I just got mugged outside my house, what the fuck, I've lost my phone, check card, bus pass, etc.
This is a bad day.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Car Window: Hint... Crime
Someone decided to destroy the window of my car, a 1990 toyota camry, sometime between sunday and 4:30 today. I'm a bit pissed off about the damage and the minor injuries I sustained as a result of it . However, I can't help but not being all that angry, and rationalizing it as being basically not important.
I'm filling out a police report with the city right now, and Shane was generous enough to give me some duct tape that he helped me seal up the window with.
So that's alright.
What isn't alright is my feeling toward schoolwork. My laziness is growing, and I need to nip it in the bud.
I'm filling out a police report with the city right now, and Shane was generous enough to give me some duct tape that he helped me seal up the window with.
So that's alright.
What isn't alright is my feeling toward schoolwork. My laziness is growing, and I need to nip it in the bud.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Also appearing on:
Twitter: Vernacularshift
Also on october the 18th you will be able to see me in my first runway show. Hint: it has to do with Robots. (Also it's on my birthday, so one can possibly help me celebrate afterwards)
Also on october the 18th you will be able to see me in my first runway show. Hint: it has to do with Robots. (Also it's on my birthday, so one can possibly help me celebrate afterwards)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
cleaning out the cupboard
I recently noticed a number of expired items in my cupboard. This is grotesque, some of the things have been expired since before I moved in here. I don't know who gave them to me, as I didn't buy them.
This has put me in a sour mood.
This has put me in a sour mood.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Horrible Buzzing Sound
I'm in a computer lab between classes. That is between phonology 2 and syntax 2. I'm extremely tired and having some sinus/nasal passage issues due to presumably fall related allergies. There's been a horrible, loud buzzing sound in the lab for the past 4 or 5 minutes.
I'm here mostly to staple together my reason for being so tired, the first syntax assignment, which I finished last night and printed today. I got it after quite a lot of work, but I fear my answer may seem a bit too unpolished or strange. I think I got the concepts just right and the phrase structure trees appear alright to me. Now that it's stapled and printed I feel that it's "out of my hands," and not worth thinking about again until I get the assignment back.
I've had class since 9:45 this morning, and work since 7:30. I went to sleep around two in the morning after working on syntax for quite a while, and woke up sometime around 6:45, getting about 5 hours of sleep. I'm tired, dirty and unwashed. My hair is greasy, as it almost always is after just one day of not showering. As far as I can remember, I haven't eaten anything today.
Someone sent me a promotional, or spam email. This isn't strange, as it happens all the time. I use a relatively shitty free personal email service (yahoo,) and there is quite a bit of spam, even in spite of their rather robust spam filter. However, this spam was different, the subject line read: كل ما تتمناه من عالم الإنترنت
In fact, the whole thing is in arabic. So, my goal now is to make a half-hearted translation, and find out what the hell I'm being spammed about. Or if perhaps it isn't spam, but something more interesting.
I'm here mostly to staple together my reason for being so tired, the first syntax assignment, which I finished last night and printed today. I got it after quite a lot of work, but I fear my answer may seem a bit too unpolished or strange. I think I got the concepts just right and the phrase structure trees appear alright to me. Now that it's stapled and printed I feel that it's "out of my hands," and not worth thinking about again until I get the assignment back.
I've had class since 9:45 this morning, and work since 7:30. I went to sleep around two in the morning after working on syntax for quite a while, and woke up sometime around 6:45, getting about 5 hours of sleep. I'm tired, dirty and unwashed. My hair is greasy, as it almost always is after just one day of not showering. As far as I can remember, I haven't eaten anything today.
Someone sent me a promotional, or spam email. This isn't strange, as it happens all the time. I use a relatively shitty free personal email service (yahoo,) and there is quite a bit of spam, even in spite of their rather robust spam filter. However, this spam was different, the subject line read: كل ما تتمناه من عالم الإنترنت
In fact, the whole thing is in arabic. So, my goal now is to make a half-hearted translation, and find out what the hell I'm being spammed about. Or if perhaps it isn't spam, but something more interesting.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
As Promised
Here I am to talk in more detail about classes and the like.
Also, topics of note to touch on; Spore, New Job, New Eno/Byrne and TV on the Radio Albums.
