| It was a glimpse into the laboratory of a scientific fiend.... |
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| Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain |
[30 Nov 2009|04:05pm] |
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 discontent or hungry |
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Blur - End Of A Century |
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I just went to get coffee and there was a woman who looked exactly like the busty redhead from Mad Men in the coffee shop. Same hair, wacky 60s clothes. It was like I'd travelled back in time! Ironically, "Life On Mars" was also playing on the radio.
I read on wikipedia that Jayma Mays auditioned for Glee by singing "Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me". They really, really should put this in the show.
I don't really enjoy the student stuff as much as the teacher stuff on Glee. The teachers are the best! More teacher episodes. I was won over when there was accidental straddling.
( Regarding Heroes Season 4 )
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| Time Enough for Lime |
[27 Nov 2009|01:17pm] |
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The Specials - Do Nothing |
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After many recommendations I've started watching Glee. Am enjoying it so far. The cute redhead from Heroes is pretty great in it!
Today I'm having a reasonably productive day in that I've discovered a big problem in my data which I'm now working on fixing. In an awesome world, once I've fixed the problem I'll in fact have more conclusions than I had for my thesis. We'll see.
The other night I had a dream that involved a Blur song entitled "Vasco da Gama" that I remembered when I woke up and still remember now. At first I had to verify it wasn't an actual song, which I was sure of when I woke up. But I'm still pretty sure the tune's from somewhere and my subconscious just put the lyrics "Vasco da Gama" over the top of it. It's driving me crazy, I really want to know what song it is! Alternatively, maybe I've found my "Yesterday".
The promos for Chuck season 3 keep getting more and more exciting. As does this Buss-like weather. Come on, January!
I always forget about youtube and I'm sure there are a ton of things on there that I've always wanted to see, or re-watch, that have now been uploaded. Unfortunately, I can never think of things to search for to find them, so I usually stumble across things by accident. A recent case of this has been my re-discovery of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", which I used to watch tons of as a kid but had completely forgotten about. I have yet to put my watching into action, but I plan on revisiting a couple of episodes to find out if I'm still as mortally terrified of "Wooster" and the torn carrot costume hanging off a tree as I once was. Man, I was so scared of that carrot costume.
Bam! Sidetracked. The original point of my youtube comment was to say that I don't go on there much, so haven't seen many "youtube classics". But recently I discovered Shatner of the Mount and have been watching it non-stop. Even if it wasn't a mash-up, what's going on in this interview?
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| Cordial |
[15 Nov 2009|05:50pm] |
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 mellow |
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Blur - Beetlebum |
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Photos from my party - now up here!
Some entertaining things which I didn't get photographic evidence of include:
- my "bedtime surprises", where Batman and beer bottles were waiting for me in my bed.
- Gladys freaking out this morning over the fact that my toilet door opened a different way and the bath had moved. Turned out he was on a different floor.
I don't quite know how it happened but I woke up this morning with my boxers on backwards.
A good night!
Thanks to everyone who came and brought fun things and partied hard! Hope you had as good a time as I did!
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| Wuthering |
[09 Nov 2009|04:55pm] |
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 gloomy |
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Pulp - Pink Glove |
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So now I'm getting close to my last exam (Thursday) and properly finishing my degree I'm starting to panic about my lack of ambition. Or possibly it's an overabundance of unclassifiable ambition. I can't tell!
(did youtube cut the word "Olympic" out of my video?)
I think I'd like to live in an awesome house with floorboards, and have friends over to drink wine whilst also having some kind of mighty job of big-scale importance.
Basically, I want to be John Steed.
One thing I've also decided is that when I have a lot of money I'm going to sign up for this.
My Russian learning plans have received a great boost by my acquisition of a phrasebook and my discovery that my I-Spy DVD has a Russian audio track. I now intend to watch it many times over until the Russian has imprinted itself on my brain. I can learn how to pine unrequitedly over Famke Janssen in Russian and that's probably all I need, right?
