Blah blah blah

Tata!

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:25:08 GMT

I'm quitting Facebook. This is kind of rolling over into also quitting LiveJournal, since I (obviously) need a way to post every inanity in my life, and if I'm going to have some sort of blog I'd rather have it be something not-still-LiveJournal.

The link is http://gscottj.blogspot.com. Feel free to RSS or ignore as you please.

Love

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:12:52 GMT

I have a girlfriend. I am incredibly happy about this.

Je me demenage

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:23:30 GMT

So yeah. I don't update much anymore (at least, on LJ---microblogging FTW!), but this is momentous.

I've just moved into a basement suite.

This is the first time I've signed a lease that was... well, let's go with "real," and assume that means more than a month, and also more than month to month. Let's also assume it means that the lease agreement wasn't hand-written in front of me.

This is the first time I've lived in a place by myself, knowing it would be for more than a month or two.

This is the first time I've had a place that is home that is home because it's all mine.

This is the first time in two years and two months, since graduating Vassar, that I've felt truly happy.

(Also, on a tangential note--but even tangents touch once, and are slightly relevant--my girlfriend that I've never met, that is falling hard for me while I fall hard for her, is coming in 4 and a half days. I'm expecting something to go wrong in my life soon, simply because this is easily the longest time in which everything, absolutely everything, has gone absolutely right, over and over again.)

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:54:34 GMT

"Unlike those with autism, people with AS are not usually withdrawn around others; they approach others, even if awkwardly. For example a person with AS may engage in a one-sided, long-winded speech about a favorite topic, while misunderstanding or not recognizing the listener's feelings or reactions, such as a need for privacy or haste to leave. This social awkwardness has been called "active but odd". This failure to react appropriately to social interaction may appear as disregard for other people's feelings, and may come across as insensitive."

I find a lot of this to be quite fitting.

And? I always seem to make the same mistakes. Oh well. I've gotten good at apologizing for them.

Breaking My Five Month, Sixteen Day Silence

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:23:21 GMT

Hi all.

I just wanted to say that I woke up this morning to an LJ post by a girl I really like. Pretty much all it said was that she really liked me.

Oh, and, it turns out, I really like her. Did I say that already?

That's all.

Jeopardy clue I liked

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:56:44 GMT

So, a Jeopardy category tonight was "Proverbs" or something to that effect. And one of the clues was, "If this is 'mightier than the sword,' then why is it that 'actions speak louder than words'?" (... or close enough)

The answer, of course, is "What is the Penis Mightier?"

If it's not one poor commercial, it's one that reinforces negative stereotypes about your mother

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:19:01 GMT

There's a commercial on here (from my own bank, no less!) that has a couple of innocent-looking tourists stepping up to a stall at a market somewhere in Latin America. They pick up one of the trinkets for sale, and the wizened old woman explains to them that it's a "worry doll," to take away all their worries. Quaint, no? The tourists then go on to explain, using tourist speak such as "grande worries" and "investment-itos", that because they're white, their problems are more important and their worries bigger, than those of these simple, poor people, selling hand-made, 4-inch dolls for a buck, to make a living.

It makes me want to puke every time it's on.

And it's on at least once an hour.

UPDATE: I found it on YouTube. (Thankfully, searching for it on YouTube made me realize that it wasn't my bank. Ph-fucking-ew.)

Ineffective

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:00:29 GMT

What I like less than freezing up because I was rushing, and not thanking someone when they do me a favour (stopping a bus that I was running for), is getting the opportunity to return the favour to someone else later on in the same day, and again freezing up out of just blatant indecisiveness. I don't know why I have to debate helping someone when I get the chance to, but I seem to be afraid of having stuck out my neck when I didn't have to.

Ideas

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:49:54 GMT

I have had three ideas recently, which I would consider at the very least innovative.

