Stuffs, many stuffs

Nerdiness: How bad can it get? Pretty damn bad. You think blowing things up and making shampoo jump is the worst of it? I find this song is disturbing enough to gain a few Super Nerdiness points; The PCR Song



I love the black guy who kisses the PCR. Crazy, nutty, nutty geeks. You can find the (nerdy) lyrics here. BTW, our lab instructor told us the guy who invented the damn method had taken some 'reality enhancing substances' before thinking up the idea. The jokes amungst the professors go that the guy's an idiot who happed on the idea, made his money, and returned to his bleak life of not-very-clever semi-scientific decelerations and mindless existence. They say he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, not the fastest horse on the track, but who cares when the guy's obviously making so many people happy (the nerds that they are...)

Tests: Animal Physiology's behind me. It was hard but it was hard for everyone which at least gives me some perspective on how I might have done. Maybe. Genetics results is back with 60%. It's not a fail but it's not a very bright score. Luckily the course isn't very heavy on the average calculations so I'll sign up for a re-take and see how it works up my average and if I'm happy with what I've got I'll not bother taking it again. I didn't have good enough time to practice for it, despite the fact that it was a very hard test that needs proper studying to so I'm not disappointed or anything and it's not a fail so I don't have to take it if I don't want to.
But guess what, the Test Analysis course, the one with the professor who snarled at me whenever he's answer my questions? I got 82% in it >.< score! Not so bad at all ^_^

TV babble: I'm hooked on The Shield. One of the channels has got it on rather late at night but I don't care; the plot is addictive and the men are H-O-T!! Damn, they're hot. Don't be frightened, I'm not on the brink of another silly period of fangirling idiotism; had quite my fill with that. Still, I can bathe my eyes in the loveliness and relish the plot, ne?

Book Report: Finished The Night Watch and enjoyed every minute of it to the (almost) tiniest bit. Here's the Goodreads review:

I loved this book. Not just because it was a way-way-way better version of the two movies, but also because it was one of those rare and precious truly novelty fantasy books.

Who'd think Evil'd need a license, that Good was bound to paperwork? The powers, super creatures, spells and potions, all are explained carefully, without pompous drama or pathos sticking to human emotions, wants and conflicts.

The small tidbits of history, biology, Russian life and modern pop culture only add to the list of loveliness that makes this book and the thought behind it so unique and refreshing from all the tacky Hollywood-like 'magicians, werewolves and vampires, oh my!' fiction and movies out there.

The movies do this great plot and writing a great dishonor but they're still fun to watch.

Despite the somewhat unsurprising endings of the last of the book's stories, and the slight sense of disappointment, it's still a good book with great writing, exciting and fascinating plots and a lot of work put into it.

I highly recommend this book!

Am now reading: Charles Darwin The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animal

Kitty mayhem: I'm in the middle of test season but the cats'll have none of it. So what if I need to concentrate on my studies? So what if my folders have precious paper material in them I'll need whole, without paw prints or scratches? They want attention!!

Tell me, who can concentrate with such a thing at the corner of your eye?


"Forget the cramming; my belleh calls to thee"




Striking a pose


I'm afraid my PostIt note-maker-thingies proof too much of a temptation for the fluffies; they must have them!!






"w0t? I'm not doing anything"






"Meh, I'm bored, now that you're not squealing to make us stop"


And this is after the little monster (Sam) got himself soaking wet and leaped on my work table to sit on my notes, looked me deep in the eyes (so I'll take particular note of his existence) and buggered off leaving me with a soaking page, the ink smudged and the highligher smeared....gee, thanks, kiddo.

Over and out for today ^_^

Reading list and a book review

I've noticed that, according to my near-anal strict organization of my books on their shelves, that I have far too many subjects in my book collection than there is in my reading order list. Yes, I read books by a certain order, what of it? So anyways, here's the (new) list which I post here merely for future use by me:
1. General history
2. Terry Pratchett
3. Holocaust
4. Fantasy fiction
5. Zoology and animal behavior
6. Douglas Adams
7. Zionism and jewish history
8. Historical romance
9. Communism
10. General fiction
11. Churchill' Second World War
12. Stephen King

