Mechanosapience

Spent yesterday moving in. Actually, that's only partially true. I spent roughly 1-2 hours moving into Purgatorio. However, the rest of the day was spent helping eluminous move her stuff from the top floor of Hewitt (she worked over Commencement) to Beta. She had so much shit. Little of it was packed. I honestly am not sure how she would've gotten all of her belongings out of her room by the reslife deadline without me and tigerdreams to help schlep. Beta is terrifying. I saw her room after she spent 2 hours cleaning it. It was a mess. The room across from her's was worse. Beta manages to live up to all the horrible frat house stereotypes. After finishing around 9, eluminous treated us to dinner. She slept over, as her room was a mess and she was letting someone sleep on her futon until he finds a more permanent residence.

Today was spent in the Singer lab, getting into the swing of things as a research assistant. Mike himself spent most of the day in the field with his two Hughes Fellowship students, though he did talk me through some of the things I'd be doing over the summer. The rest of the time, I was helping Angela (Mike's post-doc) with aspects of her experiments. Currently, she's testing how the amount of plant toxins a specific kind of caterpillar eats varies with how recently the caterpillar was infected with parasitic fly larvae (think Alien, except it's real). I was a little worried, since I was always exhausted from my last summer job, but this one seems promising. I also managed to get useful information from Financial Aid. Remaining missions for tonight are to get groceries, fill out forms for financial aid, and read a couple papers for work.

Since it was her list of potential courses that got me thinking/obsessing on WesMaps, it's only fitting that I also post my list of possible courses for next semester. I'm not even thinking about paring it down until later.

( Courses behind this elegantly crafted cut )

A really bizarre, moderately disturbing thing happened tonight that kind of makes me wonder if I should just eschew all things of the internet. I was wasting time on /b/ (famous last words…) when I saw a picture of myself with a post asking for advice on advertising oneself as a sex worker on craigslist. The only place where the picture in question exists on the internet is in a facebook album. The picture in question was only briefly, if ever, used as an avatar for my profile. This means that someone took the time to look through the picture that I’m tagged in, which, considering how photo-happy some of my friends are, is a Herculean endeavor. Unsurprisingly, I’m feeling a bit violated and debating deleting my facebook, lj, and pretty much anything else of that ilk. Please talk me out of this.

You are The Hermit

Prudence, Caution, Deliberation.

The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.

The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.

The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Unsurprised cat is unsurprised.

( Read more... )

tl;dr--Glasses broken, car broken, weekend broken.

This morning, I awoke to realize my glasses had come off in my sleep. After a half hour of frantically searching and attempting to put in my contacts,--which I haven't worn in years--I discovered that they had fallen between the bed and the wall. However, I also discovered much more--Lovecraftian horrors I would have preferred to leave untouched by the light of day. One of the room's previous tenants had left a couple pairs of panties, two vibrators(one of which was in between the mattresses of my bed), a bottle of lube, and a pile of empty condom wrappers and used condoms underneath the bed. My reaction was one of germophobic revulsion coated with a lacquer of intense amusement. Fortunately, I'd woken up a couple hours before I needed to meet with the professor of the class I was trying to get into via drop/add, so I moved the bed and some adjacent furniture and channeled my inner Mark Summers.

After classes, I got ahold of the previous tenant who I suspected was the owner/significant other of the owner of the items in question. Everything except a couple of the panties belonged to his girlfriend (now in graduate school in a different state).

As a fan of both Lovecraft and card games a la Magic and (sighs) Pokemon, I thought I'd share this game I found on Newgrounds; The Necronomicon.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/453509

I Am A: Neutral Evil Human Wizard (2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-15

Constitution-13

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-11

Charisma-13


Alignment:
Neutral Evil A neutral evil villain does whatever he can get away with. He is out for himself, pure and simple. He sheds no tears for those he kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. He has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make him any better or more noble. On the other hand, he doesn�t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has. Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies. Neutral evil is the best alignment you can be because you can advance yourself without regard for others. However, neutral evil can be a dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

So, I turned 20 this Wednesday. I figured, "Whatever, there won't be any difference," but now I'm not so sure. It started with the realization that I can now despise teenagers and not be a hypocrite. But other little things are popping up in my mind. I guess this may just be me finally coming to grips with the reality of adulthood or some such thing. Whatever. If this has been too rambling or navel-gazing, I apologize to my readers.

I really, really, really dislike my dad. I've realized that aside from the faulty genes and memes he's given me(clinical depression and the quiet lack of assertion that all children of alcoholics have), we have nothing in common. Plus, he's been more of a dick than usual. For instance, since I turned 18(two weeks ago yesterday), he expects a Saul-to-Paul change in personality and whenever I fail to meet these expectations, he gets really condescending. Also, he's constantly shoving the fact that he's contributing to my tuition in my face. I just can't stand to be around him for more than a few days, so naturally, I'm going to be with him fairly constantly for the next two weeks. I mean, he's the same way with his father. I love because he's my father, but I look forward to rarely, if ever, seeing him. That's one perk of going away to college. Also, that's one more bit of impetus to doing really well in school because I don't want to end up like him(he ended up like his father).