1. Instead of simply taking money from students as a due for being part of a school's student union, the student union should take that money and invest it all in an on-campus business that's sure to turn profits. Things like coffee shops or dining halls or possibly, ambitiously, housing, that you know are economically feasible because the school has been doing them forever, could be replaced by student owned and operated versions. Even if the profits aren't returned to the students as in any other investment, it's still a means of providing a service on campus, as well as increasing the amount that can then be put into whatever the student union fees are already put into. Just instead of the school doing it, the students do it. The businesses themselves would have to be decided on fairly carefully, but, I think it would work.
Are such things actually profitable? Does putting a coffee shop on campus make money for the school/for Aramark or whatever, or is it just 'cause people kept asking for one? I'm pretty much positive that it costs less to maintain a dorm than they charge students to live in it, but it's not like the student union could just build new dorms, either. Might be a way to facilitate off-campus housing, though...

2. There are large vents on the ground outside the window where I'm sitting on the third floor. The force of the air upwards is diminished enough from the three floors' distance that while the snowflakes outside the window would be pushed up fairly quickly at ground-level, they're actually balanced here, so that they no longer fall, until they get swept further out from the building by variations in the flow of air. This reminded me of Millikan's oil-drop experiment to measure the charge of an electron, where by balancing a charged oil drop you could measure the size of the charge on the oil drop. There's no charge in this case, and we can easily find the weight of a snowflake, but by knowing the weight of the snowflake and the force of the air at the bottom, you could find the factor by which the air slows as it rises.
I know this would be of interest to some engineers, but, they've probably also found out another (similar?) way of measuring it.

3. I've already forgotten it. Which is why I'm writing these down, to remember them. And to share with all you lovely people! :-)

Alcohol

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:52:20 GMT

I am sick to death of my tolerance. There is no longer a happy medium between feeling nothing and feeling dizzy.

Taking a Break This Christmas Break

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:59:48 GMT

In an effort to curb my compulsive checking of all things networked to my laptop, even when I know that Facebook, LJ, my e-mail, and others, rarely if ever have new information every five minutes, I'm going to take a break from the Internet this Christmas Break. I'm going to be checking everything once a week until finals are done, and e-mail daily or so until then in case I'm contacted about school; and for the two weeks after that, I'm turning off my laptop and not going on the internet.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and all other Seasons' Greetings to all of you still reading this. Miss you all.

Piano Sonata No.29; or, How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Meme

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:08:37 GMT

IF SOMEONE ASKS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
L'Excessive - Carla Bruni

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
The River Driver - Great Big Sea (Awesome! I would love to be the River Driver.)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Near You Always - Jewel (HA!)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
[While I would normally include Classical, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 is a multi-movement piece. Maybe the point's that my day's had a lot of sections, but, I'm skipping it.]
The Dangling Conversation - Simon & Garfunkel (That's more like it.)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
The Drinking Song - Moxy Früvous (Uh oh.)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Paperback Writer - The Beatles (There's a motto in that song somewhere...)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Let It Be - The Beatles

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Father's Jig / Buffet Double / Tishialuk Girl - Great Big Sea (It's true, there are three of them!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Traffic - Carbon Leaf (I'm not sure I even know this song, actually.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
What About Everything - Carbon Leaf (Been a long time since I've listened to Carbon Leaf, I guess.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Fa Na Na - Wide Mouth Mason:
"She didn't make it but it's alright
I think I stumbled on the invite.
I just shoulda said it outright
but I didn't so there you go"

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Too Much Monkey Business - The Beatles

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Stomach vs. Heart - Barenaked Ladies

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Make My Way - Blues Traveler:
When you roll down your window
And ask for directions
Can you count on the answers
That you would receive (Ouch!)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Imagine - The Beatles (I think I imagine more than all of them.)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Ben McCulloch - Steve Earle (Since I've never heard it before, probably not.)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
He Was My Brother - Simon And Garfunkel (I have no brothers, but I'd love to die for others!)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Posters - Jack Johnson (Er, no? Unless it means, playing guitar?)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Light My Fire - The Doors

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Baby Driver - Simon and Garfunkel (I'm not sure this song even has a meaning.)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Telephone Road - Steve Earle (Also haven't heard it.)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? (HA! One?)
Boo Time - Moxy Früvous (Also, fairly, intentionally meaningless.)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
1822! - The Beatles (A speech bit from an album of a series of radio sessions. It does make me laugh!)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Love Me Do - By me! I didn't think my playing made me cry :-/

