FML

Ever heard the phrase "FML," or, for those kiddies who don't believe in curse words, "fuck my life?"
The Urban Dictionary (which, I know, isn't an academic dictionary, but it gets the job done for phrases in popular culture) defines "FML" as "made popular from the teen movie Superbad...FML is an easier, faster way of saying something when nothing's going your way."
I like to think that FML is best used in specific, theoretically one-time instances. For example, say I studied really, really hard for an econ test--but nothing I studied turns up on the test, and everything I didn't study does. That would be a good time to say "fuck my life."

Anyway, a pal turned me on to the website "FML: Your everyday life stories." Trying to describe the hilariousness of the site wouldn't do it justice, so I'll just strongly suggest you visit it.
Visit it!

Ocarina of Time: Red-Blood Version

Part of this post stems from my total lack of radio shows lately (I'm supposed to DJ a KAUG radio show titled You're a Nerd every Sunday, but haven't done the mandatory re-training in yet) and I feel a bit bad about that, and part of it stems from me refusing to get off the computer because the bottom is warm, and I just spent what seemed like forever walking home in the glaring cold from Sawatdee, a Thai restaurant downtown.

Anyway, the post: check out this website (see below). I should warn you that only Zelda fans will find it at all interesting--but if you do happen to be a Zelda fan (and if you're not, you should be)--this site will probably be very, very cool. It explains the differences between the first version of the Ocarina of Time cartridge and later versions; the most well-known difference is the color of Gandondorf's/Ganon's blood. You see, in version 1.0, his blood is red--which turned out to be a no-no for U.S. audiences--and was subsequently changed to green.
Oh, and just so you know, I'm passionately on the lookout for a "red-blood" cartridge. If you've got a legitimate "red-blood" cartridge, I'll pay decent money for it.

The site.

Another difference--follow the link above to find out more!

EDIT: Here's another good site, with some nice visual comparisons. It's also got audio of the Fire Temple's theme, which was changed from version 1.0 to 1.2. The reason? In versions 1.0 and 1.1, the song featured Islamic chants, which angered a Muslim organization. Although I understand Nintendo's reasons for taking the chanting out of later versions (a show of sensitivity, which is to be applauded), I think the first version (with chanting) has much more depth. It's very eerie, which I suppose is in itself a little strange, considering the chanting was probably supposed to convey a sense of the sacred, originally.

This week, I learned (dos)...

• Cooking food in microwaves isn't bad for you or your food. All microwaves do is rotate the molecules inside--this generates heat. In fact, "microwaves" are really light--they don't sap nutrients from your frozen fish-sticks or add cancer to your popcorn.
• Crystal lead is different from airborne lead. For example, the lead in Swarovski crystal earrings isn't going to hurt you--the lead is trapped in the crystal. Be careful with crystal dishes, though--drinking orange juice out of a crystal goblet, for example, will expose you to the lead.
• In World War I, the Ottoman Empire was on one side, and the British were on the other. Egypt was technically still part of the Ottoman Empire, so the British declared that Egypt was independent of the Ottoman Empire. It wasn't until much later, however--in the 1950s--that Egypt finally became independent of the British.
• The tradition of open-bisexuality in Tokugawa Japan can be traced back to homosexuality in the royal courts of ancient China.

That's all I've got. This week was not one for learning, apparently...

luce luce luce luce

Yep, I went out to Luce Wednesday evening--along with Amber Davis and Abby Miller. For those unaware, Pizza Luce is a popular pizza place with just a few locations, and one is only a couple blocks from Augsburg's campus. So, at 5 P.M., we met in the Urn/Mort lobby and trekked over there. It was a good time: we started off with a Caesar salad and finished with a pepperoni, pineapple, and jalapeno pepper pizza (it was Amber's idea, and a good one). Amber and I also ate a few flower petals, just for fun.

