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This journal is mirrored at g-na.livejournal.com/, where it is open for comments. Older entries... Current October-December 2009 July-September 2009 April-June 2009 January-March 2009 October-December 2008 July-September 2008 April-June 2008 January-March 2008 October-December 2007 July-September 2007 April-June 2007 January-March 2007 October-December 2006 July-September 2006 April-June 2006 January-March 2006 October-December 2005 July-September 2005 April-June 2005 January-March 2005 October-December 2004 July-September 2004 April-June 2004 January-March 2004 October-December 2003 July-September 2003 April-June 2003 January-March 2003 October-December 2002 July-September 2002 April-June 2002 January-March 2002 October-December 2001 July-September 2001 April-June 2001 January-March 2001 October-December 2000 July-September 2000 April-June 2000 January-March 2000  |
29 December 05 Recent readings, part three: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond A study of how and why certain historical societies (the Maya, Anaszai, Greenland Norse, etc.) collapsed, why others succeeded, and why some contemporary societies are doomed if they don't change their ways. This book is written about as objectively as possible, and is both very interesting and very depressing. Humans, particularly modern humans, are the only species which has the capability to understand the impact of their actions of the planet, yet continue on their self-destructing path. No other species deliberately destroys their own surroundings and their own environment *, and this book attempts to explain why we would do such a thing. Before reading this, I had assumed that our modern, industrialist culture was the first human society to be actively destroying itself. I had assumed that our "technological advancement" made us blind to living in harmony with nature, but I've since learned that is not the case - this has been happening for at least a millennia. The moral of the story: if we don't change what we're doing and quickly, we are doomed. * Other species have destroyed their environments, but not deliberately. For example, when humans removed apex predators (grizzlies and wolves) from Yellowstone Park during the 20th century, elk were able to breed uncontrolled. Huge elk populations destroyed groves of trees in an attempt to feed themselves. (Many couldn't feed themselves and starved to death.) Former forest areas were then turned into grasslands with less biodiversity, and the elk no longer had the habitat they needed to thrive. While the elk may have destroyed their habitat, they only did so because humans upset the balance of the local ecology. 29 December 05 Recent readings, part two: Iron Council, China Miéville Let me preface this by saying I've read Perdido Street Station and The Scar and enjoyed them both. I like the world Miéville has created and have enough suspension of disbelief to accept the characters. But Iron Council just didn't work for me. I didn't care for the writing style Miéville used during the second quarter of the book. It takes fully half the story before you learn exactly what is going on and what the characters' "quest" is all about, and by the time I learned I no longer cared. This book didn't engage me the way his previous ones did. It wasn't bad enough that I set it down without finishing, but I only finished it in hopes that a spectacular ending would make it all worth while. And there was something interesting that happened at the end, but it wasn't enough, by far. 29 December 05 Recent readings, part one: A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (book four, "Song of Ice and Fire") It seems as though Martin is a "love him or hate him" author, and I just love this series. Since hearing about it two years ago, I've read each of the first three books twice, and couldn't wait for this fourth one to come out. Now that I've read it, my only complaint is that the book wasn't longer! Certain plot lines look like they may be wrapping up, but in true Martin fashion, there's no clear outlook as to what will happen. I love it how it sets up things so you expect one thing and are then blindsided by another. I'm looking forward to book five; part of me wants that to be the last, so I can see how this all ends, but another part of me doesn't want it to end yet. 26 December 05 Wow, it's already after 2:00. What a nice lazy morning (afternoon?) after a couple of busy days. Frederick is currently downstairs assembling the remote-controlled robotic centipede I got him for Xmas. Yay, I think I chose his present well! For the second year in a row, we spent Christmas Eve Day in Monterey. We explored the MB Aquarium all afternoon, checked into our hotel in time for a nap, then went out again for dinner & drinks. We then returned to our room to spend Xmas Eve in front of a fire, while listening to the waves crash on the beach beneath our window. Wonderful! Yesterday, on the drive back from Monterey, we stopped in San Jose for dinner with my aunt, a selection of cousins and extended family, and my parents. Tonight we head down to my parents for a small family dinner with them and another cousin, who arrived last night from Ottawa.  