You Got Served

having attended a breakdancing competition for the first time in my life yesterday, i thought i would have something interesting and enlightening to say about the subculture. turns out, i really don't, so you get to watch this clip instead.

dissertation bits and bobs

1) is there any actual difference between 'disserting' and 'dissertating'? per the oed, one is "affected", and the other is "unusual", which makes me laugh for some reason.

2) DISSERTATION TIP #10: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISSERTING AND DISSERTATING IS, JUST KEEP WRITING, AND QUICKLY.

3) i need to figure out who to dedicate the thing to. i suppose one's parents is the done thing, but it would be nice to be funny. i mean, if no one's actually going to read it anyway, i may as well dedicate it to the flying spaghetti monster.

4) actually, speaking of no one reading it, i wouldn't mind having one (1) kind and brave non-expert volunteer to proofread it for me once i have a final draft. it will be a horrifying experience, but i'll buy you steak.

5) dimidium facti qui coepit habet

i wish

-- that the whole of life had the equivalent of a trash-collection service, where you leave all your crap out in bags in the morning, and by evening time it's gone.

on saturday, we went to karina's for mediocre pasta, good conversation, and a somewhat interesting incident where a middle-aged lady passed out at the table next to ours. the facts, from what i could gather, were these: that she was completely unresponsive (i would estimate GCS at 6-7); the loss of consciousness lasted about 10 minutes, upon which she woke up not even realizing that she had been out; she had taken a clonipine about an hour before; that she had had a glass or two of wine; that she had no history of diabetes. so what was it? one more thing i'll never know. theories?

***

in other news, if you like graphic novels, or even if you don't, i recommend the superlative daytripper, by fabian moon and gabriel ba, a 10-issue mini-series that explores the key episodes in the life of one fictional obituary writer brás de oliva domingos. excellent stuff, and you won't be collecing them till you're in a retirement home.

We Can Rule You Wholesale

a couple days ago, i opened up a new word document, and named it dissertation.docx, which in itself was an anticlimax. it sat there empty for a bit while i played sporcle, and then i wrote the cover page, with [TITLE] where the title should go, and then i spent the rest of the day writing acknowledgments, which was fun but pretty useless as far as actual progress goes.

nyt

thanks to von for shouting out my nyt puzzle yesterday. you can get it off his link if you have any interest, but if not (or after you've done it), i'd just like to point out that it set a somewhat interesting record (scroll down to near the bottom).

edited to add the java applet:

Difficulty: *** (out of 5)

forwarded by the ex-boss

semester the eighth

it would be nice if something that looked like a dissertation appeared in my hands by may this year. it doesn't even have to say anything too deep, just be big, and impressively bound. to accomplish this, it would be nice if students/patients/supervisors could all keep really quiet, and make very few demands. is there a muse of academic writing? if there is, i need their effigy as well for my desk, post-haste.

belated new year stuff

a day late, but who's counting these years? happy 2010 -- a year in which once again i resolve to blog more and not keep thoughts and feelings inside like dill pickles.

in the gym two days ago, they were playing (of course) prince's party like it's 1999, which really does bring one back. on new year's eve 1999 i was wearing green and watching people pressed together like preserved fish as they pretended to themselves that the next year decade century was going to be better, should auld acquaintance be forgot etc.. and then someone killed himself by jumping of the top of lucky plaza, which was, i suppose, a poor beginning. celebrating the passage of time is highly overrated.

to further remind me how much time has passed, von swept into town yesterday with a bag full of chapatis, and we both immediately realized how old we were and spent the next 48 hours eating and drinking almost constantly. there were a lot of potatoes of the mashed and very-buttery variety, and i may have converted von to single malt.

and new year's eve saw us shivering by the river for the most bizarre fireworks display ever. it was drizzling, and there was a light mist over the river, and after the first salvo of pyrotechnics smoke hung in the air in a thick cloak as if over a civil war battlefield, and the rest of the show was a lot of sound and fury with only the occasional shower of sparks from a roman candle nearer to the water. by the end of the show, it had drifted over the audience, nearly triggering several asthma attacks, and sending people scurrying back into the bars for more beer, and remembering, and forgetting.