Gone too long

I haven't posted in 5 days or so, and I've gone to two parties since then. We're planning another for tomorrow after our last final. I went to the Christmas party for Katie (gag gifts) and it was a great time with good food. We exchanged a lot of presents and got more as the week went on. I took my virology final and it went very well, though it wasn't cumulative (thank goodness) and I took my physics final (which was cumulative) and it drained me. I don't know how I did on the virology final but I did awful on the physics (lab included) that I want to see if I can somehow get credit for it by taking another class before it kills my GPA. But by this point in the semester, I'm not sure what to do yet.

Here's my list of fun gifts I've gotten (it helps when I write thank-you cards)

"Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way" signed by the man himself from Matt

Chinese Proverb Poster (it's very nice) from Tiff and Andrew

Electric Buddha from Steve (imagine a bodhisattva with a plasma ball for a belly)

Rabbit Wine Kit from Nick and Erica

"Vice's Do's and Don'ts fashion book" from Robin

I still have gifts for Bert, both Andrews, Mike, Steve, Julie, Claire and some more Austin/Dallas people. I have gotten so many phone calls and IM messages asking me to come hang out, but everyone's still surprised that I have exams still. Seems like we're the last to get out of this semester, but whatcha gonna do? Tonight (I know I have a 9:00am History exam) Matt, Robin, Nick, and I are going to the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown to catch a very funny winter show. Jerm, from Mr. Sinus Theater is hosting "Merry F@#$ing Christmas" which is the work up and plots of over a dozen Christmas themed pornos. There's no nudity (which would be creepy in a crowded theater) but the sheer hilarity of porn (especially any kind of themed one) will make this a pretty good show. He's assembled all-time-favorites such as "Jingle Balls" "Tits a Wonderful Life" "Christmas Carol" and many more. I'll post later and tell you how it went.

I think I'm going to stay in Austin a day or two just to relax and do nothing (I suppose pack some clothes) before heading back to Dallas for the break. My grandmother (dad's side) is coming in tomorrow and then all my aunts and uncles will be coming to our house for much drinking, quick-witted banter and hopefully more jokes about presents (EMU!!!) that we all get (Santa Claws). I think that I'll have time to see all my Dallas people over the break (I also promised Robin that I'd take him out for his birthday- that happens to fall on festivus) but there will be much merriment and oogling of each others gifts. I'll post once more before I go back to Dallas and then I'll keep a much tighter schedule of posts with what I'm up to over the terribly short vacation.


Seems like I've always been here...

Radio Free Arcadia

I know not too many people read my blog, and I'm only keeping it up for a small group of loyal friends (thanks guys and gals) but if you never click on any links I post up here, please try the link I'm putting up now, I swear to you, you will not be sorry you did. Steve told me about this at the movies and I only tried it today. Keeping in mind that I love music and it can do things to me that noise just shouldn't be able to do, and also keeping in mind that I (perhaps ignorantly) believe in the internet as the thing which will change humanity as an organism forever:

Pandora

This is another part of the internet that I feel is good. I don't mean good as in nice or fun, but good as in really good for you, like health food or sunshine. Wikipedia, Firefox, Google, Blogger, WUnderground, and all the other free programs that just do it, not really for the cash (or at least I'd like to think) but for the people. The internet cannot be owned, controlled, or destroyed. The internet as an organism is a growing, evolving being which has formed a symbiosis with the human race. We use it everyday, it needs our input to grow and feed us in return. I enjoy programs which want to make the internet free and damn the torpedoes about what the "man" says, they bring it to the masses.

Pandora is a program like that. Streaming music. Imagine an internet radio of over 10 million songs that keeps growing. Now imagine that radio commercial free, uninterrupted, without loading times or buffers, and the best part? It's tailored to you and your likes and dislikes. It's part of the music genome project (something I heard about a while back but didn't pay too much attention to at the time) in which music lovers and technophiles look through thousands of songs to identify musical "genes" like call-to-call vocals, dry snares, emotional lyrics, deep grooves, wailing guitars, strange musical progressions, and the like. Like animals, each song has a unique genetic signature and those help Pandora find more suggestions for you. You create (you can have 100) a radio station streaming to you by typing in a favorite artist or song. Then Pandora looks at the genetic fingerprint of the song and suggests a cousin of the song, that is, it shares some musical genes with the first song, but pushes out into the musical genepool a bit.

Here's where it's different from internet radio. You vote on the suggested song, thumbs up, it plays, thumbs down, it tries another cousin. If you keep the song (or do nothing) it will then try something new in the family tree (giving you names, artists, albums, and often artwork along the way) each time extrapolating through the unique genetic signatures of the song. The beauty is, the more you listen, the better it gets to making you a custom radio set. It streams, so you can't rewind or replay, but you can pause and forward to new tracks. If you come across a song you like, but you don't feel fits with the type of music you want at the time, you can create a new station off of that one song. You can even help it along by adding in more artists and songs you like to help it see new genetic elements you might like. Pandora will even tell you some of the genetics of the song if you ask it why it chose that song.

The whole project is a lot of fun and you can even email them with obscure CDs, unknown bands, and all sorts of details about what you'd like to hear and they'll then plug that information into the database for more songs. It's a great thing to see tailor-made new music so get out there and listen.