The gang

A bizarre picture on the wall

Our (that's me and Mitch) puppy-getting-adventure is one step closer to completion: two days ago, I sent our breeder a deposit--which means this weekend, we're heading to the breeder's ranch to pick out a specific pup. And then, about six weeks from now, we get to TAKE THE PUPPY HOME! O_O

Augsburg closed yesterday! We had a HUGE snow-storm. The wind was incredible, and we got at least six inches of snow (I made that number up, but it's gotta be something like that). Ulysses, one of my pals, told me it took him an hour and a half to get from campus in Minneapolis to his home in St. Paul--an otherwise fifteen minute trip.
It was neat that school was closed, but it also meant that convocation was canceled--and that's bad for me, because it was the only time I could go to any part of this convocation series, and I'm required to write a summary for my Honors science course. What to do?

Read The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or else you're a bad American

FYI: If you want to read the entire text of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, go here.
My only warning is that it's 407 pages long and in poli-speak, and I use that term here to refer to over-technical jargon that only members of the political sphere or those educated in such would understand.
That being said, I at least feel a little better having seen the text of the Act with my own eyes. Better in that, even though I don't understand most of what I read, and I really only read about three full pages of the thing, I feel more sure of my support of it.
If you want my opinion, though I don't think it should count for anything, considering my lack of actual knowledge on the issue, I think doing something, rather than nothing, is crucial. So if there are a few earmarks in this bill, then so be it, even though President Obama denies there are any. I really don't care. If 100 million of that 800+ billion is for nonsense, big whoop-di-doo. We can't keep doing the same stuff and expect different results (that is, the economy will just "fix itself"--what a load of crap). We've got to do something. And now we have. Here's to hoping it works.

I got a little more into this entry than I'd planned on, but damn it, this is my blog, and I'll be occasionally opinionated if I so please.

And his name shall be Per

GUESS. WHAT.
We got our dog's name tag! We went to PetSmart the other day to pick up a puppy harness and shampoo, and got so excited we just had to get the tag, too. Of course, that means we chose a name: Per, which is Norwegian. We've been settled on Per for a while--I'd say, since at least this fall. I even named my Nintendogs Shiba Per. :)
Anyway, here's the tag. Now all we need is to go to our breeder's ranch, pick the puppy, and then wait another month (our puppy was born on Valentine's Day). WOOO PUPPY!

In other news, HON 240 (Science, Technology, and Citizenship) was pretty good today. We analyzed plants--mostly to see how they pollinate and fertilize. Did you know that when you eat peanuts, you're eating peanut embryos?

Phil diagramming a stargazer lily

Frequently, over the entire span of this roughly two hour lab, students would make trips to the bin of mixed nuts, grab a couple, walk back to their seats, and proceed to smash the nutshells open and eat the hidden goodies. Then we learned some of the nuts were about three years old.

Caroline, Whitney, and Phil cracking open nuts

Professor Kunz offering formidable nutcracking help

And at the end of the lab, we got to take home the extra flowers not used in analysis. I took one stargazer lily, one daisy, and one purple flower I don't know the name of. They lasted outside their vase for only a few hours--then I had to throw them away (their pollen was getting all over my clothes). Having them for that short time made me miss having fresh flowers in my house (last summer, Mitch brought me a fresh bouquet ever Thursday. Lovely!). Aaah, spring/summer...

I took my first International Economics exam tonight. Well, "first exam" is a little misleading. There are only two over the course of the semester: a midterm and a final.
Let's just say my performance on the exam was nothing close to stellar. But really, if you read my last post, International Economics should satisfy the foreign language requirement, you should feel sympathy for me.

International Economics should satisfy the foreign language requirement

I'm in the middle of completing the practice assignment for Chapter 2 (Resources, Comparative Advantage, and Income Distribution: The Heckscher-Ohlin Model I) of my International Economics class, right?

I answer a question asking how many cars and computers "Midland," a made-up country, consumes with no trade. To my surprise (NOT!), I got it wrong. Well, this neat program we do our assignments on gives us feedback on our answers--and here's what Aplia, that program, told me in regard to the right answer:

"With trade, Midland's consumption choice must lie along the economy's budget constraint, which is a line that must satisfy two conditions. First, its slope must be minus the world relative price of cars in terms of computers (PA/PC). That is, consuming one less car must save the economy enough to purchase PA/PC computers. Second, Midland's budget constraint must be tangent to the economy's PPF, indicating the point where the value of production is maximized. Isovalue line V2 satisfies both these conditions. Thus, with trade, Midland's production choice is 140,000 cars and 240,000 computers. Among the suggested answer choices, only three imply consumption combinations that lie on the budget constraint: (1) 40,000 cars and 320,000 computers (i.e., 160,000 fewer cars and 208,000 more computers than the country consumes with no trade), (2) 140,000 cars and 240,000 computers (60,000 fewer cars and 128,000 more computers than with no trade), and (3) 240,000 cars and 160,000 computers (40,000 more cars and 48,000 more computers than with no trade). But given that Midland imports cars, the only possible consumption mix is (3). At this point, the economy imports 240,000 - 140,000 = 100,000 cars and exports 240,000 - 160,000 = 80,000 computers. If Midland's consumption mix were (1), the country would import computers and export cars, and if it were (2), Midland would consume the same combination of goods as it produces, so there would be no international trade."

WHAT THE CRAP DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
I envy you people who know.
I mean, it's clearly in English, but I still don't understand a bit of it.

A LOL: "Bailout" vs. "socialism"

Though I find myself becoming more and more conservative economically (never fear, I'm as socially liberal as ever), I found a bit of truth in this "LOL News and Politics" pic:

P.S. It's "Socialism," not "Socilaisim."

Pseudo-mono strikes again

Here I am, at the end of another Scholarship Weekend. For those of you who don't know, Scholarship Weekend is a time for prospective-students to come to Augsburg's campus and compete for fine arts (theater, film, art, and music) and Honors (President's and Honors Regents) scholarships. My Scholarship Weekend, two years ago, was cut short, as there was a massive blizzard that Thursday/Friday.
Students who receive scholarships are required to help out during subsequent Scholarship Weekends. My job, stupidly, didn't go so well. Remember how I've been sick with a mysterious mono-alike for the past two or so weeks? It flared up again today. After waking up at about 9:30, I took a shower, baked a cake, and was about to leave to take loads of amazing photos of the event, and then, somehow, fell asleep for another four hours. What's wrong with me? Stupid weird sickness.

After I woke up, Mitch left for a show downtown somewhere, and I surfed the web during a time I should have been doing homework. I did, eventually, read a bit out of Palace Walk, which is for my history course (History of the Modern Non-Western World). It's about a traditional Muslim family in Egypt, set during the time after World War I. Though none of the book so far has been what you might call thrilling, it's been an addictive read. I guess I shouldn't be surprised: it won a Nobel Prize for Literature, though that's not always indicative of a book someone outside the literary world will enjoy.

Ah, poop in a basket. It's late. I drank some tea not too long ago, but it's caffeine effects have already worn off/didn't do anything in the keeping-me-awake-long-enough-to-get-more-homework-done department.
Oyasumi.

This week, I learned...

I think "this week, I learned" should become a regular (obviously, weekly) post on No, I Am a Cat. Here's the first installment:

• Lampreys are largely to blame for the decline of commercial fishing in the Great Lakes.
• Japan, Norway, and Iceland hunt whales legally for research (under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling).
• People get fevers because a raised body temperature impairs bacteria growth.
• At the current U.S. consumption and production levels, the earth can support only 2.5 billion people.
• Globalization and free-trade are not bad things. The real problem is, the U.S. benefits mainly from producing goods made from high-skilled workers (such as microchips), but we haven't re-trained and educated our population to make these things, so few people are reaping the overwhelming benefits of trade.
• The Hawthorne Effect refers to how people act when they're being researched--that is, they act differently than they normally would.

Of course, I learned many more things, but I'm not going to pretend like I don't remember some bits more than others.

"I just wanna throw some dead animals."

As much as I hate waking up mega early to go to HON 240 (Science, Technology, and Citizenship) lab, I LOVE what we do in lab. Today, for example, we dissected sheep hearts, and then played with pre-dissected baby pigs. That second activity wasn't as exciting for me, as we completely dissected pigs in high school biology, but Jess took a good video of me trying to cut open our pig's throat to expose the organs and muscles under the skin.



Check out Homemade's YouTube channel for the rest of the lab videos and Homemade's Flickr site for some still-shots.

