The image is of Kiko-chan, the
precocious
star of Kiko-chan's
Smile.
Kiko is a 4 year old pre-kindergarden student who gets up at the crack of
dawn,
makes breakfast, lunch for herself and her father, helps her mother out
around the
house yet is unable to tie her shoes. Kiko's teacher, Megumi-sensei tries
hard to get
Kiko to say good morning to her, but hasn't quite succeeded yet. Kiko's
pet, Neko-chan
(actually an angel from the heavens) tries to bring happiness into Kiko's
life, but
unfortunately for Neko-chan, things don't work out as they should. A log of a science student (v.5) About myself: Name: Stephen
Congly Alignment: True Neutral, Good
Tendancies Current Readings Journals followed Science Books
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If I'm forthright, will you forgive me in the morning? Open letter:
If I've been an SOB in the past week or am acting like one in the upcoming weeks, it's nothing personal. I'm under a lot of stress right now and it's starting to take its toll on me. Things should be much better at the end of the month...so you can rip me apart then, for my conduct now. I apologise in advance.
Probably next entry will be on Friday... Tin, as far as I know, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics applies to all systems. The 2nd Law states that all spontaneous processes lead to the universe being in greater disorder (i.e. the entropy increases) (that's one such statement of the 2nd Law). [looks it up to be sure] The key word here is universe. Although the formation of a complex organism isn't a cause of greater entropy, the universe as a whole has its entropy increased, so the 2nd Law holds. Ah...one more comment to make: G stands for Gibbs' Free Energy. If it is negative, then the process is favoured. Thus, there is no reason to buy diamonds as they're going to fall apart anyway XD XD [wonders if any women reading this are giving him evil glares :D]
Yes, I am aware of the one point that I ignored which will explain things :D...the omission is intentional ^_- Yesterday marked the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (i.e. 50 years on the throne). I knew the Jubilee was coming, but I didn't know the exact date until I heard on the news yesterday ^^;; I wonder if my lack of knowledge shows anything about the relevance of the monarchy to Canada today. I know our entire system is based on being a constitutional monarchy...but in all effect, it's kind of republic like (but using the British system). ^^;;
Ah...the infamous Lana Nyugen was sentenced yesterday. To refresh the memories of those of you who don't remember who she is [read all, since she's only really significant here], she is the engineering "professor" who committed fraud by stealing her ex-husband's qualifications...an embarassment to the university for not catching it in the hiring procedure -_- [I note that the dean of research who hired her moved to another university]. She got 2 years conditional sentence...I thought I read that she claimed she did nothing wrong, but I suppose I'm mistaken (checked out the local newspaper's website...and didn't find anything on the article there). I quickly want to address the point about online tests brought up by Kris. The irony of timing of that post was ironic...since I had just added a test or two onto the blog...as a throwaway entry since I was too lazy to come up with any real material to write. I think you're being a bit extreme with that characterisation. Just putting up a few online tests without real description doesn't necessarily negate the other content placed up (as you seem to imply indirectly, in my opinion). Yes, in this case the tests I put up were a substitute for content; I concede that fully. Nonetheless, I think I've run may be...no more than 10 tests like that in the 200 odd entries here. It's because of that low number that I comment on the irony of the timing ^_^; Yeah...I may be boring and lifeless, but you'll learn that through the entries I write =P
Hmmm...next point again has to do with something that Kris said about Enron and not knowing about it. Hmmm...I guess then it isn't a real big issue in the States then? I know that a majority of people don't really care that the White House in interconnected with the company intimately. I see a lot of coverage in both the business section and the front page of the Globe and Mail what with the various people going to the Congress panels and not saying anything, etc. I'll give a very quick briefing on Enron, based on what I know (for anyone who a) cares, b) is interested, etc. on this point). Enron used to be a big energy trading company, ranked 7th in the country for net worth. Alas, there was some fraudlant activity, dubious accounting, destruction of documents, etc. Enron went bankrupt...and now the fraudulent atmosphere is being exposed. I'll try (if I remember and find time) to look up a good article on the Enron story to post here.