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Got You Down - Paul Westerberg (Apparently, I will be in love but she will bet gotten by someone else?)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Painter Song - Norah Jones (So much music I never listen to!)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Lukey - Great Big Sea (Is that a no?)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Rocky Road To Dublin - Solstice (... I would never have left home for the big city?)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Sit On My Face - Monty Python (HAHAHA! So many meanings.)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Since Piano Sonata No. 29 came up twice, I AM going to post this as Piano Sonata No. 29.

Update

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:49:48 GMT

Hi all.

How are you?

I am fine.

Do you ever feel like you have a million things to say, but no one you know is the right person to hear it all? I find myself shouting into the black that is the internet a lot. My conclusion is that I need "therapy": to talk to a complete stranger who is paid to be objective and listen to absolutely everything you have to say, but who is more socially acceptable to pay for services than a prostitute.

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:25:29 GMT

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage/relationship (or if you think you might be someday), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

Heroes

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:05:37 GMT

POUGHKEEPSIE!!!

I win

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:52:12 GMT

Trebek just said the champion was "doing good."

A meme, and... an actual update!

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:38:26 GMT

The question about how long I'd just been on the internet wasn't fair: I'd just woken up.

But, here are some updates from... what looks to be the 4th of July.

1. I had a huge crush on a girl, that seemed to like me. She sat down on the floor next to the couch I was sitting on, even it meant she was looking sideways at the TV to play guitar on RockBand, and leant back so's her head was on my leg. Two weeks after that, we went on what was actually my first pre-scheduled, pre-physical activity date--assuming it was actually a date, of course. I think it went well, mostly. I didn't pay, because right before the cheque came, she said something unrelated about being generous, probably sarcastically, and so I joked that if she was so generous, was she going to pay for this? She then did, and I figured, well, at least now I have my foot in the door for a second dinner date so I can pay her back, right?

2. A week later, she was having a party, and I got really really drunk, and threw my drink on her (just... being immature 'cause I was so drunk I was on auto-pilot with my brain turned off), and later I learned from her best friend that she didn't like me. I've been paranoid that it was just 'cause I threw the drink and so she told her best friend to say that, 'cause it's a fairly quick turn around from head on leg, then two weeks to a date, then one week to not liking me anymore, but, I'm trying to make myself stop thinking that way. The worst part is that she said she did actually like me before, but then built up expectations of what I should be, and that "made it harder for" me. I then asked if she'd be able to go into continuing getting to know me with an open mind--it's not like she found me unattractive, and she hadn't even experienced the things that originally attracted every other girlfriend, and if her feelings could change once, couldn't they change again?--and she said: "It's over. Done. Finished before it started, and you're going to have to learn to live with that." I'm actually already over her (one date, known her for just a couple months, how much could I really like her?), but I'd built up a lot of hopes, and it's just getting over the upset of having all those hopes dashed when if I'd just acted sooner instead of intentionally trying to move slowly to get things right, maybe we could've actually gotten emotionally closer before she stopped liking me. I keep remembering times at work, and then I go "wait, you mean, that made me think she liked me, and, I was actually right? And didn't do anything? Argh!!!" I'm over her, but I will never not regret that we didn't actually date. It's just that she's the first person that I've ever considered an adversary. I've had friends with similar interests, and I've had friends that are better than me at those similar interests, but I've never known someone that was as good or better than me at everything I'm proud of, and seemed to constantly challenge me at those things. I've realized that that's probably the most important quality I'll be looking for in a wife now. And she's the only one I've ever met that way. There really is no part of me that wants to be with her (being crumpled up and thrown away really helps with that), but I mean it when I say that I will never not regret having at least actually dated her.