(as a by-product I can also learn how to do Eddie Murphy fast-talk in Russian for comic relief)
When I finish exams I'm also going to have a big-time Russian Bond-fest. From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye. They'll go together brilliantly, don't know why I haven't done this already!
Я готов.
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| Jackson Lake |
[22 Oct 2009|08:37pm] |
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 putting off work |
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The Jam - Tales From the Riverbank |
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The other morning in the car I was playing one of the great games: BRITISH CASTING GAME
This is a game I've played before in various guises, but I don't think I've really played the thorough variant. Often I don't need to, because awesome British casting just happens by itself!
Usually I've just thought "here are tons of British people I like, they should be in a show/movie together". This time I was playing a version with more rules!
The premise: the BBC has commissioned a new ensemble show. You're doing the casting. Who's in it?
It's anything that typically has a whole bunch of roles, eg. '20s murder mystery, Dickensian adaptation, wacky modern show about intertwining lives. Feel free to specify what genre yours would be!
Here are some considerations I decided on (where considerations can be taken as rule-like or disregarded as required):
1) Watch out for casting too many people who originally appeared in the same show. Then it runs the risk of becoming "Show X Reunion with guest stars".
2) Do you want to have two people who originally played a couple in Show X? Then your audience will be wanting to see them get together (again), and you might not want their characters to do that. Or would you work it into the show in an awesome way?
3) Should you cast someone who's now made it big in the states, or does this defy the reality of having them show up in your show? (eg. Simon Pegg, Jack Davenport)
4) If you have one person significantly more famous than the others, do you want them in a lead role (running the risk of taking all the attention) or just a cameo? (eg. Sir Roger Moore, Dame Judi Dench (also see 3))
5) Do you want all serious actors? All comedy actors? Or a mix of the two?
My current list stands as follows:
John Simm
Jessica Hynes
Alan Davies
Martin Freeman
Georgia Moffett
Rupert Graves
And the old guard:
Julian Glover
Diana Rigg
Who will be playing an old married couple, King and Queen, or the Lord and Lady of the manor (in any time period).
I'm having a lot of trouble with my last person, because I want another girl I like in there but can't decide who!
Top of my list is Olivia Williams but she definitely falls into category (3). That said, she still turns up in British stuff from time to time?
Other shortlisters for this spot include: Sarah Alexander (who I sadly feel doesn't fit with the rest of my cast), Julia Sawalha (breaks rule (2) with Alan Davies), Liz White (breaks rule (2) with John Simm - but maybe I could have her show up in an awesome cameo?), Sophia Myles (breaks rule (3)), Helen McCrory (who I haven't really seen in enough stuff, but do think is great) or Dervla Kirwan.
In the "no holds barred" version they'd all be in there! But only one makes the cut here. Still deciding on this one.
The best bit about this game is when you keep remembering that, actually, two or more of your cast have been paired up before in something you've seen but forgot about (John Simm + Jessica Hynes = Spaced), or something you haven't seen (Alan Davies + Jessica Hynes = Bob and Rose).
My highest tally (that I know of) of cast members is in Charles II (Rupert Graves, Martin Freeman, Diana Rigg). Not counting Julian Glover + John Simm + Jessica Hynes + Georgia Moffett = Doctor Who, or any number of these people in Marples/Poirots. Not the same episode!
Oh man, I typed up this entry yesterday and then today I remembered Jessica Hynes and Martin Freeman in Shaun of the Dead. Oh yeah, and Confetti. Jessica Hynes gets around! (further fond memory that I'd forgotten about: Jessica Hynes and Neil Dudgeon in Son of Rambow. Best ever!)
Now that I'm thinking about this, I want Neil Dudgeon to be in there too. Though this breaks rule (2)!
This is where it runs the point of getting out of hand and breaking all the rules again, so sticking with this, I'm also going to pitch what I want my show to be.