Book Report: Ugh, waste of time. Mind you, it was even slimmer than Color of Magic so it took even less time to finish. Here's my Goodreads review:
I can't say I found any use in this book that I haven't found in other books; besides a few tidbits about holocaust denial, and some details about post-war and historical Auschwitz the town there was nothing new in this book.
It's the pocket book Auschwitz history, it touches every subject there is to learn about the camp, the guards, the prisoners, the resistance, the factories, everything (besides the great Canada corruption scandal which got Rudolf Hoss kicked out of the place) but in such ...more I can't say I found any use in this book that I haven't found in other books; besides a few tidbits about holocaust denial, and some details about post-war and historical Auschwitz the town there was nothing new in this book.
It's the pocket book Auschwitz history, it touches every subject there is to learn about the camp, the guards, the prisoners, the resistance, the factories, everything (besides the great Canada corruption scandal which got Rudolf Hoss kicked out of the place) but in such small details, mere names, dates and numbers.
This is dangerous; one of the biggest values tragedies like the holocaust can have to humanity is the education, so history won't repeat itself, but when everything is summarized so quickly and minimalistic ally, how can anything properly educational can come out of it?
The first page in the book is a dislodged, mixed up snippets of testimonies (each only a few lines) and that's about the only touch into the human experience of the crimes committed in that camp, when the best way to make people come out of the shock of the horrific details is by seeing human emotions in fellow humans who survived the camp.

I don't recommend this book, at all, not for a proper reading

Am now reading: Sergei Lukyanenko's The Night Watch

Kitties, kitties, kitties

Scarlett's been lurking on my books and school stuff cabinet, looking at the bits outside my window so I placed a blankie for her and hey presto! A kitteh perch of much delight ^_^


"My new perch, me likie"

I placed Sam there for equality (Sam's too fat to jump up there on his own, the poor baby <3) and here is the resulting cuteness:

"Cool pad you got there, sista" says Sam

Any of you ever noticed their cats stretching themselves up walls and other similar places and got the feeling they're using their body's measurements to gauge distances? Sam started doing it and Little Miss Climb, Claw and Jump Everywhere a.k.a Scarlett picked it up from him and now she's everywhere!!



Destroying the little doll my sister made is obviously more interesting for Scarlett than licking her butt


Calming down a little




That poor bunny doll is doomed when they're around <3


"Is my pad now, what you want with it?"

Last night, as my dad was on the balcony with them, Scarlett clawed her way up the wall trying to get to a moth flying around the balcony light...

Felis dramaticus


And here's a video!
Usually Scarlett's a lot more active with this toy mouse; she'll hug it, bunnyfoot it, bite it etc. But when you stick a camera in a cat's face, he'll be a cat and refuse to cooperate XD

Tests so far and a book report.

Tests: Animal Behavior was hard but fair. I hope all the idiots who filled the classroom just because they thought it's a cutsy little course with lots of animal pictures learned a lesson; this is a serious subject, as serious as any of the micro__ and biotechnology subjects *grumblegrumble* I had only three days to properly cramm to it and two out of those I shared with cramming to Genetics so I will not be surprised if my grade will not be as much as I expect of myself. Yet, there is a re-take exam always.
Genetics is tomorrow and I hope all will go well. It's the kind of test you can bring anything into (besides the course's book, of course) so I'm arming myself to the teeth with just about anything I can put into the folder. I've finished all 11 practice tests and have marked out which subjects will show me a hard time so I know what to tackle now. It should be alright, if I keep myself levelheaded. Wish me luck!

Book Report: Ah, didn't expect to finish this book quite so fast but it is a very slim book, despite its ripe and rich content, and the kind of books which are really hard to put down. Here's my Goodreads review:
Pratchett's first Discworld book, it's an amazingly adventurous, imaginative, exciting, amusing book about a poor failed wizard, Rincewind and the tourist that is the world's trouble-magnet, he's constantly made to look after.
If I give you any more plot details I'll spoil you and you really aught to read this book without knowing at all where the plot's going or it'll be just like riding a roller-coaster without feeling gravity; a total bummer.
It's not his funniest book, I must add, but it...more Pratchett's first Discworld book, it's an amazingly adventurous, imaginative, exciting, amusing book about a poor failed wizard, Rincewind and the tourist that is the world's trouble-magnet, he's constantly made to look after.
If I give you any more plot details I'll spoil you and you really aught to read this book without knowing at all where the plot's going or it'll be just like riding a roller-coaster without feeling gravity; a total bummer.
It's not his funniest book, I must add, but it's novelty and it's radical and abundant imagination and fun makes it all worth while. Highly recommended!

Next up: Sybille Steinbacher's Auschwitz, A History.