Lastly, our PM criticized the Bloc Quebecois opposition MPs for criticizing the US treatment of Afganistan prisoners calling the BQ defenders of terrorists. By that logic, I must be the same thing -_-; I don't agree at all. The US is a signatory to the Genova Conventions and as such should be/is bound to them. There is a mechanism to determine PoWs and 'unlawful prisoners' there. I see though that Bush might allow Taliban prisoners to be considered PoWs...which is what a number of commentators were saying (that is Taliban soldiers would likely be PoWs)
Bush wants to (forcibly?) switch regimes in Iraq even if the world doesn't want to join it. I'm not very surprised at the way things are starting to develop here :/ [more so with the way US foreign policy is developing] For those of us who have spent (will spend?) a long time in the halls of academia, I point to the story of a student in Germany who has spent the past 92 semesters studying for his degree (that is 42 years). In Germany, there is no tuition and no time limit for completing a degree...so the mean time in school is 10 years.
A little factoid from the Globe and Mail: the Okinawa, who are considered the most fit peple on Earth have a practice called "hara hachi bu, which means, 'Stop eating when you're 80 per cent full.'" Interesting idea...and it would make sense I think.
Another factoid has to do with France; in order to increase French students' knowledge of the country's culture, the Marsaille soundtrack is being handed out...in addition to the standard Marsaille, there is also a reggee and house remix ^^;;
Lastly, the point of the Olsen twins clearing 300 million US in product sales _o_. I don't know what to say at all...
Eeek...still have some reading that I haven't done yet -_-;;; New:
Old:
Hmmm....ratemyprofessor.com...interesting. Apparently one of the profs here got a very high rating...article on the front page of the local newspaper. {looks at the ratings of some of his old profs ^^;;} No real commentary...just doing a few online tests instead of writing up my labs -_-; [since I didn't look up that point about those KO girls {or something like that} {deletion: 2/6/02--SC} Hentai Purity Test.
 Are you seme or uke? Find out! o.o;; I'm not surprised for some reason...o.o;;; Shut up Kourin :P {though I'm doubtful about the 'rushing to the protection thing...evidence indicates otherwise XD'} I couldn't find the "which angsty bishounen are you" test though...^^;; Lastly, I again point to cc's blog for more commentary on breast implants...again, quite interesting [and things I wouldn't know otherwise] Title topic is because I'll be pointing at some blogs...which reminds me of an orchestra conductor pointing a baton at people to get them to stand to acknowledge their efforts after a piece. First off...read about it in the Globe and Mail on the weekend...a game online called "googlewhacking". Easy to play; just punch in any two words on Google. The goal is to find a set of terms that gets one and only one hit. I played using a few words...and discovered some stuff I had written online that's rather embarassing [i.e. I made a fundamental error in word choice which entirely distorts the meaning of the arguement ;_;. Sadly, I don't have domain over the site(s?!) that used my text :(] I did find one googlewhacking original...I know one of the words was "congly" but I can't remember the other one ^^;;;; Jumping the Shark. A term noting when a TV show has gone over the hill (i.e. introducing a new character, etc...named after Happy Days where the Fonz jumped over a shark)...also discovered from the Globe and Mail. The Simpsons is listed as #1 on the Shark Vote list. Ah...what do I have scribbled on my list of things to write about. I found Kourin's commentary about France hillarious...XD...though I did agree with what France had said about the 'lexicon of good and evil being unsuitable for this day and time'...or something to that extent. I know that I might start ranting again...so I'll keep moving on ^^;; cc, thanks to her mother, has a commentary about Britney Spears' breasts. I found the commentary interesting and hillarious both at the same time. ^^ A little blurb...one of the women featured in the "When Girls Go Wild" series [i.e. flashing her breasts] is sueing the producers as apparently they didn't get her permission, but rather just stole footage from her at a Mardi Gras celebration o.o;;;; Jackie, I'm sorry to hear about your experience at a hockey game. Admittedly, it's been ages since I've been to one...[last time I was there, I managed to get a puck from the game XD...which my brother now has ^^;;]. Ummm...fighting is an amusing side bit of the game to me [especially the goalies going at it ^_^;;], but not the whole thing. If people go to a game to expect a fight to break out, they're really fans of the wrong game. I'm not the big hockey fan...I like soccer, football and basketball more so [and a bit of rugby -_-;;] Almost done now I think ^^. From Ming-Ling's blog, I indirectly hear that the American Society of Microbiology gave its membership list to the FBI -_-; Basically, as Nuramis [found from Ming-Ling] put it, "I'm now an FBI suspect for terrorist attacks". I suppose with my knowledge of some molecular biology techniques...I'd probably be considered a potential person for that list someday o.o;;;;; I might say more on this later... I need to run and do work right away...but a topic more or two. Super Bowl...the game was better than normal (the parts I watched of it) and the half time show was pretty good [though the screen tumbling down...was a bit much (it did look like a building crash to the designers credit). I feel for those families who didn't get to see their loved one's name on the giant screen because it fell down.
