Dryope

I'm a WEASEL!

Well, just one step up--an ermine.

Why??

Shows I was planning on watching this season:
Andy Barker, PI
Drive
Veronica Mars
Heroes
The Tudors
Lost
Studio 60

Of these--Shows That Are At Least Partly Intelligent:
Andy Barker, PI
Drive
Veronica Mars

Shows Already Cancelled:
Andy Barker, PI
Drive
Studio 60

So now I'm just down to three dumb shows and one smart one instead of my planned mix-bag of seven.  This gives me plenty of time to work on my schoolwork, just as summer vacation starts.  Thanks, networks!

I'm just a trigonometry formula.

So a CNN article is reporting that schools are banning ipods because they can be used to cheat during exams.  I get inserting text in the lyrics or notes section--but really, it seems like your teacher would notice that you're glancing at your ipod constantly while writing the test.  Then there's making an mp3 of the test answers--but unless you got an advance copy of the test, are you really going to wait that long to get to the answer?  And won't you also be doing a lot of conspicuous fiddling with your ipod during class to fast forward and rewind and pause and all the rest of it?

So it's pretty useless.  Or so I thought.  But the CNN article says:

Even an audio clip of the old "Schoolhouse Rock" take on how a bill makes it through Congress can come in handy during some American government exams.

Sure.  If you're in third grade. 

Anyway, the worst problem now is that students are no longer going to be able to listen to music while taking tests.  Oh no!  One high school student said: "I think you should still be able to use iPods. People who are going to cheat are still going to cheat, with or without them."

Yeah, I'd hate for you to have to take exams the way I did in the old days--when walkmans were banned and our graphic calculators were scrupulously checked before the exam.

Whether she survives the parlous journey, we know not...

Condoleezza Rice To Voyage East

Aw, man

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech.  Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent.  And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I am so boring.

The story so far...

Okay so I haven't posted in a while.  (Quelle suprise, right?)  But I've been doing work and school stuff, like an idiot, and on top of it all, apparently my fatigue is not all stress--now I need more medication to satisfy my thyroid. 

Stupid thyroid.  Why couldn't it wait for summer break?

Anyway, it's hard to come home at 8, get dinner, and then sit down for a good half hour of blogging before I lay in front of the TV with Bill until midnight. I prefer to skip right into the laying in front of the TV, honestly, but also it's part of shirking schoolwork: I actually have to blog twice weekly in a class blog.  AND contribute to wikipedia.  It's some experimental thing.  Honestly, when are the Baby Boomers going to get over the excitement of the Web 2.0?  The rest of us are already bored with it.  You all were reading my blog in China, before it was called that, and before that my friends were sending out mass emails.  Honestly, it's just another place to rant about stuff.

Anyway, so stuff that happened this week.  Uhhhh....I went to Boston. Well, that was last week.  I had a blast, especially once I found the freedom trail, which took me an HOUR to find from Boston Common.  And it starts at Boston Common. If you're ever traveling with me and we're lost, just ask me which way to go and go the opposite direction.  (This doesn't work in my head, by the way, because whichever way I pick in the end is the wrong one, even if it's the opposite of the way I think I should go.)

My favorite places to eat were all in the north end, where I had the best cappuccino ever, right across from the church Paul Revere rode to.  And I LOVED the USS Constitution--I got there really early, and was on the first tour.  I bought the last full Patrick O'Brian book in the gift shop there, which made me very sad--I hadn't realized I was that far along.  And of course the whole time I was thinking of the USS Chesapeake, blowing up in China in the 1840s. 

So my classes seem to be going well.  I have the same professor for both, which is very odd, and I seem to occasionally say intelligent things, which is surprising.  Well, not that I think so, but the class actually listens to them and responds, which is not my usual experience.  Usually either I dominate or am completely ignored.  Anyway, it's very odd, because there's this fellow grad student who's been in all my classes ever, and she and I had a falling out (she's born again and perceives every little thing as a slight against her faith, while I am ridiculously contentious, and therefore sensitive about, being tolerant), so she ignores me both classes.

Then there are the two jerks in my modern Chinese history class, who disagree with me on absolutely everything, and tend to be pretty mean about it, too.  I just found out one of them, at least, doesn't believe in the moon landing.  Of course he doesn't.

Anyway, so that's where my time and money are going these days.  Oh, and I'm finally reading Blink, which you'd think I'd have read already, with my ridiculous fascination with unconscious thought's role in analysis, but there you go.  I'm still not entirely convinced this is how things work: what about the idea of "sleeping on it"?  When does it take a long time to figure out a solution and when does it take a few seconds?  Which one do you trust? 

Ans, as always, the presence of three questions in a row marks the end of this blog.  I hope you'll join me next time, which will be, uh, whenever there's nothing good on TV.  Or TIVO.  Basically, don't hold your breath.