Femion

Gazette #2

Oh no, I'm totally livejournalling now!

Your Geek Profile:

Music Geekiness: High SciFi Geekiness: High Fashion Geekiness: Moderate General Geekiness: Moderate Academic Geekiness: Low Geekiness in Love: Low Internet Geekiness: Low Gamer Geekiness: None Movie Geekiness: None

I know, this is the second post of the week that has come from a service like blogthings. It's all because of reading my friend Joi's livejournal. I'm addicted.
This does sort of prove a point. There are a lot of geeks in my dorm, but not the same sort of geeks as me. They're Movie and Gaming geeks, whereas I am a sci-fi geek.

On another note, I can hear screaming from accross the street, or maybe it's from the room above me. Strange.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Sorry I'm late.
Love Catherine

It came from Lebanon

And ended up in Canada, where Canadian content laws earned its music much more money and airtime than it deserved. It called itself Massari, which means money, cut its beard into a small pencil line which is supposed to be attractive, and, with the help of a very expensive prop department (complete with flashing LED belt buckle and spinning necklace) it called itself a superstar.
We end up with this, the crap music video being broadcast all the time on Muchmusic:
Massari ft. Belly: Rush the Floor

Massari, Massari, Massari, who do you think you're kidding? You're not rich. You're not sexy. You probably wouldn't be able to get those beautiful women in your video in real life, and you'll probably never own even 50 per cent of the wealth 50 cent has. You're in Toronto. Admit it. I saw the Canadian bills Belly dropped and the reflection of the Lord of the Rings in the car window.
Once again, modern rap proves itself to be only about image: a cheesy one.

A V. S. E.

(Very Scientific Experiment)

Please help me inflate my ego by filling out my Johari Window.

Yip Yip Yip!

Although I loved Sesame Street as a child almost as much as I loved Barney, these Martians used to terrify me. They come through the walls! At night! They look so creepy! And all they say is "Yip yip yip!".
When I was younger, I had a stained-glass mirror across from my bed. One night, I remember having a nightmare that I had woken up, and in the mirror I could see the martians coming in and out, saying:
Yip yip yip Cathy unhuh unhuh yip yip yip alone unhuh unhuh yip yip yip...

Putting the Newspaper Where My Mouth Is

But Not actually. Because then I'd be choking. And it would taste gross.

My first submission for the Dalhousie Gazette (the website seems to be down this week). Apparently science is under "opinions" now. Oh well.

Rolling Over The Stones

This is Chris Murphy. He is the lead singer of Sloan. So why is the lead singer of Sloan warning you to wear sensible shoes? Well, because he assumes that you are going to the biggest rock concert in the history of Nova Scotia, being held tonight on the Halifax Commons. A concert for which he is an opening act, along with Kanye West and Alice Cooper. It's the Rolling Something-or-others. Unfortunately, it is pouring out right now, and the concert is being held on the Halifax Commons.

Here's a picture I took of the giantic stage being set up from the bus to Conrad Beach yesterday. That's right, Commons as in the public green space that should not be allowed to be rented out to for-profit event, no matter how much money it brings in for the city.
As you can tell, I'm not going. I almost forgot about the concert all together, except that last night at 9pm, as I was walking down Spring Garden Road, I noticed a huge crowd outside of the Lord Nelson. That's where the Rolling Stones were staying, and someone said that they had rented out a floor for each member of the band. I was out on Spring Garden Road last night because Andy took me to see Fat Girls, part of the Atlantic Film Festival.

The movie was hilarious, even more so than Mean Girls.
But coming back into Eliza at twelve last night, I learned just how much of a nerd I really am.
The Rolling Stones concert means an influx of guests in Halifax, and with the hotels pretty much booked up, a lot of people in the dorms are letting their high school friends stay in their dorm rooms with them. So, there has been a special sign in sheet for guests this weekend in order to let me stay. When we came in the door, the security guard didn't recognize me and asked me to sign in as Andy's guest. The security guard doesn't recognize me because I never walk by the entrance when she's around i.e. Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening and night, because I never go out.
Quite a partier, aren't I?

Back to the Beach

This afternoon we DISPers went back to the beach, this time as biologists, searching for the species and habitats of the beach, rather than the physics and geology.

We walked through the dunes, cataloguing the grasses of and their distance from the shore. It's Ammophila arenaria and Cakile maritima not just that tall beach grass and those beach flowers.

Amy and Paul relaxing on the beach between stations. Next we had to head inlands to document the change in plant life in distance from the coast. We accidently head right in the direction of a bee nest. Another, less fortunate group warned us before we got too close, but Lana still got stung.