Penultimately, I hear about a US based phenomenon of the KO-girls (originally started in Japan)...{I'm not sure of the term, I'll look at the e-mail at home and correct it} who are teenaged girls who demand things from people online...[i.e. things like CDs, etc.]...and get them _o_.
I can't believe it actually works o.o;;
Lastly, Priya found me an Mp3 of "Chili con carne" by the Real Group :D :D It's a very good song [5 person a capella group from Sweden. I think their website (what ever it is ^^;; has Real Audio of their CDs up...I should listen to a few other ones and see if I want to buy their CD] For some reason, because I'm a science person type [I think there is probably some other things to do with this though ^^;;], I often get asked to look up certain scientific issues. As one might guess, these issues are ones that would be embarassing to ever go to a reference librarian and ask about. Of course, the tasks get delegated to me for some reason o.o;;...yet I'll do them since a) I'm curious and b) it's for the glory of science...I claim the latter at least ^_- Examples include the infamous Doki^3 project ^^;;; [which I did look up, but I couldn't quite find the illustrations that Tin requested ^^;;;;;;;;;;...that'll have to wait until I can look at a good health library. Just on Monday, S-san asked me [after I figured out what she was saying] about if there was a connection between her menstral cycle and her immunity...I actually had to ask Priya for help on this topic since she knows more about immunology than I do. Priya found me some journal references that I'll have to forward off to S-san...or at least find the abstract for her to read ^^ A question that people can help answer though is something a guy asked me. "How many dates does it take before you can consider yourself a couple". I proposed 5...but when I think about it, it's probably at the 'hand-holding' stage [which reminds me with a very long and interesting discussion I had a while back with S-san about that ^^;;;] I spent about 2 hours yesterday basically redoing a lab thanks to problems on my end on reading carefully and writing down equations right -_-;; Gaaah. Out of time for this entry...have to run and catch a bus. I leave saying that I'm now caught up to Okashina Okashi [Act 129] ^_^ {NB: This would have been correct yesterday...but the entry didn't post} I got a chance to talk to Seimei online last night...so that was definitely good :). Unfortunately, the world news she had to tell me really didn't do anything positive for my mood. {growls} It's not your fault Seimei...it makes no sense to get angry at the bearer of bad news. That having being said, I didn't see anything in today's Globe and Mail about military buildup...both online or in the paper edition. If I don't watch myself, I'll begin a large rant on US foreign policy [or as some critics have called it, a foreign policy being made on the fly -_-.] I skimmed over the Globe and Mail today (link found on this page) and found two of the editorials pertinant to my thoughts. Firstly, there is a discussion of Bush's use of "Good vs. Evil"...if only life was as simple as that...yes, I think there are some universal ideas of good and evil...but saying that one side is simply pure evil and that the other side is angelic good is ludicrous in its simplicity. {Stephen deletes his other comments of this paragraph} Next up is the Genova protocols and the treatment of the prisoners in the military base in Cuba [the irony of the location is not lost on me]. In Canada, this issue is being debated quite heavily in the House of Commmons as well as in the media. Canada, for the most part, is demanding that the US follow the Genova protocols on the treatment of PoWs but the US refuses to call them "unlawful combatants". Canada has some of its soldiers under US command...so it is likely that Canada has/will break international law if it continues on these actions. I personally feel that yes, the Genova protocols should be respected [I will note that there is mechanism for a tribunal to determine whether the prisoner is a PoW or unlawful combatant]; it would be the moral upper ground in this case. I wonder if Eagleton will have to resign for his conduct in this area. Looks like I'm already starting...