Fish Tanks

I've had a question on my mind lately, namely, to what degree do fish understand their environment? This came to mind sometime early this week when my room-mate Shane and I drove over to Best Buy, I needed to buy a charger cord for my ipod, and he was looking to replace a wireless router with something that actually worked. Without too much trouble or use of time we were able to find what we were looking in Best Buy. However, we realized that we were a bit bored, and went into the adjacent PetCo.

The PetCo there is another big box store, a part of the same strip mall as the Best Buy. These stores run along 494, a highway in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. The PetCo was an interesting place, and I wanted to look at various animals. The animals had to wait, for I had more pressing concerns. I quickly walked to the bathroom, pausing momentarily to marvel at a Wienie dog who waddled beside his middle aged human owners. This admiration was my downfall, as it distracted me from the matter at hand, and allowed me to step in a pile of fresh dog droppings.
I didn't notice at first, so I probably tracked the shit for about three meters before I noticed and began hobbling to the bathroom. My hobbling was good enough to avoid spreading shit on any other surfaces, which is a very good thing. I did my business, cleaned the offal from my shoe and went out.

It was at that point that I began looking at animals. First birds, then reptiles and amphibians, followed closely by fish. I gave the fish only a cursory glance at first, noticing that Shane was nowhere to be found. So, I walked around looking for him, and eventually discovered him looking at various cat toys. The idea was to buy a toy for our friends' new cat, Lyon. So, we browsed the cat toys for a few minutes, and then gave up to look at fish.
We looked over a large number of fish, of particular interest was a huge goldfish that stared blankly out the tank, zebrafish, and a sort of spooky, translucent fish whose tiny internal organs and skeleton were easily visible to the naked eye. I mistakenly thought that a large clear area around the tail was just empty space before remembering that the bodies of living things do not have empty compartments. I guess the muscle was clear.

Looking at the blank eyes of these fish, I wondered if they have good enough eyesite to look back and have even the vaguest idea of what is happening. I also wonder if they understand that their living situation is unnatural, and strange. I imagine that if I were smart and perceptive enough, living in their position would be stressful. Picture a small enclosure big enough to run a few laps around for exercise, with clear walls that lead out into an alien expanse. The giants lumbering around in that space would certainly seem like a threat, if they even seemed to be alive.
There must be some fish that are intelligent enough to get what is happening to them.

And yes, I am back

I'm back, and I'm returning to a regular post schedule. Expect a post on twitter every time I update.

Alien Vistas as seen from a bridge

This morning was extremely cold. The walk from Vanessa's house to the bus stop took a mere ten minutes, but in that short time I felt as if my eyes were going to freeze from their sockets. I made it though, and ended up taking shelter in the bus shelter. The bus eventually came, and I found a fairly decent seat. So, for a time I sat and read as we rode through the city.

We eventually reached the west bank of the U, and the bus stopped as it always does, in this little tunnel preceding the bridge. Out went all of the West-Bankers, hustling off into warmth. Then something odd happened. All of the lights and noises of the bus suddenly stopped. The lights then came back on, but the noises were different. I could tell that the engine was no longer on. There were series after series of beeps, a number of times the lights turned off. Somehow, like a miracle, the bus came back to life, the engine turned over and we went on our way.

By this time I had stopped reading. So I looked out over the river as we rode over it. The sky was purple from the lazily rising sun, and a sort of mist. It was probably a fog or a low lying cloud, but it too was purpled by the light. All I could see through it were the vague shapes of buildings on the other side of the river, with sinister red lights coming through the haze. It was like I was looking out over a dreadful alien vista, a place wholly unfamiliar and sinister, dripping with eldritch horror. And the terrifying thing about it is, we built this alien monstrosity.

My budgeting system

My budget system, though greatly improved, is still an imperfect entity. Here's the basics of how it works. I begin each school/work week by going to the atm and taking out 20 dollars in cash. This is my "discretionary/U of M" spending allowance. I use this money for breakfast and lunch over the course of the week. I leave my card at home during these times. However, when I want something after school and during the weekend, I generally will use my card. I need to keep a careful watch over how much I actually spend with my card for things like groceries and eating out.

