Words So Leisured

Continue on with my obsession with Franz Ferdinand: one of their tracks on the bonus disc called "Words So Leisured", which has the same tune and almost the same lyrics as "Darts of Pleasure", is just way too cool. It's very different from the stuff on the rest of the album. Mainly piano and guitar accompany, and the vocal got rid of the garage rock voice and sing the whole song with a deep sexy tone. Almsot jazz like and just way too nice to be stuck as being on the "bonus disc". :P

Anyway. Watched little babies having EEG taken this morning. The little baby is just oh so cute. I tried very hard not to baby talk to him. He's a healthy one, they just need to test the equiptment rather than testing him. It's just peaceful, watching him sleep. Okay so the "electrodes are stuck to his head part" might make it just ever so slightly less cute but still. I also got told I'm not going to be allowed to setup the equiptment, which means I can't actually touch the babies. Ah well.

Starting to get hungry again... don't like early starts.

Early start?!

ARGH! Just got an email from my psuedo-boss that he wants to meet me at the hospital at 8am to see a baby having EEG taken. It's for my PhD thesis, got no excuse to get out of it besides "it's too early" which isn't a nice excuse. So I guess it's early day for me tomorrow then.

I'm too used to waking up at noon now. Bugger. Really need to re-adjust my body clock. That's the problem with doing research, and scheduling your own time. Although once I have the laptop hopefully that means I can work wherever I want and I might start to force myself going to work or to uni.

Really need to get the working habbit up and running again... yikes!

Lazy Tuesday

Woke up at noon today. It's like all the energy has been drained out of me. But if my supervisor is happy about my progress, maybe I had almost reached enlightenment, and maybe I can take a wee break.

Oh, CD review time:

I bought the Lazy Sunday box set the other day. And it's worth every cent I spent! Anyone who likes jazz and blues it's perfect for them. The box set has 6 CDs, big names include Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, the lot. It also got instrumental tracks for people who like instrumental stuff better. It's the kinda tracks you can just pop into your CD player, and loop it and sit back and relax. Man I wish I have a multi CD changer, pop the lot in and that's my day's worth of music done. :D

Another CD I like to advertise is Franz Ferdinand. Petey got that one for me and after I've listened to Dark of the Martinee for the umpteenth time I've decided to just hit shuffle and repeat all. I think I might have found my next favourite band. No it's not just because of the Scottish accent that they might have (It's so nice though. *sigh*.... *ahem* anyway). They're quirky, they're just so charmingly unique.

Anyway, that's all the review I'm gonna do for a while. Not like I can write much about music anyway. I know what I like but it's hard to put into words. Probably better if I start working.. err.. soonish :P

The meaning of Life

It's almost 10:30. I've been in uni for more than an hour
and a half. I just read a few pages of Craccum. I have a
box a milky green tea and a milo energy bar on my desk.
The equations on the wall are looking more and more like
a collection of squiggles, staring back at me almost
mockingly. I know I should start working soon. I really
should. Then again, if I rather read Craccum, of all things,
than working, I doubt I'll start working anytime soon.

Anyway. Spoilers to follow for the movie Nemesis Game. Don't
say I didn't warn you.

Watched Nemesis Game last night. Pretty good movie if not
just a bit strange, and loose ended if I may say. I still
think they could've done a bit better on the whole meaning
of life thing. I think it's a good concept that's not
carried far enough. Playing a riddle game in search of the
meaning of life sounded to me like it can go far. Although,
I suppose the main point (or the lack of it) is there.

Rather a pathetic point of view isn't it? Predetermined fate
is something I've been reluctant to accept. Maybe I'm too
afraid to think of the implication. The idea that whatever
you do is part of the big plan and you have no control of it
is rather terrifying. It's also irresponsible. Although,
sometimes when you look at life, it does at times seems like
they're all pieces of a puzzle. They all fit together to show
where you are now. Is it a matter of cause and effect? Or is
it all in a plan?