-_-; I'll shut up now and head to class. Those are the words that came to my mind this morning when I thought that my hair was actually acting like it should...i.e., it felt like it was staying down. Unfortunately, when I looked in the mirror a little later on, my hair was in the semi-spiky isoform...^^; [yes, bad use of science terminology, I'll head to the penalty box after this entry XD]. However, my hair rarely ever stays flat...not when it's this short (i.e. quite short). It stays down for the most part (and that is what I prefer) when it's longer...but then the various spiky isoforms become that much more extreme. Anyhow, I'm starting to go off on a tangent here from the list of things I had to write about. Sadly, since I usually forget a lot of the things I want to say, Ihave to write up on a little card the things I want to mention. First off...I want to gripe about certain people in RL who don't understand the idea of discretion >_< Think before you act damn it...there is a time and place for everything...and the place you chose...especially with the fact that a particular person was around was selfish and stupid. [this is not sexual BTW] I should note the passing of two Canadian greats over the past fortnight. Firstly, Frank Shuster, half of the Wayne and Shuster comedy team passed away a little while ago [13 January], while Peter Gzowski, voice of CBC's Morningside passed away this Saturday. They will be missed. Let's see...what to talk about next...to happier thoughts I suppose. I saw something on TV that made Priya break down audibly...which I suppose says something about it. Or does it? It actually is pretty innocolous...just an animated Mr. Bean show (2002 release). It's quite good...and captures the spirit of the original work pretty well...it even has the "blue car" and Bean's unique lock on his car XD XD. Rowan Atkinson again voices Bean. Oh...found the Blackadder reference site...take a look there Priya...I'm sure that you'll be pleasantly surprised. Does the internet harm health? I remember being blown away by a factoid that I heard. If one were to read 8 hours a day, from the ages of 20-65, standard work year...one could not read the entire mass of scholarly Shakespeare criticism produced in one year. That's quite mind boggling. Thinking about how much is published in the scientific literature in a year is blows my mind entirely...I mean, PNAS is at least 16 000 pages a year...plus there are a large number of journals in existance also. I realise now why teachers, etc. say write in pen. After over 4 hours of staring mostly at pencilled in assignments (for the intro organic chemistry course)...the inked assignments were pleasures for my eyes. It's horribly cold outside right now...-35 C...not pleasant :( I want to address a few points in the next entry or so that Jackie mentioned...perhaps a bit about hockey, and the difference between men and women... Hodgepodge time. {sees everyone trying to sneak away} Firstly...Asterix is being used to sell McDonald's (or MacDo in French :) in France. There is a bit of uproar over how Asterix is being sold out. I remember reading the Asterix series and liking it a lot ^_^. Obelix was my favourite character. I thought I had saw an error in the Globe and Mail article about it (concerning the name of the druid), but after looking at the official site, I was wrong. They printed the French name...instead of the English Getafix [I only picked up the joke today -_-;]. Talking about this topic with Priya led to mention of Tintin...and then to a horrible topic that I won't mention here. Needless to say, it disturbed Priya greatly...so read into that what you will. Umm...on a not so linked topic, the