* The semester, and with it my second year in uni, is over. I have 2/3s of a BA. This also means test season is upon me. Next week's going to be fun: Sunday + Monday + Tuesday: Invert lab trip Wednesday: A revision class before the test in evolution, at noone. Thursday: a 9 hour long revision lab in invert lab Friday: Evolution test
Fun stuff, isn't it?
* Finished Churchill's third volume in The Second World War series and here's the review:
rating: 5 of 5 stars In this volume, as evens take a faster pace so does the writing. Churchil was never a bad writer, but in the previous volume he didn't quite find the right balance between putting in every memo he ever wrote and every small background history detail.
Events are well told in good details and the sense of interest and intensivity is kep very nicely.
rating: 3 of 5 stars I gave up in the middle of the Bruno and Sylvie saga. The Alice in Wonderland stories were fun and interesting to read but by the saga the nonsense and the bizzare attraction to young girls who are a symbol of prefection was getting on my nerves. Call me a cold-hearted person but there's only so much strangely-placed nonsese I can tolerate and if there's too much child-adoration and not enough plot I give up.
Don't bother with the whole collection; Alice's stories are quite enough to enjoy Carroll.
* Yup, it's over and done with. I've still statistical analysis to do but the testing is OVER. So far it seems the ice lolly's winning on the what's favorite.
* There's a new rat friend; Rizzo Rat and he's a cute and smart little fellow. He used to curl up in my pockets like Nathan but he's grown used to the movement and much prefers sitting on my shoulder facing forward like a pirate's parrot or sitting atop of my head. The only down side is that he pees freely...fun, not!
* Haven't had the time to tell you but I've finished Karl Marx and here's the review:
rating: 5 of 5 stars Wheen's wonderfully written book illustraits, with colors as vivis as possible, the life and works of Karl Marx, warts and all; from blood-thirsty arguments with opponents, to medical details of the various many ailments Marx suffered from to the horrificly true and not-so-nice predictions of Europe's political future including the world wars and what brought them about.
Karl Marx is an educating idol for anyone who wants to think on their own, to conclude only what their mind understand by constantly checking for contradictions and 'plot holes' in grand theories around them and Wheen describes wonderfully both how Marx came about this and what it brought him.
The book is well written, light to read and enjoyable. The style is humorist and serious at the same time, with a keen eye on the various misdeeds various politically-enclined historians twisted or wrongly presented Marx history and work, which is always nice to see.
* Due to the fact that people in cat forums are stupid enough to think a troll would go all the way to invent a story describing my cat research, or that I'm the MI5 (people are really, honestly stupid) I've decided to turn to places where I can proove my identity more easily, so I've opened a FaceBook account and here it is.
* I'm officially have been working at the store for a month and now I'm getting precenteges for my sales, which is another bonus in an already bonus-packed work place ^_^
* Piccies!!
This is Anat, she volenteers at the zoology garden, helping Shimon (the hyena's keeper) with his work. Those two were such great help to me in the project, they were simply marvelous. I wrote them each a thank you letter and got them a box of chocolates for their bother and help.
The hyena enjoying the fishy ice lolly. It took him a while to wrap his brains around the concept of the ice lolly, and he didn't like the fish at all!
Egret tree at the zoology garden
The hyena cheating; he was supposed to keep the bone ine cage so that I'll know if he prefers the bone so much that he'd go into the cage for it while there's the yard and all its treasures to relish, but he took the bone out to the yard as you can see
Yum yum yum, Ice Lolly Version 2.0; chicks and fruits and the hyena is loving it!
Having a dust bath
The wolves dug a tunnle (*commence The Great Escape jokes now*) in the yard and it's the hyena's pleasure the destroy it from time to time, as you can see here; he's pulling out a log they stuck in it...
A happy hyena; having a short dip
One of the wolves
Sniffing the fat stain a dead sheep the wolves got left behind
And rolling in it....
The yard
Moi in the final toy-free observation today, a picture taken by my dad who climbed on the roof with me for 'security reasons' (Mr. Safety's orders *rolls eyes*)
* A friend from uni forwarded my cat survey to his friends and they've been sending me back what is now the bulk of the Israeli voice in my survey. Thank you, Zohar!!
rating: 5 of 5 stars When I started reading this book I thought there was too much kitsch in it but then I told myself I've been reading too much documentry history books that human emotions seem like kitsch to me. Also, Zusak's writing swept me like a tidal wave.
This book really has everything; exact history, two sides of a coin, the whole ugly truth, and a boog plot. Sometimes it's got kitsch history moments but this book wouldn't become so glorified and admired by so many people if it hadn't had some pointless kitsch.
It's a wonderful, captivating read and it's written brilliantly, despite its slight amount of kitsch. I suppose saying it's not a human being narrating the book but death makes it some kind of an excuse to kitsch. I guess.
Still, it's a lovely book as is highly recomended!
* The cat handling survey's on the roll!! If you wish to participate (which means you have a cat who's willing to be picked up or you frequently meet a cat who does so - like in a family's/friend's house) please email: CatSurvey@windowslive.com with a headline "bloggish" Thank you!
* The hyena thing is semi-solved, that is, if the hyena won't destroy all the bones we brought him too fast....