Kristen wrote on my Facebook wall, saying if I get to work on time tomorrow, she'll buy me a cookie. It's good incentive, really, because I get pretty hungry come noon-ish, and I often forget to bring food for myself. The reason she told me I have to get to work on time is because lately, I've had a lot of trouble waking up. I, of course, have a reasons for this (being ill, Mitch thinks I have mono, though I disagree), but I know, deep down, reasons don't excuse behaviour. I'll be on time, Kristen! I want a cookie. :D

GUESS WHAT? Mitch and I found an apartment, and we were accepted, so we're signing the lease on Thursday. The apartment's in a building in the old mansion district--sort of between uptown and downtown. It's a huge apartment, and basically everything in it--the appliances, the flooring, the paint--are (is?) all new. We move in April. APRIL! That's less than two months away. In less than two months, I won't be living on campus anymore. I know I'll miss the convenience, but having our own place--a BIG place--is going to rock.

Some things I like

In the spirit Adam's interesting post titled Things I like...well, honestly, I'm copying him. Thanks, Adam. :D

• The Japan Times. Thank goodness for the internet, as well. Without these two things, I'd have no idea what's going on in my favorite country. And what kind of International Relations student would I be then?
• Quoting people. You can really capture the essence of somebody by quoting them at their strangest. Take, for example, Jess's quote from HON 240 today: (quietly) "Is that a penis?"
• Muslims. They get so much stereotypical criticism, especially from the West. They get props from me for putting up with all of it.
• The deli-sandwiches at Cooper's Coffee Shop. Most would say they're disgusting, but I happen to have a thing for semi-gross deli-sandwiches. I ate at least one a day in Japan.
• Films older than the 1980s. I'll watch almost anything made between the 1920s and the 1970s.
• Pokemon. Back in 5th grade, when the craze grabbed hold of me, I remember my mom saying someday, I wouldn't care about Pokemon anymore. She was wrong. They are damn cute, and the games are often way under-appreciated.
  
• LiveJournal icons. I often save them to my computer, with, of course, no idea what I plan on doing with them.
• My parents. Although, as a now relatively independent person, I can only stand being back in my hometown for a week or so, I've never appreciated my parents as much as I do now. I wouldn't be able to go to Augsburg without their help. And most importantly, I had a nearly seamless transition to college, because they knew to let me figure things out for myself early on in life. They were definitely not helicopter parents.
  

And now it's time for another nap. I'm still sick with something, and it's been draining all my energy. I'm constantly tired. And if you say it's mono, I won't listen.

Valentine's weekend = major, MAJOR procrastination

I'm SO tired.
Emily and Mitch both think I have mono, otherwise known at the "kissing disease," but I'm doubtful. Well, honestly, I'm more in a state of denial than anything.
You see, I got sick last weekend. Though, that's not really news. I've become sick every February since first grade. And it's always the same thing: tonsillitis. But it's like the illness is still kicking my butt. I feel great--my throat doesn't hurt, my head doesn't hurt, and yet I'm positively exhausted.
I hope it's not mono.

I procrastinated this weekend. It wasn't hard to, really. I can't remember what I did Friday, although I think I went over to Beau's in Luther Hall. I was there until the wee hours of the morning (which doesn't help this whole me being exhausted thing). Saturday, of course, was Valentine's Day: Mitch took me to Atlas in downtown. It's apparently a Mediterranean restaurant. I had walleye (YUM!), and Mitch had lamb chops. We also shared a big slice of cheesecake, and I had a latte. After that, we headed back to Mort. and chillaxed (I, in my pink feetie pajamas).

Sunday was a major waste of life. I don't remember doing anything--ANYTHING--of consequence. Seriously.
So today, I paid for it. Tomorrow, I've got a formal lab report and a "hazard reporter" due for HON. 240 (Science, Technology, and Citizenship). I don't think I'm going to HIS 104 (History of the Modern Non-Western World). I figured I really should get some extra sleep during the day (since Tuesdays are my busy-busy days of the week), and the only class I can really miss (though not REALLY) is HIS 104--after all, I've got HON 240 lab at 8 A.M. (those are strictly un-missable), then regular HON 240 class at11:50, and I'm pretty sure I'm presenting my hazard reporter (on Japanese whaling). Then, at 6 P.M., I've got International Economics--and I am NOT missing that. I plan on bringing Kevin (my professor) the pass/fail form tomorrow. For those who don't know, you can opt to take a course pass/fail, which means as long as you get a 2.0 or better (or something like that), you get credit for the course, but whatever GPA you get doesn't affect your cumulative. To graduate summa cum laude, though, you can only take 2 pass/fail courses, so I've gotta make them count...International Economics counts.