I'm thinking either:
a) murder mystery: '20s is always good but maybe to make this the ultimate Moriarty show it would be a '60s murder mystery! But still out in a country house, owned by Julian Glover and Diana Rigg. Neil Dudgeon has a minor, but awesome, role as their butler. Who gets to be the detective? As far as I know, all the other guys have been one before! Maybe Jessica Hynes is the detective? Georgia Moffett is a swinging 60s girl and Diana Rigg is disapproving of her 60s lifestyle in a beautiful piece of poetic irony.
or
b) Turn of the century sci-fi adaptation, eg. H. G. Wells. Maybe someone less well known than that that I haven't read, but still appropriately classic British. But can I really convince Diana Rigg to be in a sci-fi?
I have appropriately wasted a lot of time I was meant to spend working on an assignment.
Please tell me who'd be in your show and what it's about!
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| Mind Over Matter |
[16 Oct 2009|08:34pm] |
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Glasvegas - Go Square Go |
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| Time Crash |
[09 Oct 2009|04:50pm] |
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The Jam - The Bitterest Pill |
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Last night someone threw a brick through my car window whilst it was sitting in my driveway.
The brick fragmented in the process, tearing the back of one of my leather chairs, hitting the handbrake and generally spreading glass and bits of brick all through my car.
To: brick thrower
Surprise! Your 1 minute of drunken fun will cost me ~$300 to replace my windscreen and make me car-less when my thesis is due in a week and I'd planned to put in a week of long days at Uni.
You suck.
From: unlucky Moriarty
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| Time Lord Science |
[04 Oct 2009|01:38pm] |
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Uriah Heep - Traveller In Time |
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It would be cool if all the sources I'm studying in my thesis had names rather than numbers. They're all catalogued along the lines of 'g310.13+0.75', based on their galactic coordinates.
There's 11 of them, so I reckon I would rename them: Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker One, Davison, Baker Two, McCoy, McGann, Eccleston, Tennant and Smith.
It's a shame I can't really do this in my thesis. It'd be a lot easier to reference between sources, and generally more fun in the long run for any astrophysicists who find themselves looking at these maser regions.
Now I've come up with this idea, I'm at least going to label the sources this way in my head for convenience and fun. No images of Troughton and Davison so I was unable to place their magnetic field vectors in context. Baker One seems to show some interesting magnetic field variation over a 6 year span. Smith can be resolved into two sources, but I didn't have any luck with this. Time to get back to writing about Baker Two.
Rewatching recent Doctor Who eps has been pretty good for motivating me to get some thesis written, with "understand Physics! Write your thesis!" being the best answer I currently have to the ever-present question, "how can I be more like the Doctor?"
Shame I keep sitting down at my computer to write then whiling away valuable time on the Doctor Who wiki looking up changing uses for the sonic screwdriver over time.
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| Bam! Ian Brown! |
[26 Sep 2009|06:26pm] |
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Atomic Rooster - Devil's Answer |
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Woohoo! Here is the picture of me and Ian Brown that I kept forgetting to get off Hannah Robot! Taken by Hannah at Blues and Roots a year ago.
Ian Brooooooown.
(not greatest photo of me but hey, it's hard to look cool next to Ian Brown! I think my expression is surprised at how chummy he is being!)
Champion!
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| Education is an Important Key |
[25 Sep 2009|12:55pm] |
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 working |
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The Jam - Running On The Spot |
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Lunch break! I'm eating reheated Kraft Macaroni Cheese (with added tomatoes for "health") and it's really good.
I've got big thesis writing plans today after which I can go home and watch tons of Doctor Who. That's going to be good too!
Here are some plots I've encountered along the way:
"Half a Batsymbol"
Whoever succesfully creates a Batsymbol in their final results is the winner of Honours.
"Fleet of TIE Fighters"
Or maybe bow-TIE fighters. Ho ho ho!
(NB. These are draft pictures, not my final results, but nonetheless they should hopefully not be useful to anyone but me, and that's just for illustrating pop culture purposes. Bam!)
Far out! This week went by so fast that I completely forgot that there's Office tonight too! Party party party.