Globe and Mail had an interesting article about the new style of outfits for speed skaters that are a bit sheer. The discussion was then about wearing underwear with advertising on it [to bend the rules concerning wearing ads] To another sports topic...the current leading bet for the Tyson/Holyfield fight is for Tyson to get disqualified o.o;;; I've started to read OO now...thanks to the fast connection here, I can read it relatively easily...unlike it would be if I were to try and read it at home. Let's see how it goes...08/123 right now. Yesterday was a pretty good day...I got a lot done and everything went pretty well ^^ Today on the other hand ^^;;; (not as much done) The best line of the day came from my virology prof (talking about why retroviruses replicate the way they do). Prof: "Only one person knows why they do that...but I'm working on it." Unfortunately, the biochemistry lecture was rather confusing ;_; Let's see...had some fun with Kourin, Priya, WMC and Galena online yesterday...though it took me a while to figure out who the latter was o.o;; Sorry -_-;;; Raaaaaaar >_< On a side note...a friend had this to say about old e-mail: "Old email is like the Sword of Damacles - both contain the letter a." Recent search queries (though I don't get any interesting ones for the most part ^^;) URLs for me: Hmmm...Big O manga is being released by Viz soon...I saw their promos for it... Reading some translated manga from the library...and now I finally have a clue of what's going on in X ^^;; Even still...not much has happened in the first eight volumes or so. I'm impressed at CLAMP's plotting of prophecy, etc...something that I can't do very well ^_- I've also just started Maison Ikkoku...and am thinking it's not that bad. I read the link that Kourin posted about the review of "Love Hina"...interesting I suppose. I haven't seen "Love Hina", so I can't really comment. However, I concur with Kourin about not really agreeing about the "Ah! My Goddess" analysis. Having said that, criticizing the 'male loser' who gets all the women storyline manages to get a lot of stories... I was wrong...I did have a few more things to say. Ming-Ling...XD about the Kimwipe thing. I've used the Kimwipe comment too in the State of the Union e-mail I sent out actually [the SoU e-mail is kind of my thrice a year e-mail summarizing the major happenings in my life] talking about e-mail being rejected. WMC...let me know if you want me to follow through on that offer on the article. I'm more than willing to help. Lastly...although "The Simpsons" has been going downhill for a long time, yesterday's episode about sugar being banned was one of the funniest in a long time. ^^; Heh heh heh...^^; Title topic refers to my weekend spent marking assignments for the introductory organic chemistry course. It took a bit longer than I would have liked it to...hopefully next week, it'll be shorter to mark ^^. The first assignment was based on naming and structure drawing, et cetera, and I was told to mark strigently...and that I did. Last semester, I awarded marks, this time I took them off...and it seemed easier that way. What else has happened in my 'exciting' life...not very much. I spent Saturday as a grunt/judge at the debate tournament put on by the U of R debate society. The most interesting thing was seeing the one of the US team's style of debate...which differed drastically from what I'm used to under the Canadian Parliamentary system (i.e. more informal...talking to one's partner during the speech, addressing the opponent by name...which isn't done in the Parliament in Canada ^^;;;;;;;;; The other funny thing was seeing the debaters try and figure out how they were doing...and being entirely wrong XD (my friend was the person in charge on making the draws...so I kind of knew how everything went). On the front page of Globeandmail.com, they have a link to an article that I was sniggering about on Saturday...the worst sexual prose in Canadian literature XD.