More to come tomorrow. I need rest.

Modern African history, check.

Today, in my History of the Modern Non-Western World class, I've got an exam on modern African history. The following is me sorting through some of the things I know. Use this opportunity (my studying) to learn some new things, unless of course you already knew them. In that case, maybe you should have helped me study.

• Nkrumah was a Ghana/Gold Coast revolutionary who advocated Pan-Africanism and helped lead Ghana to independence in the 1950s. He later sorta/kinda declared himself "President for life," or as we know the term, a "dictator," and made it possible to arrest people without probable cause. He was later exiled, and never returned to Ghana.
• From the 1970s to the 1990s, it was one coup after another in Ghana. Then, in 1992, Jerry John Rawlings proposed that Ghana make a new constitution, and that the people of Ghana should democratically elect their president. Furthermore, the president should serve for only two terms.
  
• The Asantehene, the head of the Asante, ruled from Kumasi, in Ghana.
• c. 10,000 B.C.E.: The agricultural revolution.
• c. 5,000 B.C.E. The urban revolution.
• c. 1700s C.E.: The modern revolution (human/civil rights for all).
• Three stages in the modern revolution: traditional, transitional, and of course, modern.
• In/by the 1960s, most places in Africa had become independent of European control, although some claimed to be plagued by neo-colonialism, or economic control.
• Leopold sent Stanley to the Congo to garner a signature from a king there, stating that the Congo now belonged to Leopold. It was eventually established that the Congo belonged to Leopold alone (versus belonging to Leopold's home-kingdom, Belgium). Later, however, after severe breaches of human rights were allowed in the Congo under Leopold, the state was handed over to Belgium.
• Gold Coast = Ghana. Slave Coast = Nigeria.
  
• What was probably the largest library in the world, during the 1300s, existed in Tombuctu. (Timbuktu, etc.).
• El Mina was a Portuguese fortress.
  
• Gus' five characteristics of a traditional society: Self-sufficient, group-over-individual, clear role models (such as gender roles), [T]ruth (religious truth), and careful about change.
• c. 1800, the British needed palm-oil to run the machines they were using in their Industrial Revolution. So, in 1807, the British passed a law that banned any British ship from carrying slaves (they now needed palm-oil, and people to make that palm-oil, not slaves).
  
• For much of the 1800s, up until about the 1870s, the British didn't really want colonies, as independent states bought more from them.
• The ancient kingdom Benin is in modern-day Nigeria.
• Reasons Europeans were kept on the coast, rather than being free to explore and take over the interior: disease (malaria, yellow fever--Africa was called the "white man's grave") and African weapons, which were similar in quality to European weapons.
• David Livingstone ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume") started in South Africa and moved north-ish.
• Marry Slessor began in Calabar, which is modern-day Nigeria.
  
• Missionaries are part of the reason that, by 1900, Europeans had colonized Africa. When missionaries wrote home, they talked about what, to them, seemed like reasons the Africans "needed God," such as their practice of killing twins.
  
• In 1869, the Suez Canal was finished (the French got the deal together with the ruler of Egypt). This encouraged the British to get involved in Egypt.
  
• In Hausa-land, there were lots of little city-states with their own Emir, or ruler.
• The British takeover of the Hausa was relatively peaceful. The Emir were allowed to keep their power, essentially, and Christian missionaries weren't allowed into the area.
• A man named Ja Ja decided that he should get his own ship to bypass the merchants who came down Africa's coast, and sell palm-oil himself. However, one day, British merchants asked him to go to a "conference" aboard one of their ships; instead, they dumped him in Sierra Leone.
• Kipling wrote his "take up the white man's burden" poem at the end of the 1800s (the 1890s).
  

It was not amazing. It was not bad. It just was.

Chuocide. What you see in this video is similar to what I saw in Japan. Similar.
It's of officers of some sort cleaning up a train track moments after someone had committed suicide.