I've been re-watching Doctor Who, which is real good. So much stuff I didn't remember or didn't enjoy as much the first time around because I was too busy saying "wot ees thees Doctor Who romance?" and "what's Billie Piper doing here?" Now I know that Rose is good times, and am appreciating her origins far more. "Father's Day" was particularly good on rewatch!
----This section is all about a dream: feel free to skip as necessary!----
The other night I dreamt I was going out with a fictional character, but when I woke up I couldn't remember who it was. But I remember it was someone awesome and I definitely knew who it was in the dream! Who, who? Keeps on bothering me!
Anyway, she took me up this mountain and it turned out the top of the mountain was so high that there were some crazy gravitational effects going on and you had to lay flat on the ground because you couldn't overcome gravity to stand up. I remember crawling to the edge to look down and getting some big-time dream vertigo (I've got no problem with heights in reality!), so I had to lay on my back to look up - but above us, continuing the improbable physics of the mountain, all the planets were right above our heads, so everywhere you looked in the sky it was like there was a massive planet about to fall on your face. Between the huge drop down and the mega-planets above, and being stuck between them, this dream mountain was a pretty scary place. That said, fictional character girl told me that it would be a pretty awesome place for sexy times, which I heartily agreed with. Unfortunately, the dream moved on to something else before further mountain antics. Story of my dream life!
----
With that, back to thesis.
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| Felix Teasel |
[20 Sep 2009|06:52pm] |
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mood |
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 thirsty |
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Roxy Music - Street Life |
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So yesterday I was watching some youtube videos of John Simm.
I watched a series about him picking songs for a playlist, including this one where he talks about how much he loves The Coral (and how he was at the gig in the Cigarettes and Alcohol clip! around 3:21) :
And another one (or maybe it's in that video) where he talks about how he cries when watching The Beatles Anthology. This also happened to me, when they rolled into The End, which is something I would keep under wraps but hey, now I know I'm not alone!
Also this awesome video:
So that's how John Simm went from "popular guy who got to play my favourite Doctor Who character" to "guy who was cool in Life On Mars" to "new hero". Now I think it's awesome that he got to be the Master! Champioooon.
Also I always forget that he was in Spaced!
Ah, I was feeling so proud of writing one more page on my thesis this weekend, then I just remembered I also had about a bajillion drinks. So much for my grand plan!
Crazy times, I just noticed my journal's at 9943 hits? WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?
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| The Thesis-Livejournal Correlation |
[13 Sep 2009|11:20am] |
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T.Rex - Rock On |
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From this trailer you might assume that Hipsters (aka Stilyagi - don't know why they didn't use that as its English title as it's still a word we use!) is basically "Hairspray in Russia". In some ways, very true, though with more babies and kama sutra.
Much like Hairspray, there seems to have been a series of posters for Hipsters of "main characters dancing/having good times".
There are these ones:
And then there are these ones: ( Behind a cut, mildly 'NSFW' )
I also learnt from the Russian film festival that apparently in Russia all drinks should be downed in one gulp: vodka, glasses of wine, pints of beer. Is this true?
The other movie I saw was Circus, a musical from the 30s which was also a pretty effective propaganda movie. The plot of the movie is that an American circus star was outcast from America and travels to Russia, where her manager tries to get in the way of her new romance with a Soviet Poster Boy by holding "a terrible secret" over her. At the end of the movie the manager reveals her secret to everyone, she had a black baby! And the Russians say, "so what?!"
They go on to pass the baby through the audience of the circus, where people keep taking it and singing to it, and then they say "In Russia we love all babies, whether they are white, or black, or red." Then everyone goes marching through the streets in uniform, waving flags, and the American woman says "ah, I love it in Russia!"
Who likes America where they kick you out for having a baby? In Russia they like all babies! I would be pretty scared if I was actually watching this movie in 30s America. Somehow I imagine it never made it over there.
I was really motivated to get some thesis writing done before I got distracted by all those posters!
