November 23, 2005 at 9:42 am (quotes)
On Rent, a musical that I saw back in J2 with Nat while we were in London for some bizarre youth science forum (I must say, I prefered the theme of the musical to its music…):
“…It never hurts to be reminded. Precisely because some of the specific concerns of “Rent” have become dated, the truth at its heart is clearer than ever. It is undeniably sentimental, but its sentimentality might serve as a balm to those of us, in New York and elsewhere, who sometimes find ourselves living in the long, tuneless sequel. Who would ever want to see a show called ‘Mortgage’?”
- New Tenants in Tinseltown by A.O. Scott; the New York Times, 11/23/05
On birth control, in a book I perhaps should have read many many moons ago:
“… It is a simple logical truth that, short of mass emigration into space, with rockets taking off at the rate of several million per second, uncontrolled birth-rates are bound to lead to horrible increased death-rates. It is hard to believe that this simple truth is not understood by those leaders who forbid their followers to use effective contraceptive methods. They express a preference for ‘natural’ methods of population limitation, and a natural method is exactly what they are going to get. It is called starvation.”
- Family planning, in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
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November 18, 2005 at 3:27 pm (Uncategorized)
At Joel’s behest and in an effort not to do any work:
Three Names You Go By
Esther. Stherling. Milady. (i’m dead serious.)
Three Parts of Your Heritage
Love of food. Love of frugality. Love of travel.
Three Things That Scare You
Embarassment. Horror movies (I know. I’m sad.). Flatworms.
Three of Your Everyday Essentials
Food (preferably including breakfast). Sleep. Good reading material.
Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now
Silver metal watch from Dad. My work ID. Plain black hair-ties/rubberbands/whatever.
Three of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists (at the moment)
Leahy. Ludovico Einaudi. Christina Aguilera.
Three Things You Want in a Relationship (other than Real Love)
Candour (surprise surprise). Silliness. Dancing!
Two Truths and a Lie
I’ve been to a nudist party. I can make my own Char Siew Baos. I’ve eaten bat stew.
Things about the Opposite Sex that Appeal to You
Rhythm. Skepticism. Good appetite.
Three of Your Favorite Hobbies
Skydiving. Knitting. Reading.
Three Things You want to do really badly right now
Skydive. Get a med school interview. Learn yet another language.
Three Places You Want to go on Vacation
Mongolia. South Africa. Anywhere with a live volcano that I can climb.
Three Things You Want to Do Before You Die
Live in Antarctica. Skydive with a wingsuit. Eat some good roti prata.
Three People You Would Like To See Take This Survey
opf, fractalsponge, ac
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November 16, 2005 at 7:10 am (rant, religion, thoughts)
I had a conversation recently (in toronto, actually, a weekend experience that i’ll blog about later) with someone who was asking if I thought that suicide bombers were crazy. I said no, at least not more than average. She was quite taken aback and said something along the lines of ‘but they’re killing people and themselves because they think it’ll get them a better deal in the afterlife’, as if it were impossible for someone to believe that and not be crazy.
now don’t get me wrong. I’m most vehemently NOT endorsing terrorism or suicide bombing. however, you can’t in this day and age call someone crazy just because they embrace a different belief system from yours. Well. you can, but you’d have to call the bulk of the world crazy as well. believing that killing and dying is the way to go is in no way counterfactual. It may be counterintuitive, but intuition is not what we base our definition of reality on. I don’t think believing that suicide for the cause will win you greater reward in the afterlife is very different from believing that we should do good in this life to avoid being turned into a caterpillar in the next, or, in light of the coming holiday season, believing that a virgin gave birth to the son of God in a stable 2000 years ago. The difference is the violent nature of the belief, not in the relative sanity of the believer. you call someone crazy when they believe something counterfactual. when you disagree regarding beliefs, the best you can say is that they’re misguided…
It’s just odd, is all…. how blase people are about denigrating other people’s belief systems. It’s one thing to say ‘here is the fallacy in your belief system’, quite another to say ‘ugh, how could anybody believe ‘X”, simply because you don’t believe ‘X’. Yet King Abdullah of Jordan was quoted in the New York Times as deriding the Iraqi terror groups for being concerned with propriety (e.g. not having unmarried men and women travel together) while on their way to kill people. You’d think a king would have more sense…. but then again US leadership isn’t any better.
sanctity of life is a belief just like any other. It’s not a fact. It’s an opinion. There’s quite a difference between calling someone immoral and calling them insane. or have we reached a point where ‘crazy’ is defined as ‘different from me’?
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November 10, 2005 at 11:04 am (thoughts, update)
between classes, preparing a grant proposal, working on a poster for a conference this weekend, programming till my eyes water, and mum visiting for the week, I have been on the go for just a wee bit too long. It’s really not the busy, hectic schedule that’s the problem, it’s the having to keep track of far too many things at once that is. I really need to get my multi-tasking back up to scratch.
I also need to become a better programmer. scripter. whatever. I really kinda suck, mostly because I’m not terribly organized or systematic about it. everything I put together is basically a hackjob, and while it does make my life a little easier, I really would like to get better at it so I don’t fuck up as often. I wonder if I can take a class somewhere…. then again I have no huge desire to learn a different language. I like Python, idiotproof as it usually is. I’d like to learn more about it, I know there’s a lot of function out there that I don’t even know exists. but wading through the online manuals/descriptions/forums/tutorials is rather overwhelming…
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November 3, 2005 at 10:01 pm (thoughts)
after weeks of agonizing over not getting interviews, and reassuring myself that it’s just that schools haven’t gotten to my file yet… I discover today that at least one school has gotten to my file — got a rejection letter from WashU MSTP today.
enough said.
on the bright side, I got shitloads of exercise today (septa’s still on strike) because just as i got to work, i got a call saying a meeting had been scheduled for the morning downtown. *cue 180 degree turn*. AND i discovered yesterday that the strikers who are grilling by the roadside instead of DRIVING BUSES AND TRAINS are more than happy to share their hotdogs. that’s a silver lining, right there.
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November 1, 2005 at 9:35 am (america, rant, update)
literally. The union workers have gone on strike. Buses are not running. Trolleys are not running. Subways are not running. Unfortunately as of 5pm yesterday, my bike was out of order. I had to take a CAB home ($35!!!) and drop my bike off to get repaired… Probably a good thing anyway as I’m still aching (bruises, not muscle ache) from the 10 mile ride I had yesterday. Now, 10 miles isn’t really all that bad, but I hadn’t been on my bike since June…
anyway. this is STUPID. SEPTA can’t seem to manage their money properly despite charging exorbitant rates for an inefficient transportation system. The union workers are striking because they’re refusing to pay a portion of their healthcare premium costs. I PAY A PORTION OF MINE, DAMMIT. And if hearsay is right, quite a few of them earn more than I do. So who suffers?? RIDERS.
*GRUMBLE*
Workers. should. not. be. allowed. to. strike. Goddamn America.
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