We ended near a swamp and dug for invertebrates.

Worm farmer Michael.

Green Crab, Red Crab.

Finally, a Gangsta Rapper I can identify with

This is a crap music/good music entry. First: the target:
Chamillionaire: Ridin' Dirty

In this video, Chamillionaire tries to show that the glamourous thug life is much like a wresting match: it's all fake.

Now, the parody:
Weird Al: White and Nerdy

This video is awesome for so many reasons:
1. It's Weird Al
2. It's Weird Al parodying music that I've seen on muchmusic
3. The two gangsters have the same reaction to Al that rappers say white people have of them.
4. "Only question I/Ever thought was hard/Was do I like Kirk/Or do I like Picard"
5. He's got a Segwey
6. He looks a lot like Kevin Federline
7. He's got a "Carl Sagan is my homeboy" t-shirt
8. Straight Outta Lynwood is coming out on September 26

Sweet Lady Irony!

The fire alarm went off on campus for the fourth time. Eliza Ritchie Hall, at 2:50 am, we had to evacuate to the street even though most of us were wearing pjamas or boxer shorts or bathrobes, even though it was pouring rain.
Surprisingly, there were many people who seemed unaffected by the alarm. The hard-core partiers, (those people who always seem to be drinking, no matter what time or where) had just returned to their rooms from their excursion. The gym rats were already up, dressed, and waiting for Dalplex to open. A few of the comp sci students had insomnia and were awake anyway, playing video games. But most of us, like me, were trying to sleep, because we have classes this morning (like my 8:30 Physics lab).
The firetruck arrived, and three very sleepy looking firemen walked in, walked out, and then again, so we knew it wasn't a drill. Ten-fifteen minutes later we were allowed back in, without any apparent fire damage to the building. There was some speculation as to the cause of the fire alarm. It could have been two people having sex in the shower (because the humidity sets the alarm off) or it could be that someone pulled the alarm accidently. However, in the small group of evacuees outside, no couple seemed terribly embarrased or naked. The electricity was not reset, so it probably wasn't someone pulling the alarm.
Once returned to bed, I fell right back to sleep and dreamt of another high school ceremony where Laird ate some steel Jell-O and got very sick. I also dreamt that I went on a family trip to a monkey farm, and while we were there the monkeys learned to talk and revolted against the humans.
I know the fire alarm wasn't a dream, though, because this morning my slippers are soggy and covered in leaves and grass.

Evacuation Number 3!

That's right, last night was the third fire alarm to go off on the Dal Campus in the past few days. This one was big enough to make the local news:

Taken from the Chronical Herald, September 19th, 2006.
Shirreff Hall is the closest dorm to Eliza Ritchie. I eat most of my meals there, and since the fire caused the dishwasher to malfunction, we had to eat on styrofoam plates today. It could have been worse. I've got friends in Shirreff hall who had to stay outside until 10:00 PM. The weather wasn't bad, but they lost all that time that they could have been studying for their first DISP test of the year.
Lucky them, they have an excuse.

Winston's new friend...

...needs to learn some manners. The human head is not a suitable toilet.
Pierre visited me at university today. We talked about school and university and life in Antigonowhere and life at Dalhousie. It was really nice to see him. I hope he got to his piano lesson on time.
Then, I went to the public gardens with Andy. After that, we went down spring garden road and went in a few shops. We ended up where this statue is, at the public library. I think I'm in love with their music collection, but I'm sure I'll have taken out everything of interest by next month. We took the bus home, but not before missing what we thought was the right stop, getting out on the wrong stop but realizing our mistake just in time. We could've been stuck at St. Mary's, the wrong university.

The weather was really hot. It felt like summer, like we were on a holiday. Now I've got to finish those online physics and chemistry assignments. Way to ruin my vacation, DISP.

Conrad Beach Trip

Second field trip, this time to Conrad Beach. It was sunny and the weather was very nice. Only the earth science DISP students got to go, so all the future doctors in the programme won't get to go until next week.

This morning we had the most boring Chemistry Lab ever. All we did was take endless weight measurements to demonstrate the limitations of electronic balances. It was so monotonous that I think I hypnotised myself while standing up, endlessly reading off numbers.

Professor Graves, the Earth Sciences teacher, is so charismatic and energetic. I could totally see him starting a cult in his retirement.

Seaweed. The point of this field trip was to learn about the effect of ice-age glaciers and the interaction of waves on the shape of the Nova Scotian coast.

I never knew I would be in a situation where I would get sand in my calculator.