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| Mori Pa Ti |
[08 Sep 2009|07:11pm] |
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Slade - Coz I Luv You |
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Strange album covers I've discovered on songs on my iPod:
"Naked girl with penguin tattoo"
on 'Blockbuster' by Sweet (from The Best of Sweet)
I've managed to track down that this album is in fact "Pussycat" by Pussycat, a review of which states:
"This Rotterdam Booty-bass express will stop for no-one! Big fat Miami bass inspired rug purrin floorcrashers by three mysterious tuinbroeken hooligans from the world's biggest drugport. (David V soooooo!)"
I could change it to the colourful 90s thing it should be. But I keep seeing this cover when the song's playing on my iPod and it makes me laugh.
Speaking of things that keep making me laugh - so does this:
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| Theft and Fencing |
[02 Sep 2009|02:08pm] |
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Lindisfarne - Court In The Act |
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Finished Life On Mars last night, definitely loved it.
I guess it had me at "Live and Let Die", but the cars (my Datsun was '73!) and lotsa music I like and Avengers reference and Marc Bolan and Roxy Music concert all put it ahead of Ashes to Ashes, which I am also enjoying, but yeah, Mars wins out!
(also I really liked Annie)
Now I have a dilemma. I really did enjoy it a lot and want to watch it again. Do I make the most out of my rentals whilst I have them (though there won't be enough time for a full rewatch), or buy them (because I know I'll want to watch them again in the future), making the money I spent on renting them obsolete?
"An interesting problem for all concerned"
(by which I mean me and it's not all that interesting)
Feeling fueled by epic marathons of episodes, I dreamt last night I was basically in the show, went back in time etc. That's some speedy permeation of my subconscious!
I also dreamt that I was sitting around in a circle with a bunch of people including Steven Spielberg and he asked me what my favourite movie was, and high-fived me for saying The Empire Strikes Back.
Also, dreamt my supervisor told me he never comes in in the mornings and won't be in next Tuesday.... but then I couldn't work out if this was something that actually happened? I dreamt a lot of trivial facts too, like twitter posts that didn't actually exist, all leading to a general state of confusion this morning. Luckily, my supervisor was in after all.
Today has gone a lot faster and slightly more productively than I was worried it would. Super! Pub?
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| Last of the Winter Thesis |
[30 Aug 2009|11:24am] |
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 determined |
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David Bowie - Cat People (Putting Out Fire) |
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1. Introduction
1.1 Starting my Thesis
I've set myself a goal for today, that being to start my thesis. Due to the limitations I set on myself earlier this week (I have to write more thesis pages in a week than the number of drinks I've consumed) I'm aiming to in fact write four pages of my thesis today, which is no mean feat. The aim of this livejournal post is to warm myself up[1] for writing a lot of stuff, sectioned off into chapters. However, this post will be about things I want to talk about a lot more than methanol masers right now.
1.2 Outcome of Research
If I succesfully write four pages of my thesis today, or possibly less but include a plan of a detailed contents page, I will go to the video shop tonight and rent Life on Mars series 2. This may pose an additional challenge as there is already a large number of shows I plan on watching on TV tonight and tomorrow, and I'm under the impression it may still be a new release at my local, but I really want to watch it real bad.
2. Background
2.1 Life on Mars
I've been wanting to watch Life on Mars for a long time but due to a series of unfortunate coincidences (I missed it when it was on TV) this never happened (and I just kept listening to the stories of how good it was). However, I started watching Ashes to Ashes and the wish to know the backstory was too much and hence it was time to shell out the money to rent it!
I spent the majority of yesterday and this morning watching it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Now I really want to watch Series 2!
2.2 Side Effects
A strange thing has happened as a result of watching non-stop Life on Mars which is that I've noticed I'm thinking in a British accent. The thing I can't work out now is, have I always thought in a British accent (and just not noticed it), hence making this a possible contributing factor to my apparent "accent", or is it just a temporary side effect of all this Brits TV? Maybe my inner voice is mightily flexible based on what I'm watching and that's why my "accent"s all over the place? Or does this happen to everyone?