Pictures from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 22 December 05 I've been getting into music again, and that makes me happy! I've bought some great stuff lately, and now that I've got On that note, January will mark six years since I retired from the music scene. That after a dozen years of radio and club DJing, plus an additional three or so years of involvement with the local music scene. Wow. Do I miss it? Yes and no. I certainly miss the good nights out spinning, when all my friends were there, the crowd cheered the music, and I was happily dancing and singing in the booth. I don't miss having to spend six or more hours at a club, one, two, or three nights a week, every week, whether I wanted to or not. I don't miss being pressured into playing the same crap songs week after week, and being pressured to not play cool and obscure stuff. And I certainly don't miss all of the bullshit associated with the club scene. In the meantime I'll just be sitting over here shaking my cane at these kids nowadays and their synthpoop music that's nothing like what we listened to in the good ol' days. 21 December 05 Wheee! As of last night, I am done with school for the year! I've got confirmed "A"s in two classes, plus honors credit for one of those classes, and I should have an "A" in the third class as well. Yay! Last week I had a lazy day sitting around the house eating the proverbial bon-bons. But I can't do very much of that or I'll go stir-crazy. So now it's time to get working on All Those Things I Never Had Time To Do Before. There are only four days left until And the best news is, after tonight, the days will begin getting longer again! 12 December 05 After letting it mull about in my head for a week, I have decided to change my major to Zoology. It just seems like the correct choice. I'm in the midst of phone calls to SFSU to redirect my application to the Biology department. I will miss this chance to become more knowledgeable about medicine and first aid, but I won't regret it. In exchange, I get to study what really interests me. Last Thursday I went to the zoo and submitted my volunteer application. I'm currently waiting for a call back from them so I can begin volunteering again. However, due to their current schedule and staffing, it may be a few weeks before I can actually start working there. Although I'm technically not yet finished with this semester of school, I am at a point where I have nothing to do (!!). I had my Statistics final last Thursday, and am now done with that class. I have my last English class tomorrow night; we'll be assigned our final paper then, and I'll have a week to write that. My Nutrition final is Thursday, but that'll be easy. In the meantime, I'm luxuriating in a day with no deadlines, no appointments, and nothing in particular that needs to be done. 5 December 05 I am currently at a crossroads in my academic career, and I have been giving serious thought to changing my major and my final goal. My situation has changed dramatically from three years ago when I decided to go back to school, and because of this, some of the criteria I used to make decisions concerning my academic goal have changed as well. My real love is biology, specifically zoology, although anatomy and first aid also interest me very much. When I was thinking of going back to school, I was single and poor, and wanted some sort of biology-related career that would pay the bills, so I chose nursing. But I chose this, in part, because nursing would pay the bills. Now I am not only no longer single, but I am with someone who is encouraging me to go after what I really want in life, and that's what's been on my mind lately. I am interested in (some aspects of) nursing. Maybe it's just because I watched too much M*A*S*H growing up, but I had planned to go into ER/trauma nursing. Frankly, the thought of saving lives in a high-pressure, do-or-die environment sounds pretty cool. And I'm halfway there - 2.5 years of school to go, plus a state board exam, and I've got a B.S./R.N. degree. Oh, but then there's the continuing education I'd need every year, plus the grunt work I'd have to do as a new graduate, working my way up the totem pole, plus additional education and certification were I ever to move elsewhere, and so on. Even with nursing as my primary goal, I've wanted to take zoology classes, and, if possible, get an additional zoology degree. So, why not just go with what I really want and make zoology my new academic goal? Attaining my B.S. in zoology would set my academic timeline back just slightly; it'd take about three years instead of two-and-a-half, so that's not bad. What's scary is that now I'd need an additional: one year of chemistry, one year of calculus, and one year of physics. And that's only scary because up until now I hadn't planned on taking those classes. I'm one of those people who really does want to do everything she says she's going to do; I can't stand it when someone says they'll do something, but they never follow through. So part of me feels like