One thing to change, that could make my 20 dollar discretionary budget stretch further would be to buy my breakfast from the supermarket. This would require going to the supermarket sunday or early monday and purchasing a week's worth of bananas. I imagine that paying by the pound, rather than by the piece of fruit, I will come out ahead of the ludicrous 96 cents per banana that the university of Minnesota charges. This will help me to afford more luxuries such as full lunch or coffee.

Beautiful, what a beautiful life.

Post-Mugging

I've mostly been posting to Twitter lately. However, this blog deserves attention, not abandonment.

I've mostly sorted out replacing various cards, etc. from my mugging. What remains is getting a new social security card. Last night I went to Marshall's in Richfield and purchased a decent wallet for 10 dollars, it's Perry Ellis, made of soft leather. I've replaced my phone as well, with a slightly smaller and more "hip" model. I like it, particularly since it works. Another major change since the incident is that I hardly carry my check card with me anymore. I generally carry small ammounts of cash. An interesting side effect is that I've been managing my budget far more effectively. This is perhaps a result of not having the ability to fulfil any whim I have with my check card.

Another interesting thing is that the men responsible for the mugging have been charged with 2nd degree aggravated robbery, because they implied the possession of a deadly weapon. (In fact, they threatened the use of deadly force) This crime has a fairly long maximum sentence of 15 years, and I believe is a felony, so if these men are convicted, they will never be able to vote again.

On the voting front, I'm pleased to see that Barack Obama is currently winning handidly in the election. The vast majority of people seem to believe that he is the next president of the United States, and I would certainly like to believe them. Palin frightens me, and McCain's willingness to associate with a religious extremist, far right psychopath of her caliber makes me question his judgement and honor. I believe he has been corrupted in his path for ultimate power, and that his experience in the 2000 primary against Bush taught him harsh lessons.

I've been spending a large ammount of time doing schoolwork, studying, working out, working, and watching various high-quality TV shows with Shane and Vanessa. I heartily approve of True Blood and Dexter, and have really enjoyed Twin Peaks and Rome. Also, I've been reading some Lovecraft.

I'm currently participating in clinical research regarding lipids. Also, I just completed my first runway show on Saturday, dressed as a robot.

Here's a link to a site with photos.

I'm going to attempt to return to a 2x per week posting schedule, with more regular updates on Twitter.

For the Future

I think that sometime in the near future I would like to do a number of things.

The first is make an autumnal trip to Duluth, one of these weekends in October, if it's at all possible. (and it might not be with the utter craziness of my schedule) I love the drive and watching as changing leaves give way to completely dead and empty trees, finally ceding to evergreens.

The second is to make a trip to Chicago. I would take the "Megabus" to Chicago from Minneapolis for a small price, and use cheap public transit to get around, eating food and seeing whatever catches my interest. Chicago is a famously interesting city.

Also, I plan to vote in the near future.

Mugging

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.

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.

Kind of horrifying

ja..... mit Henry Kissinger...

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Emergency Preparedness.

I was walking down one of the main concrete tunnels beneath the academic health center, delivering a package to the shipping dock, when I looked down to see a small case of bottled water. The case has been there for at least a week now, and I'm starting to think it's been forgotten. I'm happy that it's been forgotten though, because looking at the water I got to thinking about something that concerns me, and I think in a post-Katrina, post-9/11, post-35W Collapse society, there is a certain feeling that, "terrible things can happen at any minute."

Suppose for instance, as the trope says, that Zombies finally did rise to feed upon the living. We would need access to clean and safe water, as to avoid potentially catching whatever disease the creatures had, as well as to deal with the potential water-system shutoffs that could happen with alarming ease. I can imagine a group of rag-tag survivors coming upon the bottled water with hope, then tension as they figure out how to ration it.

