This is too funny.
Yesterday afternoon, my prof sends an email to our class, telling us about a plot summary he's posted on the course website (probably predicting accurately that none of us have bothered to read the book over reading week).
From experience, I tend to prefer online notes, if only because they know how to justify text, and play with margin settings. My dear of prof, on the other hand, will use a million spaces to get a word onto the next line.
So, I naturally drift to sparknotes.com, the seemingly staple for student research. I read their synopsis, then later go to the course website and download the .doc of the prof's summary. It was exactly the same.
Now, one could generously assume that the professor made a contribution to sparknotes.com, lending the site a bit more credibility, but knowing the prof, I'm willing to guess that he probably just pulled the summary from the website, pasted it into MS Word, and then posted that onto the course website.
Seems like a full novel though; I'll have to properly read it this week...
I always try to end these posts with a fun fact, but nothing's coming to mind at 7:51am. Oh well. Oh! I know! I'm getting a laptop this week! Brand-new from Dell. Inspiron 1525. With a fancy, swirly pattern instead of the dull monochrome colours. Even if solid colours *do* make the laptop look more professional. lalala...
2008/02/25
2008/02/21
Ha-Ha Happy
Why do people laugh? One anthropological theory says that perhaps it was originally a sort of alarm system, alerting the other lemurs (or whatever we were), that there was no real danger; false alarm, etc. Although I don't completely support this theory, I can see the logic in it. Often, after a false scare, we tend to react in laughter, partly to ease ourselves, and partly to ease those around us.
But laughter is a response to many things. Humour is the dominant source in our modern culture, and the other possible causes (nitrous oxide, for example) tend to be discounted immediately.
However, there is yet another form of laughter -- that of happiness and celebration. People laugh when they're happy. But people don't seem to get that whenever I laugh. Is my laugh particularly malicious or something?
Anyway. If you hear me laugh at something you say, it means I'm entertained. I'm not the sort who would [openly] laugh at someone else's idiocy or ignorance. Unless it's already been established that I *really* don't like the person. Then maybe. hrmm....
Fun fact of the day: I've secretly had astigmatism for a while (in the order of years), but the Chinese optometrists didn't bother to mention it to me. Or didn't bother to test for it. The cheap bastards. And they wonder why North Americans are so hung up on proper procedure and regulations.
But laughter is a response to many things. Humour is the dominant source in our modern culture, and the other possible causes (nitrous oxide, for example) tend to be discounted immediately.
However, there is yet another form of laughter -- that of happiness and celebration. People laugh when they're happy. But people don't seem to get that whenever I laugh. Is my laugh particularly malicious or something?
Anyway. If you hear me laugh at something you say, it means I'm entertained. I'm not the sort who would [openly] laugh at someone else's idiocy or ignorance. Unless it's already been established that I *really* don't like the person. Then maybe. hrmm....
Fun fact of the day: I've secretly had astigmatism for a while (in the order of years), but the Chinese optometrists didn't bother to mention it to me. Or didn't bother to test for it. The cheap bastards. And they wonder why North Americans are so hung up on proper procedure and regulations.
2008/02/08
Cohabitants
One thing I was reminded of when I moved back to University, was getting used to living with new people. Different living habits, sleeping schedules, standard of hygiene...
There should be some sort of national health service announcement regarding the dangers of listening to amplified lower frequencies for extended periods of time. The number of males who voluntarily (and I assume ignorantly) decrease their hearing everyday might benefit from such intelligence. And there might be a revolution in the theatre industry as well! Then everybody will be able to go see movies at reasonable volumes.
On the subject of people though, I'm often seeing how others interact with each other. So far as I can currently imagine, there are three basic types of people: those who inspire, those who encourage, and those who disgust. Of course, this is all relative to a given individual, so results will vary between people. :)
After watching various videos of Kenneth Williams on youtube, I started to think about my own relationship with my friends. I'm conscious and aware of the sort of person I am -- at least, to the people I know. The ultimate person seems to be he who can draw the best qualities in people. Someone who is filled with light or bright or some sort of positive energy. It draws people toward him, and he can in turn cause others to do things better.
And then there's me. I either build delicate bonds between people I deem "worthy" (usually through some merit of information or interest), or I sever all possible modes of conduct with those I deem "undesirable" (generally those who lack any intelligence or ability).
But it is this classic character flaw which usually draws supporters from the bad guy (me) to the hero (whoever my arch-nemesis might be). Knowing this, I wonder how I can possibly change to be more accepting of people. After all, mere tolerance does nothing. It seems to be a popular byword in American politics when describing the improvement between ethnic groups, but I think *acceptance* is really the word they're looking for. The idea isn't to merely build an immunity to the foreign influences of the differing groups, but the find a way to integrate them all into a grand national community.
Meanwhile, Valentine's Day is soon upon us. Wo ist mein Herz?