Barenaked Ladies are Easy

Barenaked Ladies: Easy

It's bad music week, but I am putting up the latest video of one of my favourite bands, The Barenaked Ladies, to celebrate that their new CD, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, was released this week.
To be honest, I think the video is strange and the song is so-so, but I can forgive them.

Arts and Crafts with Science Students

Do you remember those rainy days in your childhood when your mom or dad pulled out a craft kit to subdue you? Do you remember this one, where you were expected to layer coloured sand in a plastic bottle in order to make some sort of "one-of-a-kind" "tasteful" paper weight?

I remember them. I remember what happened to them after the rainy days, too. They'd end up under my bed, all mixed up and muddy-coloured, because I'd accidently shaken it (of course I'd always say that I'd intended it that way).
Well, when you get to university, you get a second chance. In our first lab, today, we observed the interaction between different types of sand for Earth Sciences. Instead of a bottle, we used an ant farm.

Lana and Kathryn dump in sand and water.
I'd expain why we were doing this, but to be honest, the end result is an awful lot more interesting than they actual science behind it.

Toga Times Three

Alex, Hailee and Jillian, and Nicholas (plus Chris in the background of the last picture).
The Toga Party was on Saturday night (as you can tell, I'm about two days behind on my blog entries). My parents are upset because I only blog about parties. Well, this one is educational. I learned that guys somehow know how to tie togas pretty darn well. I learned that I look ridiculous in a toga because a) I'm too short for the sheet, and b) I didn't want to take off my T-Shirt(that's why there's no picture of me). I learned that it is very difficult to dance with a toga around your legs. I learned what many of their dorm-mates are using their DSU gift Nalgeen bottles; they cover them with duct tape and to meet the criteria for consuming booze outside their rooms.

I also learned that Toga parties are probably much more fun for drunk people.

Frosh Prt 2: Initiation

I go in to take a shower on Saturday morning and I find pineapple chunks on the floor.

There is also a pool of water with some oatmeal floating around, along with ketchup and mustard and who knows what else sprayed on the walls. They are the remains of initiation on Friday, where all of the new Eliza Ritchians were forced to: watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the dark with the volume full blast for two hours, then do an elephant walk blindfolded through the dark. Then there were two stations where we were given the choice of ingesting an unknown substance or dumping it over our head. The first station was a glass of Grapefruit juice mixed with Tabasco sauce; the second was some strange concoction of canned olives, cottage cheese, canned pineapple, oatmeal, and of course, Tabasco sauce. How do I know this? Because I chose ingest at both stations. It was extremely revolting for a few seconds but it turned out to be the better choice. Returning to the story, they made us elephant walk up the stairs and outside, while still blindfolded. They hung wet ribbons from the stairs and told us that if we kept our heads too high we’d hit something really gross. To make matters worse, the leader of our elephant walk train had been drinking while we were waiting, and by the time we finally got to go, she was super drunk. To end it all off, we were pelted with ketchup and mustard and told to demonstrate our Frosh names for the RAs. Frosh names are things they assigned to us on the first day at Eliza. Each freshman has one, and when called upon they may, by their own choice, do an embarrassing action in public. Some names were Dog In Heat Frosh, Air Guitar Frosh, Temper Tantrum Frosh, etc. I was Airplane Frosh. I was supposed to run around with my arms out, making airplane noises, but when I was called, with all that Tabasco sauce gushing around in my stomach, I didn’t think excessive movement was a good idea. So, I turned around, yelled “Oh no, a terrorist!” and ran right into the side of the building. (In retrospect, this isn’t exactly a good joke to tell on the eve of 9/11)

After all that torture, everyone made a mad dash for the showers, but the jokes weren’t done. The RA’s had smeared the handles to the bathrooms with Vaseline, and while people were using the showers they went around and flicked the lights on and off. However, since I had wisely chosen to eat instead of wear, I could got to sleep and take a shower in the morning. With pineapple chunks on the floor.

The Frosh become freshman. To be honest, it was actually much more amusing than it was painful. I now understand why ninth graders put up with having peanut butter smeared on their faces or participating in drag shows. It’s solidarity, not indignity.

The pineapple chunks have disappeared. But the ketchup smears on the hallways remain.

The 2006 Eliza Milk Contest

As they sang O Canada on the mattress field in front of Eliza for the soccer game versus St. FX, we gathered near the beach volleyball court. The challenge: to drink four litres of milk (at least one for every fifteen minutes) and keep it down until the end of the hour.

It started off okay. They stayed in the shade and drank the first two. Fido started showing off. He chugged two litres of chocolate milk in the sun. He was the first to puke.