How about if we just focus on what's really important, rather
than speculate on the meaning of life?

Limpy

Okay, the story goes I was early to lunch yesterday, so I thought I'll cross the street just in front of the cafe that I'm supposed to meet my friends, and get some shopping done. Little did I know that there's this thing called a curb. So down I go and the familiar "click" was felt in my ankle. Tried to stand up and yup, I sprang my ankle alright.

Of course after lunch I still have to get back to uni. From High Street. Ouch.

I was also lucky enough to have committed myself to go out last night AND tonight. Not to mention the two nights was with completely different group of friends and we're going to the same restaurant. I wonder if the waitress can recognize us.

Bumped into a friend in front of the restaurant last night, he was waiting for his bus there. I just hope I won't bump into him again tonight, it's a wee bit hard to explain why we'll go to the same restaurant two nights in a row.

Except maybe just "food is good".

Anyhow. Limping my way back to my search of enlightenment. Wish me luck!

Coffee & TV

*yawn*

I"m in my lab at the moment. So very sleepy and tired. Although
I dare say that I think I'm very close to enlightenment now. I
found another source of equations where it's expressed in yet
another set of variables but this time everything's not only
consistent but it's actually possible to derive from one
equation to another. Horrah!

I haven't notice it before, but it seems like I've stopped using
coffee to wake myself up for a while. Until recently. I wonder
why I stopped in the first place. Have I not been waking up in
the morning for that long? Have I really took advantage of the
flexible timetabling of a research postgrad for too long? Or
maybe I just can't be bothered because it's no longer free.
Whatever the reason, I'm not too sure whether I should be happy
that I'm back to the coffee drinking. It's addictive you know.

Not much to do with TV in this post. It's just that I'm drinking
coffee and whenever I'm drinking coffee, that song just plays in
my head.

Maybe I should just play that song to wake me up.

The annoyance that is "LOL"

Okay, I've just about had it.

Everyone, repeat after me: "Just because we're only writing an email, or chatting online, it DOES NOT mean we have to talk like a moron. It does not mean that grammatical rules and general common sense and conversational skill is redundant."

Granted when you are chatting in real time you might prefer to ignore such rules as capitalising the first letter of the sentence because you don't want whoever you're talking to to wait too long. But seriously, the state of the English language has forever been going downhill since the invention of internet. It's possibly the worse thing happened to the language after the American decided to reinvent spelling rules.

Okay, here are a few guidelines to not be a moron while online:

1. "LOL" does NOT equal to a fullstop. In fact it's not even a punctuation. Honestly I have never really heard a joke from an email that is so funny that it made me laugh out loud. Do this simple exercise with me: whenever you feel the urge to type "lol", listen VERY hard to see whether you are in fact laughing out loud. If not, don't type it. Personally I prefer people to type "Haha". Even better if it's in brackets.
   
2. Just because you're online does not mean you can reinvent English lanaguage. I got told off for shocking grammar in emails (Granted. Most of the time it's actually my mild dyslexia playing up. Unless I know what I'm looking at, sometimes I'll mix up words... anyway enough about myself), and yet you see people completely disregard the punctuation and grammar rules, and get away with it. Grrrr.
   
3. SPELLING. Really. Show they world you're literate by using the correct spelling. Anyone using abbreviation just to save typing time will have to explain to me how much they are paying per character they're typing. Because that would be the only reason why you want to type less characters.
   
4. Oh, and anyone who alternate capital letters and lowercase should be shot.
   

Frankly, for someone with English as a second language (okay, so it's almost my first...) to point this out is a disgrace to any native speaker. The faceless form of communication that the internet provides makes people think it's okay to be an illiterate moron. No, it's not okay. Everytime you type something, just remember it's still represent who you are. Sound the words out in your head. This is what others hear in their head. Occational typos in unavoidable, but do try your best not to sound like a moron. Please.