I strongly hope that the case of water remains to help us survive any possible eventuality.

The Androy Hotel

First off, some perspective, or placing for those of you who don't know the Duluth and Superior area. The Androy hotel is an old building from the 30s or so, and is a mix between a residence and guest hotel. The rooms are tiny and ancient, and compared to the terrifyingly high prices in Duluth in the summer, maintain at a pretty constantly cheap rate, in the 50is dollar range.

I know the Androy primarily because it's a popular (and cheap) destination for people in the late hours of the night. It's popular because there is a very divey, but cheap and apparently decent tasting cafe down at the bottom floor.

I've never stayed at the Hotel though.

Have any of my readers stayed at the Hotel?

One of my coworkers will be staying there over the weekend with her daughter, and I guess I'm just curious. Also, is the area loud enough on weekends (from bar-crowd, etc.) to keep people awake who go to sleep at decent hours?

Michael Wiener. (Or Savage)

"I'll tell you what autism is: In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out."

Hmmmm...

I imagine most kids with Autism have been told to "Cut the act out" dozens, if not hundreds of times, probably to the point of having major problems stemming from it. Really, this holds for all sorts of people with disorders that change their behavior in ways that others find annoying.

I'm not surprised he would say such a thing, as it's inflammatory, and balls-out assholish, but still one would think that with his background in the sciences, he would have some sort of understanding.

Michael Savage is a man who makes Bill O'Reilly seem perfectly reasonable, thoughtful and pleasant.

Good to see psychotic extremists with millions of fans. Also good to see that after insulting the Autistic, their ad dollars get pulled to some degree.

Further bad news

Myrtle, the cat mentioned in yesterday's post, has deteriorated noticably further.Her behavior has become erratic, strange and has no appearance of being happy or interested in life. She's been trying to escape to the outdoors, presumably to hide somewhere and die.

It seems she'll be taken to the vet this week and put to sleep.

Too bad.

Dandelion Jelly

I'm at my parents house in Duluth right now. I decided, basically on friday or late thursday to make the trip, because I found out that Winnie, the dog my parents got when I was nine, is rapidly deteriorating in health. She's dying really, and will be dead within a week or two, the result of generally failing health, and some sort of grotesque, horribly painful looking tumor in her mouth.

Winnie is a St. Bernard and Black Lab mix from a farm in what could be called the outskirts of the Duluth Metro area. One of her littermates was picked up by an eagle and presumably eaten when she was a puppy. Winnie is a stubborn, athletic "water dog," and very big hearted, with a penchant for picking up and carrying rocks.

Other sad news, our cat Myrtle, who my parents have had since I was too young to remember otherwise seems to be wasting away mentally and physically. When I came into my parents' house, she was sitting in the front hall, dirty from head to toe, as she's stopped cleaning herself, either from apathy or lack of ability. She just walks around the house, meowing mournfully. Her normally trim and athletic form is now simply skinny and unhealthy looking.

Needless to say, it's a bit of an emotionally trying trip.

This is why I haven't called any of my Duluth friends.

There is Dandelion Jelly in the fridge though, and the weather is absolutely beautiful. The lake is amazing, it's gorgeous, majestic and powerful. There's an island of craggy rock some 10-15 miles out of town to the NorthEast along the shore, and I will visit it's gullshit covered face before I turn 25.

This Concerns Me

So,as of right now I have a couple of major concerns or worries.

The first is the impending death of Winnie, or Winnifred, a Labrador/St. Bernard mix that I've known since I was nine years old. She's my parents dog officially, but as she grew up with me, and I grew up with her, it's important that I try to see her.

This means an unscheduled trip to Duluth, probably on Saturday.

My other concern is my teeth. My teeth are having issues, and I need to see a Dentist soon, hopefully sometime next week. It shouldn't be too big of a thing to deal with, and once it's done I'll be fine, but until then, aleve, ibuprofen and aspirin are my friends on a rotating schedule.

These are my issues.