I was rooting for my friend Chris, a fellow freshman and the smallest of the contestants. He brought a whole pack of oreos to make the experience a bit more bareable. He ended up puking after two litres and a fifth.
Then, they all started, one after the other:

Yellow. (Chris didn't actually dye his milk, he just had orange juice for brunch.)

Blue.

Chocolate.

Purple.

Red.

Green. This guy, Sean was the last to go, three minutes before the hour was up. He was so close! He survived by drinking the first two litres very early on and gradually working on the last two, and staying sit in the shade.

Here are the reactions of my friends, Mary, Kelsey, Tina, and Andy.

Now, before you accuse me of being a juvenile and crude adolescent, let me remind you that I did not participate.

This is what university students do. They go on field trips

I am in the Dalhousie Integrated Science Program. I take nine classes and my schedule runs from nine to five most days (sometimes even later), but I get to go on field trips. This first field trip was really interesting. We had to get to a specific place in Point Pleasant Park from Dalhousie at a certain time, and the fact that the entire class managed to get there without any direction is quite a testament to the character of the students in the class. DISP is all about team work, so we were split up into teams and sent on a challenge. It was a lot like the Quest weekend for Pathfinders. We had to walk around a course through the around the park, and our Professors were at certain locations with questions relating to their subject. For example, our Calculus Prof was at the Martello tower, where we had to do things like predict the surface area and volume of the tower, and the amount of bricks it took to build it. Other things we had to do was to observe the behaviour of ducks and seagulls, and measure the direction of the glacial track marks on the rocks of the park. At the end, there was a BBQ set up where we got to talk to the previous DISPers. It was fun.

Milton Graves, the Earth Sciences Prof, briefs the DISPers.


Black Rock Beach, where the course started.


My team, #1. (in name, hopefully in position, too!) Lana, Cherie, Amy and Katherine.

A dragonfly near the duck pond.

Laird's in the Gazette

Already a legend.

Quadless Concert

This Thursday music post is delayed because last night I went to the Frosh week concert. I was up in the front row and the view was awesome although I may have damaged my ears. (I promise I won't do it again, mom.)
Pilot Speed: Barely Listening

The Chronicles were band fronted by a rapper and singer. They play progressive reggae and rap.
Cuff The Duke was an interesting band. They sounded like country music but they had a xylophone, synthesizer and two electric keyboards. I think they were my favourite.
Uncut was a basic warm up band. Loud, fast tempo, and terrible vocals; I didn't really like them.
Pilot Speed was the lead act. I wasn't expecting much from this band because they used to be called Pilate and I found tons of copies of their second CD in the two dollar bin at a record store. I was pleasantly surprised.

Frosh prt 1

I'm at university now, in case you didn't know. I've been busy with Frosh week activities, so I don't know how often I'll update in the next couple of weeks. I'm doing fine but I'm still trying to get used to life here.

Shinerama was today. It's a day where all the university freshmen accross Canada go out and shine (beg) for money for cystic fibrosis. We were out in front of the Sobey's near Fenwick Tower from 10 to 4 today. We didn't simply ask for money, no. We had two gimmicks: Gunshow Frosh had his shirt stolen and had written "donate to help me get my clothes back" on his chest with a permenant marker. He said that he had old women trying to grope him, but he made something like 150$. Chad, the president of my dorm, Eliza Ritchie, was taped to a collumn above the air with packing tape and duct tape, and he stayed up there for two and a half hours. We got 250$ out of that, but when he was finally cut down he blacked out for a couple of minutes.

Standing outside a supermarket all day is a very interesting experience. You can sort of predict how long people are going to spend shopping. If it's a parent with a child, it's an hour; if it's a group of young-looking people, it's ten to fifteen minutes (they're only going in for booze and snacks); if it's older people by themselves, you can expect almost three hours. Interesting people hang out around the entrance, too. There's the strange woman who spends half an hour smoking on a bench near the cigarette store, only to appear again in another couple of hours. There was that strange half male half female seventy year old in the pencil skirt and stillettos who also appeared several times during the day. But the strangest experience of the day was when a strange man came up to me and asked if he could throw a knife at Chad on the collumn for money. I thought he was joking, but he kept on repeating his demand. He said that if Chad was really dedicated to his cause, he would be willing to risk his life. The knife man sort of scared me for a while, but he ended up giving four dollars with no knife throwing.

What my parents will be thinking tomorrow...

Pacific

Santa Cruz, California. The profile is Jeff Grub.
This didn't turn out as I had planned.