* Finished reading A Historical Achievement and its Evolution (BTW, they didn't mis-use the term 'evolution 8D) and here's the newly-made Goodreads review-form thingie:
rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a gathering of many articles dealing with the kibbutz and moshav movements, the political and general history of the two.
A promising book, it managed to be a vewry good and educating book covering history well until it reached topics beyond that of WW2 and beyond. Until then it was extensive, well written, easy to read history and a bit of philosophy. Everything beyond the second world war and the foundation of Israel (including the big Stalin-good-or-bad crisis in the kibbutz movement!) was neglected. The articles became vague and overly sociologistic-politic-centered. Besides one purely economic article about the crumbling of the lesser-successful kibbuts during the 80s, and an article about Ben Gurion's efforts to create education settlements for the new arrivals as Israel was founded, there was nothing historical about anything happening in Israel beyond 1939.
Big, big, GIANT cock-up and a huge mistake in a book which claims to cover the kibbutz and moshav movements from 1900 to 1990.
* I started putting some old anime-fandom-era treasures up to sale on Ebay and so far the one product I put on is getting quarrled over by two people, good good ^_^
* Tomorrow's invert lab is about flat worms, hooraah!
* I gave the nuts at cat_macros a gathering of the best Sam and Scarlett pics and this is what they came up with:
* Finished reading Salmon of Doubt and here's the Goodreads review:
It's a great shame that not only did we lose Douglas Adams as a writer, lecturer, protector of endangered species and funny man in general, but also that The Salmon of Doubt was never completed.
This book is a gathering of Adams' interviews, half-made ideas, small stories, lectures, articles and three chapters from his to-be new Drik Gently book. His writing is, as usual, timeless and wonderful, a treasurechest of wit and enlightening little remarks about the world humans in it and the techn...more It's a great shame that not only did we lose Douglas Adams as a writer, lecturer, protector of endangered species and funny man in general, but also that The Salmon of Doubt was never completed.
This book is a gathering of Adams' interviews, half-made ideas, small stories, lectures, articles and three chapters from his to-be new Drik Gently book. His writing is, as usual, timeless and wonderful, a treasurechest of wit and enlightening little remarks about the world humans in it and the technology we create.
It's a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
Next up: A Historical Achievement and its Evolution by the Ben Guriun institution of Israeli studies. The name alone is a mis-use of the term 'evolution' but I'm being a petty nerd saying that.
* And speaking of Goodreads, I've just discovered I can manually type in all the too-local-to-be-on-Amazon books!! That's great, now I can type in all the holocaustic stuff.
Sam loves getting under mobile objects and slither around on his belly, at top speed, towards things (mostly people, Scarlett and table legs). This saturday he did it with their new cat tent, usually he does it with his beloved paper bag.
Scarlett and the tend. Whenever Sam's having a good time in the tent, she'l get in it and kick him out. She does that with his bowl, too, and with any toy he's playing with. His revenge - come gushi-food time he'll nudge her away from her plate to pig it out (often before he finished his share!)
The lovely fluffers
Sam and his bowl. As you can see, he grew into it a little, the little fluff and blubber lump that he is >.<
The glass gives a good view to smeared-curled paws!
Do any of you long-haired cat owners see these on your cats; curly areas in the middle of the smooth fur? Sam's got these in the fur on the sides of his belly and on the rear of his thighs and they reappear again after we comb him (we do this every day)
Snuggled up
Very pleased with his bowl and with existance in general
Finished reading Darwin's The Expression of the Emotion in Humans and Animals, here's the Goodreads review:
This book is more a historical document than a scientific paper, by today's requirements for scientific documents. Darwing collects here his notes on the expressions of humans with a single chapter about animals and some referrences to monkeys, so the title is highly misleading (it annoyed me, anyways).
Despite that, this work is at the root of understanding both human and animal behavior and the three principles of expression are now evidently the base of every modern theory on animal and h...more This book is more a historical document than a scientific paper, by today's requirements for scientific documents. Darwing collects here his notes on the expressions of humans with a single chapter about animals and some referrences to monkeys, so the title is highly misleading (it annoyed me, anyways).
Despite that, this work is at the root of understanding both human and animal behavior and the three principles of expression are now evidently the base of every modern theory on animal and human behavior and that, in itself, gives this book a historical value.
Darwing depicts his notes on his own children, on various and un-measured sightings of human and animal beahvior (like "I once saw a girl doing ___ " or "my neighbour's dog once ___ ") which nower days would be completely unfit for scientific research. Those were the days, though, and for anyone interested or amused by the development of scientific thinking and research this book is an enjoyable gem.
Another historical value this book has is in the fact that, in order to investigate human expression in human societies relatively unexposed and influenced by Eurpoean man, Darwin had a small army of informants at remote Biritsh colonies investigating and reporting of their experiences with the local natives. These informants were judges, policemen, missionaries and wives of various officials. With these times long gone (thankfully), it's a reminder and a documentation of the spirits of the time and the way these far-away cultures, still unchanged at the time, behaved.
This book is not an easy read as the english is that of Victorian times and often words that mean one thing to us mean another, when he author is concerned, and the unabridged version hold a lot of repeating and coarse writing that's not for readers who just want an easy book to stare at.
Still, it's a good book, and for historians with a love for human studies, it's a good book
Am now reading: Douglas Adams' The Salmon of Doubt
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.
The Grand Alliance by Winston S. Churchill