3. I am in fact going to the U of Saskatchewan in the fall (and by in the fall, I mean, a week from this Thursday), to get a certificate in Comp Sci that will essentially add the major to my existing bachelor's. Should take two years. They almost didn't give me a loan, saying that my expected contributions were greater than my expected costs, but that was before I pointed out to them that they forgot to include my tuition and books into the cost of being a student. Sorta the point, I think. I mean... they're right, I wouldn't need a loan, if I weren't being a student.

4. My sister's gone for the week to visit my grandparents in Moose Jaw before she moves to Switzerland next week for events management school. And with my dad also gone to Alberta to spray trees (just the bad ones), what with having lost his job here from the drunk-driving license revocation and not coming back 'til sometime in October, I have the house to myself for a while. This is making me very excited. Also with my sister leaving, I will actually get to move upstairs instead of just temporarily sleeping up here, with all my stuff in the basement that likes to flood whenever it actually rains, and ends up incredibly cold all winter for the sleeping. I get a real room, instead of just sleeping in my dad's weight room 'cause I moved a bed there! Yay!

5. There's probably some other news, but, I'm not sure what all there is. I bought RockBand. I spent all day yesterday fixing my dad's car (exhaust system is now actually functional and you can't hear me coming for a block, windshield wipers actually clean the right side of the windshield, and the clutch pedal isn't practically already on the floor when you put your foot to it). Oh, and, 'cause of the drink-throwing incident, I've decided that even if I'm not addicted to alcohol, I don't want to ever be that stupid again. I'm still going to drink, but, August 15th, '08, will be the last time that I ever get stupid-drunk. (Also, 08/08/08 was our date. Would've made a nice anniversary, no?)

This makes me happy

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:54:35 GMT

So, I hadn't realized the connection until now: today was my first paycheque from my current job, that I didn't owe a bit over half of, to HSBC for my stupid, 30% interest credit cards. So I celebrated, took my family out to dinner at a nice Mexican place ($87 for the four of us), and bought some beer and some wine, and watched the football game (the Saskatchewan Roughriders beat their rivals the BC... something-somethings--there's only 8 teams in the league, you'd think I'd be able to remember all their names). The connection, though, is that my first paycheque I don't owe to HSBC (and that is how you spell paycheque) came on the 4th of July. I'm independent from the US... on Independence Day.

I went to a Dave Brubeck concert on Sunday. Absolutely amazing. You'd think that an 86-year old might start to have troubles playing piano, just through arthritis or senility or something. But nope. To be 80-something and still... original, an absolute master, and even improving. Like my new friend said that I went with, "best jazz ever." And his band was all old, too. I thought that maybe, after so many years since he started, he would've found new memebers for his quartet? And he did, when his sax player did, that played the original Take Five, but, I didn't think that they'd all still be old guys, white hair, and barely able to walk out on stage without canes. And then to play like that. The drummer had one song that was just a solo-vehicle (interestingly, based on a Gregorian chant that used to be played in Catholic mass because Brubeck's an "old Catholic," as he put it), but the drummer played like he was young. It wasn't just that it was a superb solo, it was that there was an edginess, a pep-and-vinegar, a youthful loudness to his solo that I would've expected from a 20-something, only a million times better 'cause he'd been playing as an absolute way of life, for at least 50 years. Nothing short of stunning.

I think the only other news since my last major post is that I have a huuuge crush that I'm too tired to discuss right now, and I've had to start watering things twice, so that I spend 5 hours doing the first watering (including a 15 and a 30 minute break), have 45 minutes of "maintenance" work to do, take a fifteen minute break, start watering all the things in little pots and the things particularly susceptible to drought, and then have about an hour of more maintenance work. In an 8.5 hour day, I'm doing something not watering for an hour and 45. There's so much crap to do that's backed up, 'cause it's little things that take longer than that so I never start doing them, and so then so little that I actually ever get done... The store's so dead this time of year that it's surprising to get more than five customers in an afternoon. It's also scorching hot, all day long. I'm going to hit the next person who jokes about how Canada doesn't get hot. 90 Fahrenheit average, with a 90% humidity, for a week in a row? Only getting down to 65 or 70 over night? Thanks, but no thanks.