What's going on with me lately you ask (well I'm glad you did)? I survived the hell week last week and now I'm bracing for the flood of doom that is finals. I had a test today and a review for virology so that really took it out of me and I was quite low for a while today, but I picked up a little with my drug of choice. I finish on the 19th and I'll most likely be in Dallas on the 21st, so that should get me out of some Austin traffic. I still need to take Virology, Physics, and History so it should be fun and by fun I mean very, very painful. I still need to give out some more gifts and I got one this morning: Nick and Erica got me a rabbit! I was quite excited and can't wait to use it on some unsuspecting wine bottle. I'm trying to be good to myself while finals are going on because I'm normally so bad with lack of sleep, nicotine, and caffeine. I really do a number on the system, so hopefully eating better and walking/ biking will help me.


Power to the oligarchy...that's you

Hell Freezes Over

Well, it is now very cold in Austin and most of Texas in general. A shift in the Jet Stream caused a massive cold front down on us. I finally broke out the peacoat that I got years back and started wearing my Manchester United scarf (much to Matt's chagrin as he's a Millwall fan and I won't hold that against him). The canceled classes on Thursday which means all the buildings were locked up and we couldn't get together at the UGL. I still had to go in to school to check my clinical unknowns (just because school closes doesn't mean they stop growing). Funny thing was, the entire lab was there too! That's science for you, it may kill you to drive on icy streets, but damned if you're going to let your plates grow another day.

I've been Xmas shopping (I hate the Jesus, I guess) lately and I'm almost done with everyone! I still have to get Matt his gift, and I need to get a few gifts for Claire, Stephen, etc. though I'm mostly done. I would tell you what I got you (I hate surprises) but in case anyone ever reads this, I'll keep it in the dark. I am starting to get in finals mode now that the semester's coming to an end. We only get one dead day this semester because Thursday's classes that were canceled are re-scheduled for this Tuesday instead (including my lab final). Even though we get Monday off, I still have to go in for two reviews, so that's not much fun. I got gifts yesterday for the two holiday parties I'm going to, one is a white elephant and the other is a "gypsy gift exchange"

From the name you'd thing one person puts all the gifts in a bag and runs off with them but it's played by drawing out a gift, and then unwrapping and passing the bag. The next person can either draw a new gift from the bag, or take the gift someone has. If your gift is taken, you can draw another present from the bag and it is the third person's turn. This continues until everyone if happy with their gift, or a gift has been taken three times (it must stay with the person who has it) then everyone enjoys their gifts.

I've seen a good deal of movies as of late: We went to Alamo to see Chronicles of Narnia. Let me just say, that as a feminist and an atheist, the movie is very heavy handed on the Christianity and the subservience of the female roles. The girls don't get to be in battle and never kill anyone. The rebirth of Aslan is WAY too Jesus-esque and I wasn't happy with the whole references to (in no particular order): death for the sins of others, sacrificial martyrdom, breaking of the stone, resurrection, faith in more ways than I care to count, and the references to the second coming. I don't think I would've seen it had I known. We also went to the Mr. Sinus Theater Show Holiday Special and I laughed until tears were down my face and my head hurt. I really need to go see more Sinus next semester.


Got a snowball's chance

It's starting to look a lot like...

December. There are far too many holidays to keep track of over this month, but whatcha gonna do? Thanksgiving was pretty good, though many people canceled on our drinking plans to go back early etc. (some people clearly can't stand their own family) and so I hung out with Michael Hanson quite a bit. I watched UT almost lose to A&M, but now we're going to the Rose Bowl, so that's no so bad. I watched a Thanksgiving Bondathon (all James Bond films, all the time) with Mike and it was great because I'm a huge Bond fan. We also went to go see the new Harry Potter movie and I finally broke down and started reading the novels. They are very well written and easy to the point of near speed reading, which is good, consitering they're really hard to put down. The story is engaging and insofar as I've seen the movies, I kinda know what's going to happen. I started reading the first book sunday night, and now I'm almost done with the third book. My youngest brother, Ben, was nice enough to lend me 1-4 and I'll see what I can do to procure the 5th and 6th books. Mike hasn't read the 6th one, so maybe I'll get it for him as a holiday gift.

I've got plenty of end-of-semester parties lined up, Katie and Michelle are both hosting holiday parties, Kim is hosting a birthday party, and I'm sure Andrew or Mike will plan something. I'm thinking about staying in Austin for a while after my last final (on the 19th no less- UT's last final day) just to bum around Austin before heading back. Last night was the tree lighting at the capitol building, so downtown was packed full of people as we sat at the bar in Silhouette, which is our new favorite sushi hangout. The bartender, Todd, is a really nice guy and he mixes up some great drinks! I suggest the Lychee Martini with top-shelf vodka, sake, and some lychee juice. He's a big fan of infusing his own vodkas with different flavors like ginger, pepper, wasabi and fruits. If you like a sweeter drink try the Mango Sidecar with lots of sugar around the rim.

Robin, Mike, Tiff, Andrew (cave), Bert, Kim, and I went to Alamo Drafthouse last night to catch Aeon Flux and I must say, it was alright. The dialouge made me want to slap someone: Who are you? Why do you know me? I don't know who I am anymore. This was a movie comprised of bad lines from The Matrix but all in all, worth the price of admission (with Student ID). I'll post more if I have time, but next week is hell, as I have three lab final exams plus a clinical laboratory final to deal with.


X-mas if you hate Jesus