Remember an entry I wrote back in August, after I came home from my studies in Japan? It was called "My honeymoon stage was years ago," and I thought of it the other day when I came across this video while researching Japanese suicide rates for my HON 240 course (Science, Technology, and Citizenship).

It's taken me a while to actually finish this post. I'm not entirely sure of the reason, although I'm sure it has something to do with my reluctance to revisit my memories. But yesterday, in my HIS 104 course (The History of the Modern Non-Western World), we talked about reverse culture shock. A lot of students talked about how they experienced reverse culture shock upon returning from less-developed countries--how they dealt with returning to a world of material goods, and other such issues. Don't get me wrong. That sort of thing is important. But as this conversation went on, I became frustrated: Students who go to less-developed countries are not the only people who experience reverse culture shock. In fact, I went through at least a two months of near-depression and detachment. I didn't like going out and meeting people. I didn't want to talk about my experiences. When people asked me how Japan was, I always, always said "amazing!" even though that's hardly how I felt.

Studying abroad was such an experience. I don't know how else to word it. Of course I had fun. But the thing that sticks with me the most--the memory that continues to haunt me--is my witnessing the aftermath of a suicide (See: My honeymoon stage was years ago).
How am I supposed to convey that to people without depressing them to the idea of studying abroad? Who wants to hear that kind of story?

Anyway, this conversation in my HIS 104 class went on for some time until, to my great relief, the woman I sit next to (her name is Mallory--she studied abroad in Ireland for four months) spoke up and defended those of us who study in developed countries--and how we experience reverse culture shock to the same extent, just a little differently, than those who study in less-developed countries. We are no less affected by our experiences. Having access to clean water, hamburgers, and microwaves doesn't make our time abroad any less valuable, foreign, or memorable. My dark feelings about my experience in Japan are a testament to that.

Photos of President Obama as a college student

I keep forgetting to let y'all know about this:
Lisa Jack, a psychology professor at Augsburg, went to Occidental College with President Obama; and, being an "aspiring" photographer, Jack used Barack as a model. Some of her photos were published in Time Magazine. Trust me, you want to check these out (President Obama as a college student? Heck yes!).
Here is the link to the Time piece, and here's the link to the original Inside Augsburg story.

One of Lisa Jack's photos

Mac. Batman. Wrestling. Malt.

Well here I am, posting a No, I Am a Cat entry on my new Mac. It's a 13", and I'm a little upset that I like it so much. I'm still a faster typer on my PC, but I hope that will change over time. I also have yet to transfer my files from my beloved, ancient PC to this new beauty, which means I don't have much to share with you picture or video-wise.

Mitch is making breakfast, like I always encourage him to do on weekends. It's pancakes this time.
I'm sick with some sort of sore-throat. You know what's odd? Since about first grade, I've come down with a sore-throat nearly every February. It's a really stupid thing to come down with: other than my throat being in pain (it hurts to talk, to not talk), I feel great.

The wrestling team has a tourney today. I woke up at 9 A.M. to see if audio or video was available, but neither are. Poop! I wanted to keep track of the action.
Speaking of keeping track of the action, I desperately want to go to Nationals in Iowa, but it costs money (hotel room, tickets), and as any good college student should be, I'm too poor to cover those costs. I thought about asking Carrie to fund it--after all, I could take someone along with me (cough, Lily, I know you're reading this) to help me record the events--not to mention, Adam could cover the Peace Prize Forum. We'll see, though.
JEEZ! Being a manager is hard.

It's almost 1:30 now. I just got off the phone with my mom, and I should probably take a shower. I hope to get some homework done before Mitch and I head over to the Minnesota Zoo's IMAX theater to see The Dark Knight. And yes, I know it's out on DVD/Blu-ray. We own it. But The Dark Knight was shot in IMAX, so it'd be sort of silly to not see it that way, if given the chance, right?

Oh, P.S. We went to Annie's Parlour in Dinkytown last night. I had a chocolate-banana malt. Heavenly! And our waiter was great. I love when people genuinely care about their jobs.

Kitty Cam

Live video chat by Ustream

My professor, Kristen Chamberlain sent me the link for this streaming video (Kitty Cam). Curse her! I have more homework than I can manage, and now I'm going to be tempted to watch kitties all night.