So, first, my new classes.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a class with Douglas Margolis which concerns learning the basic linguistic structures of English with a focus on teaching these things. It's basically, "learn English grammar/pronunciation with the express goal of teaching it to ESL" I've had Doug Margolis before, and the first thing that I noticed about him was that he looks vaguely like Jeffrey Tambor, the actor who played George Bluth in the sitcom "Arrested Development" He also talks with a slight lisp, which makes some descriptions of pronunciation a little awkward, though it generally doesn't lead to him being unintelligible.
Tuesday and Thursday is the home of the remainder of my classes. I'm taking a class about language learning in general. I'm taking a TESL class with Andrew Cohen, Pragmatics with Brian Reese, Phonology II with Daniel Karvonnen and Syntax II with Hoo Ling Soh. This is a moderately heavy load, with some difficult and esoteric concepts thrown in. I can survive though.
Of particular note is Dr. Andrew Cohen, who I will mention is a place and name-dropper. He likes to pepper the class with anecdotes, which are generally enjoyable, but can get a bit long-winded. It's the mere result of being 60ish, extroverted and having lots of life experience and little restraint. So, it's acceptable, just occasionally annoying (in an envy twinged way) to hear so much about conferences in Marseilles or the Hague or Kyoto. Cohen is an ideal professor for a class about learning language, an enthusiastic polyglot with years of language learning experience (he's taught for 17 years in L2)
My new job is ridiculously simple. I walk around an extremely wealthy neighborhood (compared to mine) and put promo slips on doors. This is morally abhorrent, as I'm probably just adding to the general litter of the city, still I feel that I'm not just doing evil. I am offering a free month of a decent wireless network. It's interesting the rush of fear that runs through me when I go through someone's yard. I get this feeling that people will ask me all sorts of uncomfortable questions regarding my activities, so I generally avoid any house with people outside of it.
So, Spore is pretty amazing. It's a new toy/game put out by the legendary creator of the sims, and it fulfills basically all of my childhood wishes for a game. That's not to say that it's perfect, but it allows a certain epic arc of time to pass that I could never really see in other games. The combination of beautifully presented but ultimately shallow mini-games makes for a wonderful whole. The game takes a life-form from it's beginnings in the primordial soup, to it's eventual landfall, rise to sentience, domination of it's planet and ecosystem, to the exploration of the immense galaxy. It allows for an incredible degree of freedom to basically do what one wants, which is what I love about it. This is because the kid inside me sometimes would rather have a sandbox to play in than a set of goals and story.
I'm excited for a couple of Albums that are basically out or out, the first "Dear Science," is by one of my favorite bands TV on the Radio. I've been listening to songs online, and I'm liking it so far, particularly the songs "Stork and Owl," and "DLZ." They present really inventive music in general, and from what I've heard so far, this spirit of real creativity hasn't faded at all.
Also interesting is the new effort by Brian Eno and David Byrne.Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is there first collaborative album in 27 years. The songs I've heard so far are pretty interesting, and I've always enjoyed David Byrne's voice. Odds are I will pick up both albums within a week or two.
Also, topics of note to touch on; Spore, New Job, New Eno/Byrne and TV on the Radio Albums.
So, first, my new classes.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a class with Douglas Margolis which concerns learning the basic linguistic structures of English with a focus on teaching these things. It's basically, "learn English grammar/pronunciation with the express goal of teaching it to ESL" I've had Doug Margolis before, and the first thing that I noticed about him was that he looks vaguely like Jeffrey Tambor, the actor who played George Bluth in the sitcom "Arrested Development" He also talks with a slight lisp, which makes some descriptions of pronunciation a little awkward, though it generally doesn't lead to him being unintelligible.
Tuesday and Thursday is the home of the remainder of my classes. I'm taking a class about language learning in general. I'm taking a TESL class with Andrew Cohen, Pragmatics with Brian Reese, Phonology II with Daniel Karvonnen and Syntax II with Hoo Ling Soh. This is a moderately heavy load, with some difficult and esoteric concepts thrown in. I can survive though.