I have to get that nursing degree, just because I've been saying I would. I have to be very sure I want the zoology degree before I officially change my major. I've already applied for nursing school; I'm one of approximately 800 applicants for 80 available positions, and I'm confident I will be admitted. So giving up that opportunity is a big deal. I just have to be sure it's what I really want. 2 December 05 A couple of weeks ago we went out for drinks with Susan and a friend of hers. Her friend is an avid diver and dive instructor who also does a lot of technical (decompression & rebreather) diving. He and I talked a bit about diving, and I realized just how much I've missed it. In the weeks since then, I've been reading a few of the Scuba Diving magazines I have sitting around, looking longingly at the beautiful underwater scenery. I am SO READY to go on a week-long dive trip. I haven't done a significant amount of diving since I was in Fiji in 1999-2000, and it's been two years since I've been in warm water. Today I spent a bit of time researching dive locales. Yeah, there are a bazillion places where I'd love to go, but right now the Galapagos Islands are at the top of my list. You can swim with penguins there - how cool is that?! (They've got trips coming up at the end of June and beginning of July; does anyone want to go?) Frederick isn't (yet) certified to dive, but it's only a matter of time before he tries scuba. I really hope he enjoys it. Diving is such a passion with me, and I really want to be able to share it with the person I love. 1 December 05 I live in San Francisco. This is a city renowned for both the quality and quantity of its restaurants. This is also a city that is famous for its tolerance of people of assorted persuasions and convictions. So why is it so damned hard to get a vegetarian meal around here? Sure, there are a handful of restaurants catering to vegetarians, and some even to vegans, but most restaurants serve entrees centered around meat. And it's not even that I don't eat meat (I do, although not a whole lot), but when I go out to eat, I don't want to have to eat meat. But I'd say the majority of restaurants have on their menus a limited selection of vegetarian fare, and that's often just one token dish. And then there's a very good chance that token dish contains something like horrible mushrooms, which I just won't eat. I think half the reason I eat meat is just so I'll be able to eat something when I go to a restaurant. Why aren't restaurants, especially here in SF, more vegetarian-friendly? 1 December 05 Hrm, I can't decide what's worse... Riding my motorcycle to school in the rain, when I'm all bundled up in rain gear, but have to deal with constantly wiping the faceshield of my helmet so I can see, and then lugging around all that sopping wet gear for the rest of the day, or Driving my car to school, which means the lower half of my pants get wet, and I have to walk further from where I've parked, but it's safer and probably less hassle. I don't mind the rain, I just wish it was better timed. 26 November 05 I'm eating leftover Thanksgiving food for breakfast, yum! The best thing about having T-Day dinner at your house is that you get to eat all of the leftovers. Since I was a teenager, I've always loved making Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, I usually make a couple of full-blown turkey-with-trimmings dinners each year, because once a year just isn't enough. This year Frederick and I had my parents over, and I made: Roasted spiced pecans & warm spiced apple cider (appetizer) Brined organic roast turkey (so moist and tender!) Traditional bread stuffing Sourdough stuffing with spinach, apples and raisins Smashed blue potatoes with sour cream Chipotle mashed yams Green beans with sauteed onions and vermouth Cranberry sauce (well, that's the only thing I didn't make) Grandma's recipe pumpkin pie Yeah, it takes an entire day to make a meal, but then you can eat that meal for the next several days, so it evens out. Somewhere around Sunday evening I'll need to start cooking again. 21 November 05 My new mantra: Three and a half more weeks.It's going to be a long three and a half weeks. 17 November 05 About a year and a half ago, Angela and I took a ride to see a rodeo down in La Honda and take some photos. I shot a couple rolls of B&W film, came home, and promptly forgot about them. I came across that film this past week and decided to have it developed. Here's a link to a few of the best shots.  Yee-haw! 17 November 05 I saw a beautiful thing today - a woman driving down the street, one hand pressing her cell phone to the side of her head, and the other hand shading her eyes from the sun. Darwin, where are you when we need you?! Oh wait, that's right, There's a joke I like: "Lawyers are upsetting the balance of natural selection." (Although I guess that can now be amended to read, "Lawyers and half the American population.") Please tell me why it isn't illegal to use a cell phone and drive at the same time? And why have I seen cops doing just that? 11 November 05 I've just put some photos up of Front 242 at the DNA last Sunday. 