Three Things I've Done You Haven't

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:41:57 GMT

A meme from dasbooch. You make a little list, just of three things, and those three things are things you've done, and they're things that you think other people haven't done.

1. Driven a bobcat.

2. Been to the Louvre and the Hermitage within 48 hours.

3. Had a baboon-sized monkey use your back as a springboard.

A tribute, to George

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:31:08 GMT

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits.

Thanks, you've been a great audience.

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:43:23 GMT

I can't believe Edward James Olmos drooled on Jamie Bamber's hand.

Party time

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:12:54 GMT

So, I went out last night with people from work. There was drinking, and some warming up by a live band called the Plaid-Toungued Devils, the lead-singer of which had his head shaved except for two circles on the top of his head to be like horns, and then an opener that was better than the headliners, and then a different bar with dancing by other people than me and some horrible karaoke. Imagine a cowboy, singing Final Countdown a couple keys too high for him, in an off-pitch whine.

But I made friends! All by myself! I'm so proud!

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:40:04 GMT

Turns out--oh, well, wait, I should tell that other story first, too. Maybe I'd started it before. I'm applying to the U of Saskatchewan, to take the courses for a comp sci major and get a certificate in it to add it to my fancy-shmancy BA. Having more than 18 of their credits (6 courses), I'm a transfer student. And according to their calendar, if a transfer student has a degree, then they meet all the admissions requirements. ---They changed it! They kept not believing me when I told them it was there, and I've e-mailed it to them twice now. I thought I'd look and see if they still had it there, or if they'd deleted it to get me off their backs, and they changed it to say that I only meet high school requirements, and that "This does not waive specific course prerequisites." Which explains why when they e-mailed me back, they ignored the part about their calendar and meeting their requirements, and just talked about the other part, about how I still need to send course syllabi from all of my Vassar courses and not just the ones that are required for the certificate, because apparently it's part of the admissions process. Thing is, it doesn't explain then why their website still has me as needing to send my high school transcript and AP scores.

Anyways. That gets me to where I am now. Turns out, I still had my Vassar e-mail address as the one the College Board had attached to my account. So now I have to phone them. I can do a million and a half errands in a day if they're all online, but once it comes time to phone someone or go someplace, I slow right down.

Update: I've been zipping through e-mailing every department I took a course with, and after finishing them off, I got my first response, from the English department: they don't keep course syllabi on record. So now I have to contact good old Eamon Grennan, the first of many of my professors to leave Vassar after I took a course with them. Seriously, other than Wind Ensemble, guitar lessons, and the Physics lab instructor, I don't have a professor left at Vassar for a credit from before second semester sophomore year.
Second Update, right after: The Econ department keeps their syllabi, so that one's getting sent off this afternoon. Which is good, 'cause it's actually one of the ones I need to transfer for the certificate, so I could take just Comp Sci courses, instead of a bunch of math and, you know, an Econ.

Third update: Music department doesn't keep their syllabi, and Eamon Grennan didn't keep his syllabi from long, long ago, either. This sucks.

Vassar mention

Wed, 14 May 2008 23:42:37 GMT

It's College Jeopardy time (as I'm sure many friends that read this LJ know), and one category was "Brewers, Bucks, and Packers," and I immediately thought of the Vassar Brewers. But then, the final clue, was "this brewer donated $405,000 to... nuns?... in Poughkeepsie for the founding of a women's college." Hands up in the air, I was shouting "Matthew Vassar" until Trebek had to tell them who did it.

RIP VCTV

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:34:45 GMT

It is my deepest regret to inform you that I have been recently told that because of a change in the VSA's means of allotting funds, VCTV's funding will be cut from an ample $3000/year to $75/year. The funding scheme is based on member attendance, with a large number of special funds specifically for events like screenings, VCTV's only real events. The club's attendance was particularly low this past year (which, for VCTV, is saying something), and I'm unaware as to how many of our regularly scheduled events were actually held. The only positives out of this situation are that I'm being credited in the Yearbook as still being a member of the club, and that there might be a box of DVDs and camera equipment coming my way.