: next year, if you want to do the whole wonderful-life-photo-card thing, either spend 10 seconds and use a felt pen to write me a note on it, or save yourself a stamp. K? K.

Sleep Deprived

Yeah. Another day I can't get up at a reasonable hour, woke up at 4:30am and drifted in and out of sleep till I got up. Had a weird dream - was at a party with Jesus Jones - yeah yeah I know. Something about Mike almost drowning and me and Al had to save him... there was this other bit where I was at what I think was a coffeeshop in Northampton. There was a woman who gave away a bag with two calendars in it. One was this souvenir calendar from like 1993 with all these pictures of JJ in it. Some other woman took the bag and both calendars, and I asked her if I could have the JJ one 'cos I'm a HUGE fan and she said absolutely not. Then, somehow, I had another calendar from some other store in Noho (I think it was either Haymarket or Cornucopia) and I offered to trade with her and then she said yes. And I was all excited and I took the calendar to the party and showed the guys.

Time passing? Passing love? Love no matter what? I'm sure the dream analysts out there would have a field day with this one.

Off to the lab.

Signs Of The Apocalypse: North Of The Border Edition

So Canada, our wonderful neighbors to the North, have their collective s&#t together even if we don't. They stepped it up with opening their checkbook to the Big Three because, as we all know, the carmakers going out won't affect ANYONE but overpaid union employees.

Can someone wake up and smell the burning rubber please?

SciFinder On YouTube

So, somehow I am on CAS's SciFinder mailing list. For the two or three non-grad students reading this tripe, SciFinder is a pretty awesome database for scientific info. It has been incredibly useful to me in my research. However, to pump up their usage stats (or image?) they now have a YouTube channel. They follow two dorks around - one uses SciFinder, one doesn't. Guess which one has loads of time to piss around on Facebook and throw parties?

Check it out:
SciFinder Webisodes YouTube Channel

...and it sucked before 7am today

So I wake up at 6:30am this morning in a cold sweat because my family was about to be obliterated by Daleks. No, I'm not joking, some part of my brain must still be 9 years old. I haven't even WATCHED Doctor Who recently so I have no idea where the hell this came from. The Daleks were coming up my block, and I ran into the kitchen and my mum was crying, and I knew I had to get everyone out to the bunker in the backyard, but the Daleks were all over the street and I think they saw us through a window... then I woke up.

Naturally I have to pee my brains out so I go into the bathroom (without my glasses) and sit down to pee. Something cold is under my right foot. A ball of cat poop. Three inches away from the litterbox. Just barely onto the rug that I washed THREE DAYS AGO. I think my boyfriend forgot to clean the litterbox last night before we went to bed and this tweaked the cat so while she was digging to China or whatever she does in there, she must have sent one flying.

I'm slightly delusional at this point because I may be coming down with either ANOTHER cold or possibly a freaking sinus infection (I've NEVER had one but I am coughing up some NASTY CRAP right now). The person I saw at UHS last night wasn't sure, so they gave me a script for amoxicillin just in case. If I really feel like death by Wednesday it's probably an infection and I need to take hated antibiotics. Oh well.

Anyway I went back to sleep for a few hours and I feel more human now.

Let's see what other sorts of fresh hell will rain down on me today, eh?

Movie: Idiocracy

No. Just, no.

I'm not even providing a link to more info. Just say no to this one.

The only funny joke they put in the movie happened AFTER THE MOVIE ENDED. That's about all you need to know.

When The Lonely Wind Sounds Like Company

So as if Thanksgiving wasn't bad enough, the three days after brought me:

1. Unemployment
2. Expensive dental work (no insurance, obviously)
3. My apartment being burglarized

Add to that the fact my idiot advisor could really care less about me or my thesis progress and you have an extended hiatus.

It's not you, it's me. No, really.

I've sort of forgotten how to talk to people because my mind is so messed up. Typing things, emails, etc are more manageable because I can write it all down, get it out of my head, and sort of massage it to sound coherent and get my point across. But actually talking to people has become nearly impossible (if it's not about work, science, or sports). So, yeah.

Maybe one day, it won't be me anymore. I hope.