9 November 05 Okay, I made a decision to not take any classes next semester. But my brain seems to have interpreted that as, "I don't have to do any more work right now!" Which is a bit of a problem, as I still have another month left in this current semester, with papers to write, studying to be done, and tests to take. But my attention span is getting shorter every minute! I am not really in the right mood to analyze Shakespeare right now. Maybe it's time to have a beer! 9 November 05 I try to be as open-minded as possible, and look at all sides of an issue. In fact, I find examining opposing view(s) often helps me to better understand my own position. However, when examining an issue I look at facts, not at hearsay. And that brings me to an issue which I've been seeing a lot of references to lately - evolution vs. creationism. I am aware of countless facts supporting evolution. (By "supporting" or "proof" I mean that educated teams of scientists have not been able to disprove the evidence presented.) The more I learn about science and biology, physiology and anatomy, the more I see how we have evolved from and are related to the organisms around us. A quick search provided this partial list of evidence in support of evolution:
I wonder how the majority of Americans can ignore hard facts and proven scientific evidence in favour of what is essentially hearsay. I wonder how, in a country that is claims freedom of religion, people can get away with basing their teachings on Judeo-Christian beliefs. I wonder why people aren't strong enough to think for themselves. 7 November 05 This morning I went and dropped off some film to be processed. Yes, film! After spending the last week hanging out with so many friends and their nice cameras and lenses, I got a serious case of Camera Envy. So last night I dusted off the SLR and used it for the first time in 2+ years. I wanted to use my SLR because it has a 75-300mm zoom, which I needed as I was shooting a concert (my kingdom for an f2.8 high-power zoom!), and because I wanted to cross-process one of my rolls of film. It turns out slide film is impossible to find at 10pm on a Sunday night, so I shot a roll of normal color film, intending to have it cross-processed as E6 slide film. But sadly, I discovered this morning that Photoworks doesn't cross-process C41 to E6; just the other way around. Poop. I suppose I can just tweak colors in Photoshop, but that's cheating. 6 November 05 That excited feeling I spoke of a few days ago is still with me, and I'm quite happy to have it be a part of me. Right now I feel like I'm on top of the world, surrounded by so many wonderful people, with a bright, shiny future in front of me. There's so much I want to learn and do and do for people that I feel just like a little kid. Life is good. 3 November 05 I've been feeling very excited the past day or so. I've got some things going on that make me very happy, and just last night I made a decision regarding my schedule for the first part of next year. Since SF State University doesn't want me to attend in Spring, I've decided to not fight it, and just take a semester off from school. I've been taking classes for 2.5 years and I'm not burnt out yet, but I can feel it coming, and I still have another 2.5 years to go. So, since I don't *need* to take any classes, I won't. There is a long list of things I can do to keep me occupied. I will volunteer at the zoo again because I really enjoy working with the animals. I'll have plenty of time to go to the gym regularly, do a lot of cooking, and finish the million and one projects going on around here (and then start some new ones). But most importantly, it will give me more time to spend with friends. I've been a bit of a recluse these last few years. Some of that has to do with spending a lot of time with my spousal equivalent, but a lot of it has to do with school - between class hours and homework hours, it is like having a full-time job, but more taxing and with more deadlines. So yeah, I'm excited. Starting in mid-December I'll be done with school (until ~September) and ready to do fun stuff instead! 1 November 05 The only time I've ever won a contest was in third grade, when I somehow won a gift certificate to a charm school. (Anyone who knows me well will laugh at the thought of a little me attending charm school.) Needless to say, I did not go. Why would I want to do icky girl things when I could instead play in the dirt with my favourite red and yellow Tonka dumptruck? This memory popped into my head this afternoon when, in a fifteen minute span of time, I accidentally: stuck my pencil up my nose, stabbed my fingernail into my cheek, then poked myself in the eye with my key as I was putting on my helmet. Maybe charm school wouldn't have been such a bad idea afterall. 26 October 05 I'm back on the air! DJ Lucretia has emerged from retirement and is now working with SomaFM! My current project is Soma Haunt, a channel of dark, spooky (not goth!) music for Halloween, which launched just minutes ago. Give it a listen. 24 October 05 A few months back I joined Flickr. A month ago I heard about this cool project, A Day on Earth, where on one day - 29 September 05 - people from around the world were to take a photo and submit it to the group. I took a photo and submitted it. And just this morning I see that it has been published in a Chinese newspaper, in an article about the photo project! Fun! According to Google's translation service, the caption says something like, "Very big one frozen foods." It certainly was a very yummy one frozen foods. 