There should be some sort of national health service announcement regarding the dangers of listening to amplified lower frequencies for extended periods of time. The number of males who voluntarily (and I assume ignorantly) decrease their hearing everyday might benefit from such intelligence. And there might be a revolution in the theatre industry as well! Then everybody will be able to go see movies at reasonable volumes.
On the subject of people though, I'm often seeing how others interact with each other. So far as I can currently imagine, there are three basic types of people: those who inspire, those who encourage, and those who disgust. Of course, this is all relative to a given individual, so results will vary between people. :)
After watching various videos of Kenneth Williams on youtube, I started to think about my own relationship with my friends. I'm conscious and aware of the sort of person I am -- at least, to the people I know. The ultimate person seems to be he who can draw the best qualities in people. Someone who is filled with light or bright or some sort of positive energy. It draws people toward him, and he can in turn cause others to do things better.
And then there's me. I either build delicate bonds between people I deem "worthy" (usually through some merit of information or interest), or I sever all possible modes of conduct with those I deem "undesirable" (generally those who lack any intelligence or ability).
But it is this classic character flaw which usually draws supporters from the bad guy (me) to the hero (whoever my arch-nemesis might be). Knowing this, I wonder how I can possibly change to be more accepting of people. After all, mere tolerance does nothing. It seems to be a popular byword in American politics when describing the improvement between ethnic groups, but I think *acceptance* is really the word they're looking for. The idea isn't to merely build an immunity to the foreign influences of the differing groups, but the find a way to integrate them all into a grand national community.
Meanwhile, Valentine's Day is soon upon us. Wo ist mein Herz?
2008/02/06
Mid-English
As most readers of this blog should know by now, I'm back in school, with a view to change majors into English, and currently taking 6 courses (which in my school is 120% course load).
Having little experience with Uni English, and being a sort of outsider, as well as joining late, I had some reservations and doubts about whether I'd be able to succeed or not. But now, about a third into the term, I can confidently say that my expectations are totally reversed. My 4th-yr brit. lit. course isn't too bad, so long as I keep on top of my readings and pay attention in class (and since the profs are cool, I don't have a disinclination to attend lectures). And I suppose that's generally true for any course. I'm surprised by the number of people who still don't maintain their readings, even into 3rd or 4th year. Sorta makes one wonder the sort of people in business or politics who're expected to read these hundred-page reports about policy.
One thing that really struck me was the huge difference in ethnic distribution between my math classes of 1st-yr, and of my current English classes. In math, there was usually somewhere between 50~80% asian (although, oddly enough, in the advanced courses, there were more caucasians, most of european birth). I was sorta used to seeing the diversity; it was like being in Toronto, or high school. But now with the English classes, I'm back to being a stark, visible minority. Some of the profs I've talked to seem to have held some reservations about me joining their classes, from some sort of subconscious reservations about having non-native english speakers in their class. (Is my voice really that nasally!?!? I'm wondering if I subconsciously soften my voice by making it more nasal as a sort of respect, versus a regular gruffer voice which I'd reserve for friends. ....Although my voice isn't really gruff to begin with...)
It's fun though. Speech errors are much less common in class, and dialects are more subtle. One thing I have to watch out for that I never needed to in math, are the angry lesbians. They seem to have some sort of vendetta against male-kind. As if they could ever hope to regress into asexual, single-cellular organisms. "Sorry toots, you're stuck with us!"
Alright. 7am. Time to go to school!
Having little experience with Uni English, and being a sort of outsider, as well as joining late, I had some reservations and doubts about whether I'd be able to succeed or not. But now, about a third into the term, I can confidently say that my expectations are totally reversed. My 4th-yr brit. lit. course isn't too bad, so long as I keep on top of my readings and pay attention in class (and since the profs are cool, I don't have a disinclination to attend lectures). And I suppose that's generally true for any course. I'm surprised by the number of people who still don't maintain their readings, even into 3rd or 4th year. Sorta makes one wonder the sort of people in business or politics who're expected to read these hundred-page reports about policy.
One thing that really struck me was the huge difference in ethnic distribution between my math classes of 1st-yr, and of my current English classes. In math, there was usually somewhere between 50~80% asian (although, oddly enough, in the advanced courses, there were more caucasians, most of european birth). I was sorta used to seeing the diversity; it was like being in Toronto, or high school. But now with the English classes, I'm back to being a stark, visible minority. Some of the profs I've talked to seem to have held some reservations about me joining their classes, from some sort of subconscious reservations about having non-native english speakers in their class. (Is my voice really that nasally!?!? I'm wondering if I subconsciously soften my voice by making it more nasal as a sort of respect, versus a regular gruffer voice which I'd reserve for friends. ....Although my voice isn't really gruff to begin with...)
It's fun though. Speech errors are much less common in class, and dialects are more subtle. One thing I have to watch out for that I never needed to in math, are the angry lesbians. They seem to have some sort of vendetta against male-kind. As if they could ever hope to regress into asexual, single-cellular organisms. "Sorry toots, you're stuck with us!"
Alright. 7am. Time to go to school!
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