Of particular note is Dr. Andrew Cohen, who I will mention is a place and name-dropper. He likes to pepper the class with anecdotes, which are generally enjoyable, but can get a bit long-winded. It's the mere result of being 60ish, extroverted and having lots of life experience and little restraint. So, it's acceptable, just occasionally annoying (in an envy twinged way) to hear so much about conferences in Marseilles or the Hague or Kyoto. Cohen is an ideal professor for a class about learning language, an enthusiastic polyglot with years of language learning experience (he's taught for 17 years in L2)
My new job is ridiculously simple. I walk around an extremely wealthy neighborhood (compared to mine) and put promo slips on doors. This is morally abhorrent, as I'm probably just adding to the general litter of the city, still I feel that I'm not just doing evil. I am offering a free month of a decent wireless network. It's interesting the rush of fear that runs through me when I go through someone's yard. I get this feeling that people will ask me all sorts of uncomfortable questions regarding my activities, so I generally avoid any house with people outside of it.
So, Spore is pretty amazing. It's a new toy/game put out by the legendary creator of the sims, and it fulfills basically all of my childhood wishes for a game. That's not to say that it's perfect, but it allows a certain epic arc of time to pass that I could never really see in other games. The combination of beautifully presented but ultimately shallow mini-games makes for a wonderful whole. The game takes a life-form from it's beginnings in the primordial soup, to it's eventual landfall, rise to sentience, domination of it's planet and ecosystem, to the exploration of the immense galaxy. It allows for an incredible degree of freedom to basically do what one wants, which is what I love about it. This is because the kid inside me sometimes would rather have a sandbox to play in than a set of goals and story.
I'm excited for a couple of Albums that are basically out or out, the first "Dear Science," is by one of my favorite bands TV on the Radio. I've been listening to songs online, and I'm liking it so far, particularly the songs "Stork and Owl," and "DLZ." They present really inventive music in general, and from what I've heard so far, this spirit of real creativity hasn't faded at all.
Also interesting is the new effort by Brian Eno and David Byrne.Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is there first collaborative album in 27 years. The songs I've heard so far are pretty interesting, and I've always enjoyed David Byrne's voice. Odds are I will pick up both albums within a week or two.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A new Semester: Fall 08
So, I've started classes for fall 2008, and after a little more than a week, I think I can give a general overview, followed by more in depth analysis of my first impressions regarding my instructors.
I am taking a total of 5 classes, or 16 credits. They are all in the linguistics or Teaching English as a second language program.
All of my classes on Tuesday and Thursdays (4 of them) are in Folwell hall, in fact I have two classes in the same classroom with a mere 15 minutes of break in between.
On MWF, I work until 1, then go to a class at about 1:25 in Rapson hall, the architecture building, which is about a block from Folwell.
I have 2 repeat professors I've had before, and many familiar students. This is not surprising as I've mentioned before that Linguistics is a rather small program at the U of M.
A major change to my daily life is that I get done with all obligations at 3 or 3:45, meaning that I can be home by 4 or 4:30 if I simply take the bus home. This gives me more time to do class readings at a relaxed pace.
News for me:
1. I'm sort of interviewing for a 2nd job today, something about promoting the Minneapolis city Wireless network.
2. The game/toy Spore came out on Sunday, and I have plans to buy it sooner than later.
3. I plan to continue my 'about 8 posts a month' strategy with this blog, so expect something like bi-weekly updates.
I am taking a total of 5 classes, or 16 credits. They are all in the linguistics or Teaching English as a second language program.
All of my classes on Tuesday and Thursdays (4 of them) are in Folwell hall, in fact I have two classes in the same classroom with a mere 15 minutes of break in between.
On MWF, I work until 1, then go to a class at about 1:25 in Rapson hall, the architecture building, which is about a block from Folwell.
I have 2 repeat professors I've had before, and many familiar students. This is not surprising as I've mentioned before that Linguistics is a rather small program at the U of M.
A major change to my daily life is that I get done with all obligations at 3 or 3:45, meaning that I can be home by 4 or 4:30 if I simply take the bus home. This gives me more time to do class readings at a relaxed pace.
News for me:
1. I'm sort of interviewing for a 2nd job today, something about promoting the Minneapolis city Wireless network.
2. The game/toy Spore came out on Sunday, and I have plans to buy it sooner than later.
3. I plan to continue my 'about 8 posts a month' strategy with this blog, so expect something like bi-weekly updates.