24 October 05 Despite years of trying, I haven't been able to stop aging. One of the ways I've noticed getting I've been getting older is the fact I need less sleep than I did several years ago. I've never been a morning person. As a child, I would have rather stayed in bed and slept than get up and open Christmas presents. As an adult, I'd need nine hours a night in order not to feel tired the next day, and if I could get more than that I was in heaven. And on weekends, the only time I was awake at 8am was if I hadn't yet gone to bed. Honestly, on weekends I often slept until noon, and loved it. But in the last few years, something changed. Now I seem to be fine on eight, or sometimes even seven, hours of sleep. And once my brain turns on in the morning and I begin thinking about stuff, there's no way I can go back to sleep. Considering I usually fall asleep about midnight, well, you do the math. Although I'll never consider myself a morning person, it sure is nice to have all this extra time in the day to do things. 22 October 05 Today I went diving for the first time in two years! I dove Monterey with my friend Dan while his girlfriend Karine finished up her certification classes. We had two nice (albeit cold) dives, and I saw several neon orange anemones, a couple of shrimp, many cute hermit crabs, a flatfish (sole? c-o turbot?) I hadn't seen before, and a big male sheep crab. As I got up at 5 this morning to drive two hours, put on 50 lbs. of restrictive gear, and immerse myself in 53°F water, I kept wondering why in the hell I was doing this. Then when I finally got in the ocean and began swimming around, I remembered just how much I love diving. I do love diving, but I guess I'm just not that into cold-water diving. But give me 85° water with a reef, tropical fish, and a bunch of sharks, and you might not get me out of the water! This summer, I'm heading to the tropics. 20 October 05 The best graffiti I've seen in a long time: The CCSF motto of "The truth will make you free" was changed to "The truth will make you freak out." 17 October 05 I just dropped off my application for Nursing School. Wish me luck. I'll hear back from SFSU in ... oh, Spring or Summer, they say. In the meantime I'll just sit and twiddle my thumbs, I guess. Since I'll be done with the last of my prerequisites & GE classes in December, I was planning on taking some biology classes at State this coming Spring semester. I have already applied to and been accepted by SFSU as a biology major. But get this: since I haven't yet started taking classes, I have been told that in order to be considered by the Nursing Department, I have to NOT attend Spring semester, and instead reapply for Fall 2006. Apparently, they don't want me to learn more, they don't want me to further my education, and they don't want to take my money. What a load of crap. What will I do if I can't take classes at State in Spring? About the only thing left for me to take at City is more chemistry classes. Chem is interesting, but more classes won't really help me in my academic career, nor will they help me towards the minor degree in Biology I am still hoping to attain. If I don't take any classes (or maybe even if I have a light schedule), I want to volunteer at the zoo again. I miss working there. Ooh, and maybe I'll have time to go to the gym regularly. In other news, happy 16th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Quake. 11 October 05 I am taking three classes this term: the 2nd semester of University Reading & Comprehension, Introduction to Nutrition, and Statistics for Behavioral Science. The latter two are creeping along at a snail's pace. But to some of my fellow students, even this speed (or lack thereof) is too frenetic. And this afternoon, as I was working on crossword puzzles while the teacher explained an item yet again, I started thinking about why I haven't made any real friends in school. I'm in college. I'm surrounded by kids much younger than me. If I'm going to seek out friends, I want them to be close to my age, so that rules out most of the student population. But today I realized the real reason I have trouble making friends - there are a lot of stupid people at my school, and I don't like to be around stupid people. Is it wrong to say I don't want stupid friends? In a way, no. It's really no different than saying I don't want to be friends with gang members, or evangelistical preachers. But in a way it is different. By labeling someone as "stupid," or "not as intelligent as I'd like them to be," or whatever, I am judging them. And judging is supposed to be bad. But we judge people all the time, usually without even realizing it. Hell, we have the friends we do because we've judged them to be "worthy," and vice-versa. So where do you draw the line? Is it between judging and prejudice? And why can't there be more smart people in the world? 7 October 05 I'm in an odd limbo state right now, somewhere between wide awake and tired. I don't feel sleepy, yet I don't have quite enough energy to do anything. I suppose I could just go to bed now and read, but there are so many things I need to do, and I just want to get as much done as possible. As a child, I never wanted to go to sleep. (I also never wanted to get up in the morning, but that's a different story.) Every night when I went to bed I read, and I usually ran out of reading time before I ran out of books. I have a stack of books right now that are just waiting their turn: I'm finishing Gibson's Idoru (fun, light read), Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is up next, and today the nice UPS man just delivered two guides to identifying mammal skulls, as well as A Manual of Mammalogy with Keys to Families of the World (hey, I think it's interesting!). Next trip to the bookstore I'm going to pick up Miéville's Iron Council, and maybe I'll try one of George R.R. Martin's horror stories as well. I will certainly buy the remaining Song of Fire and Ice volumes as soon as they come out. So why am I writing this instead of reading something? Good question. I think I'll go and correct the error of my ways. |
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