The start....and a book report

So far on Animal Behavior: I sure do hope one of the lecturers won't ask us the kind of questions he gave us as sample questions in the test. If so then I can only conclude he's hoping we'll earn good grades by cramming and memorizing like parrots, forgetting it all the next day.
He's a strange fellow, that lecturer. You know that old hobbit in Lord of the Ring's beginning, the one who frowns sourly at Gandalph as he rides into the Shire, well, whenever I see that prof he frowns at me sourly like that. I swear I've never done a thing against him.

So far on Genetics: whoever's writing the tests for this course is either very nerdy or extremely bored. Today I exercised on a story with Popeye and Olive in which I concluded that, according to blood type, Olive's been cheating on Popeye...oh lord, the nerdiness.

Book Report: Quite an air of disappointment on Tuchman, really. Here's the report:
Tuchman writes well, she obviously knows a great deal of history and can often reach that almost-impossible achievement of historians to both tell as many facts as possible while not overloading. I say 'often' because this book didn't always have this moment.
Two things I liked about this book:
1. Tuchman's deep familiarity with a very wide range of history topics and times.
2. The obviously matriculate and objective, clear way of defining 'folly' by a certain logical and smart definition without getting too emotional and choosing more "hot topic" acts of silliness.
Two things I didn't like about this book:
1. Despite her great knowledge of the periods she wrote about, she failed to write a proper background of the ruling systems and the climate of the eras she discussed. Trying to understand how corrupt the six popes of the renaissance it'd help to know why the popes has such a control over Rome as if they were the kings (rather than the rulers of the Vatican as they are now...) or who were the French they fought against.
2. The chapter about the US in Vietnam was both boring, tedious, overly-detailed and featured Tuchman referring to the Americans as 'us' and 'we' which indicates a lack of objectivity a historian should avoid at all costs.

It's an OK book but definitely not the best general history book I've ever read.

Am now reading: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

Oh, the nerdiness

Our little kitty's too big for his old bowl and has lately been spilling out of it whenever he tried curling up in it (his legs would slip out and his fats would spill out on the rims of the bowl) so we got him a bigger bowl into which, I have no doubt, he'll eat and grow himself into. His father was a 13 kilo little fluff monster so I know he'll end up a biggie like his dad, even if we snip-snipped him.


Like our dear Clio, Sam also developed a habit of sitting with his ass on my mouse-hand for attention. Only Clio was slim and flexible and quite able to clean her butt, not something I can say about or plump Sam who once in a while needs us to give his rear end a cleaning. We're so lucky he's a raggie or we'd be in hospital by now <3


Last friday friend Guy from the university gang threw a purim party and here are some (shamefully blurry) pictures of the events. I will find better pictures, I promise.

Here's Shay dressed as his pet mantis, Menash


Here's Olga (dressed as a zombie nurse) and her boyfriend (dressed as Clockwork Orange's Alex)


Here are (from left to right) Merav dressed as a chinese thing, Neta dressed as something ambiguous and Dana dressed as a Hawaii girl.


These are Guy (at the back) dressed as last year's math course lecturer who we suspect is actually Count Dracula and Shiran (at the front) dressed as a flying gay deer of some sort.


I dressed as a mouse going to sleep. I'll find a picture of it.

And now, nerdiness beyond repair, cellphone pictures from various microbiology labs:


Creating as buffer was never something I thought would be easy, but it is!! As you can see, this pH stick indicating the exact pH we (me and my lab partner, Guy) wanted to achieve is evidence of such a triumph.

These are the E.Coli we planted on our petri plate in the first lab and got to see in the second lab. I took mine home (freaked my lab teacher out a bit) where Scarlett licked it happily due to the agar's attractive smell.

3rd lab results as we checked for protein activity rates in various concentrations (I think) then checked to make sure, using a spectrophotometer.

The charting of the results of the 4th lab, where we checked to see how much E.Coli survive on various substrates before we make a plasmid out of them.

Handed over my first test this semester (student test season starts next week @_@) for 'Lab and test result analysis' course which had nothing to do with the title. We had a home-test over the weekend the answers to which we were to hand over this morning. Nice picture, eh? Quite pastoral, no? Well, a touch of pastorality before the test season <3 here, have some fluff in bookshelves:

Lab report and progress

* I hate lab reports. With a vengeance, I do. When I don't get my data for the calculations mixed up because I'm looking at the wrong line in the data sheet I'm getting confused in the calculation itself and when I'm done doing that I have me some confusion while feeding the data to the semi-logarithmic graph I make of it. The semi-logarithmic graph has been made manually, mind you, as requested by the lab staff of babysitting masterants. Ugh, I have semi-logarithmic graphs, yuck yuck yuck!!