2.3 Time Travel
As I needed to make up the rest of my DVD package to go with Life On Mars I picked up DVD1 of another show I've been wanting to watch for ages, that being Quantum Leap. Ah, that was astoundingly great too! I only got 2 eps on the disc so decided to watch them before hitting Mars, which was a foolish mistake as then all I wanted to do was watch more Quantum Leap! Luckily I got over this hurdle in my methodology. But it's lined up for viewing next. I didn't register that I was actually choosing two kinda similar thematic shows. Time leaping for all!
2.4 The Physics
I've decided I'm fully justified in renting Quantum Leap as a show to watch in reward-steps whilst writing my thesis, seeing as it's all about a physisict. Through similar reasoning I decided it was a good plan last night to drink this awesome beer Dave got me called "The Physics".
From the label:
"There is no proper actual physics in this bottle.
It all adds up to a beer with a slight identity crisis and a paradoxical penchant for making quantum equations look totally effortless.
Brewdog = b^3(ld(d^2))/(*n/l)
b^3 = bloody brilliant beer
ld = live the dream
d^2 = drink the dog
*n/l = not literally"
It was actually really good beer. I just accidentally wrote "really good pizza". That's also true. I'm pretty sure this beer will greatly contribute to my understanding of physics. That said, it still means an extra page on my thesis today.
3. Effect on Mass
3.1 The Uncanny Valley
I've also been playing tons of Mass Effect lately, though the continued entrenchment in the Uncanny Valley has been occasionally really freaking me out.
Here is my favourite conversation option choice so far:
( Figure 1 )
This was from a really confusing conversation in the game with 'Ashley', whom my character is trying to woo soas to get some saucy game action (or so I've read), and also get an Achievement.
This character really freaks me out though due to being the Lady Uncanny in that sometimes she looks kinda cute, due to the realism of her character, then sometimes BAM! Back in the valley. The strangest thing about this conversation though was that it was like an Uncanny Valley of personality. In this cut-scene she's revealing all this stuff about her character's background - how she has all these sisters, etc. My first thought is, "wow, they've really fleshed out this character. That's kinda cool. This is a pretty well-written conversation." Then as the conversation goes on she breaks out this thing about God and says "that doesn't freak you out does it? My belief in God?" and suddenly, BAM! Too much realism, this has suddenly become so much like a real life awkward chat-up conversation you might have that I am experiencing VALLEY * A MILLION.
Has anyone else played the game and also experienced this? Good work on the part of the writers, at least. I guess realistic characters are good and all, but you know, I just don't feel right virtually romancing them.
4. Conclusions and Future Research
4.1 Conclusion
Leisure activities are much more enjoyable than actual work at the moment, though unfortunately I have a lot of actual work to do. Whilst I really can't imagine myself writing or finishing my thesis, it's something I have to do so I guess I'd better just get started and do it, amongst multiple rewards for getting work done which may be mostly in DVD form. Also looking forward to the big reward at the end (having everything done). Might buy myself more of The Physics to celebrate!
4.2 Future Work
In the immediate future, additional tasks that could be performed to contribute to the ultimate goal of starting my thesis today include eating lunch, as well as having a shower.
[1] Procrastinate.
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| Albaning |
[14 Aug 2009|11:17am] |
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mood |
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 wonderlust! |
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music |
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Gogol Bordello - Wonderlust King |
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Lately I've been listening to Gogol Bordello. I wish I'd heard of them before my Russia party. These guys are great!
These are some of the coolest lyrics I've read in a long while:
( Supertheory of Supereverything )
And this is pretty much exactly what I imagine me in Europe will be like. I'm fairly sure I'm going to be listening to this song on repeat for my whole trip!
Whilst I still have a long time to wait before heading to Europe, this weekend I'm going to Albany. Bam! My bag is stuffed full of Bond movies and squig jigs. Hopefully should be good.
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