* Guess what, I'm done with the tests time of the hyrax project!! Hooraah! I did some initial statistic handling and have sent my guide person a heads up so she can send me the testosterone, age and sex sheet stuff. Cool!! All that's left then is further statistical analysis and writing down the paperwork. I've already written down the protocol, so the Tools and Methods bit is done, done done ^_^
As for the cat cradling project, me and Prof #2 are trying to get a hold of each other and meet up about reading material for the project. Hopefully I'll manage to get a hold of him this week.

Book report and a sweet story

* First, the sweet story: The Story of Adam & Eve's Pets

Adam and Eve said, 'Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you any more. We are lonesome here, and it is difficult for us to remember how much you love us.'

And God said, 'I will create a companion for you that will be with you and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves.'

And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged his tail.

And Adam said, 'Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.'

And God said, 'I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.'

And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them and loved them. And they were comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.

After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, 'Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen like peacocks and they believe they are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well.'

And God said, 'I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration.'

And God created cat to be a companion to Adam and Eve. And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.

And Adam and Eve learned humility. And they were greatly improved.

And God was pleased . . . . . .

And Dog was happy. . . . .

And Cat didn't give a crap one way or other....

* Finished Stephen King's Nightmares and LOLerskatesDreamscapes and here's my review:
Stephen King lovers, horror lovers, mystery and suspense lovers.
review: Stephen King's works should usually be read in small doses, book by book and with a long stretch of time between reading one and the other or the magic somehow fades away.
That's usually the case.
With this book the magic ended and started again for every story, though some were better than the others (Night Flier, Rainy Season and The Moving Finger being some of those), they were all captivating, pleasant to read and wonderfully written.
This book also includes a hindu tale which he merely translated and a Sherlock Holmes story using characters he didn't come up with. These two put a little bit of a damper on a other-than-these book packed with originality and fun.
All in all a great book indeed and I highly recommend it

Am now reading Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

New Legend Chapter, my two cents about humanity, cool science vids

* The new Legend chapter is out, many thanks to Nat, Eddie Baby, for beta-ing it. To see the new chapter go to either my original fiction LJ or FictionPress.com.

* E.O. Willson says the reason for animal extinction can be summed up as HIPPO.
Habitat loss
Invading species
Pollution
Population (of humans)
Over-consuming
IMO I and the second P are one and the same. We should have never left centeral Africa...

* I've been neglecting the Fun Links Time tradition, haven't I? Here's something to make it up for you guys: Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos (and they really are amazing) of course Brainiac's got a foothold there, how couldn't it have? I heard the latest season has my good old friend, Vic Reeves in it instead of the Gorodetsky-like former presenter. Couldn't think of anyone other than Mr Reeves to do this sort of show XD speaking of crack!

book report and a second project and a break

* Spoke to Mr Animal Behavior Proff and he was very pleased with the results of the poll (check it out, it's insane) as I said I'd like to do a research project on the subject he gave me his office number and said he has a masterant and a doctorant working on cat-related subjects so I might find a home there *squee*

* Finished Churchill's Their Finest Hour in The Second World War series (two down, six to go) and here's my book report:

The hard struggle of England's first few years in the Second World War are nicely depicted by Churchill's usual flowing language and dry humor.
His view of the Battle Over Britain might not be that of the citizen who was there to huddle in the Anderson shelter, but it's a vivid and fascinating description nonetheless.
This book was not as navy-obsessed as the first one, but in this book since Churchill had many reins in his hands, he insisted on bringing every memo, every letter and every note to have ever left his table to the book, which is very distracting and quite tiring, actually.

All in all it's a good book, there's hardly any bombardment of boring small technical details and the excitement of the war's made Churchill's writing juicy and adventurous. Also, it's one leader's point of view and not that of a soldier on the line or a minister of foreign affairs, all perspectives which together can give the whole picture.

It's a goods book, I recommend reading it, but I don't recommend taking every word in it for the complete truth

Am now reading: Stephen King's Nightmares and LOLerscates Dreamscapes which aught to be fun as any other Stephen King book.

* The BF business is over. The way which lead it to be over makes me want to get over it quickly and with as little effect on me as possible. Suffice to say is that experience with communication is acquired during relationships with women (if one has the want in them to learn, which the now-ex-bf had very little of) and only through said experience. Here's another 'requirement' to go on my 'what to look for in a partner' list.