The story is here. Tin came to my mind when I was reading this ^^. Ummm...I was amused that they took a shot at "The Stone Angel", since I greatly dislike that book. The worst prose there, and I agree with the article is: Ah Ming-Ling...not the book I'm using for my virology course. I'm using "Biology of Viruses" by BA Voyles (almost as much as your book on Amazon o.o;) I had a good chat with Seimei on Saturday/Sunday...which was a great pleasure. It kind of degenerated a bit into rant-mode at some points (and the fault is entirely mine), but the discussion was quite enlightening as well :)...in both directions I think ^^;;; Ah...watched some of the football games this weekend. My brother was angry that he missed the OT finish [New England game] (I wasn't watching that myself) since he had always wanted to see a NFL game go to OT. I still like CFL better ^^;;; (funniest sight during the game was the referee clapping his hands during a penalty announcement ^^;;). Kristi agrees with me XD XD...Priya is a prion. Incidentally, I'm writing my virology paper on prions ^^; I think that's about everything I wanted to say, I suppose. I submitted in quiz results for Katelynne and Kourin yesterday...and got moved to the couch again last night as the computer was being used o.o;; Net summary of this entry: Stephen has no life. {shrugs} It's extraordinarily slippery outside :/...I've almost fallen at least 5 times in the past two days. In some places it's like a rink...I wonder about strapping on some blades to my shoes when I'm outside >_< Could anyone who receives something in the mail from me let me know when it arrives. I forgot to put that standard requests on the letters ^^;; Thanks. {no, I'm not going to state who is getting something since I want it to be a 'surprise' as such...though they can easily figure it out.} Lastly...I cut out a job posting in the Globe and Mail last week. The company is looking for a "Mad Scientist" XD XD XD (out of my running for a while...MSc or PhD IIRC). It's for some pharaceutical company I think... I suppose the big entry did get added in some how. {shrugs} Hopefully pitas will be back on its feet soon. Kristina...yeah, as I told you, I also found "two Jacks in a Jill" to be an interesting choice of words. Ming-Ling XD. Actually, I had thought that Eastern blots had actually existed until my biochem course last semester (I had associated them with antibodies in my mind for some reason). My prof commented that she didn't think they existed in lecture...and on the take home midterm, there was a question dealing with the Eastern. "What is an Eastern blot?" In case I was missing something, I spent about 20 minutes looking up the "Eastern blot" online...and actually found a blog that way ^^;; (Spyke...linked in the 4th Order). ^^;;; Oh...what virology text are you using? I wonder if it's the same one I'm using...the price sounds about right ($140 CDN for mine -_-) Now...off to try and do my chemistry/biochemistry assignments o.o;; (also do some more initial research on my virology paper)...o.o;; My larger entry is at home... I heard the story behind Jack and Jill in my thermodynamics class ^^; It turns out that Jack and Jill were once units of measurement for alcohol. To make more money, the government decided to make the units smaller. Thus: There were two Jacks in a Jill historically ^^; Showing my lack of life...here are some stats I compiled when I was writing up the contest answers: Number of entries mentioning following individuals in 2001's entries (out of 192 entries)
WMC: 54 Copying Seimei and Kourin: You are best attuned with the element Water! Element: Water Ummm...I'm surprised at this one. Really, I am. I saw a review in the Globe and Mail book section last week...and instantly Tin came to my mind ^^; WMC was also quite interested when I mentioned it to her ^^;;. {which may explain the e-mail that the evil one forwarded to me =P} Thanks Janaki BTW :). Lastly...I'm going to quickly comment on the quiz and it'll be the last time I mention it until next year's ^^;;. WMC's answer to #6 (re. what word that I could spell means that someone needs a better screening tool ^^;;) was hillarious to me...but I'll be nice to her and not post her answer XD 7. How many revisions have been made to the blog layout [1] 8. Who is responsible for the current layout? [1] 10. How many free talks have I had over the past year? [2] 3. Name me a website (or provide a URL) that I won't admit to visiting. [2] 17. How many message boards am I part of? What are they? I got the 'joyful' experience of sleeping on the couch last night. Before anyone starts tossing off some rather sardonic remarks here, let me state that it wasn't my fault. My room was hijacked (as where the computer is) and it was being used past 2:30 AM. There wasn't anything on TV, I had no videos to really to watch, it was too late to do school work and I had already read the stack of graphic novels that I brought in ^^;; Oi oi...I could rant, but I'll spare everyone the horror ;) I'll state for the record that a good number of people on the FYML are acting like children. I got so sick of it that I stopped reading the e-mails from the list that I was backlogged in and set up some killfilters so I won't be bothered by those people again. I'll show appropriate decorum and not name names. Grrrrr. Lastly...I laughed my head off at my brother's comments when he was working on a biology paper. "I want to say f*** that, but I can't find a reference". He didn't get why I was laughing so hard XD XD XD I'm almost finished talking about this quiz...may be one or two more posts...then I'll shut up...really. :x Scores ranged from 59.5/100 to 36.5/100...I'll probably e-mail out the scored quizes tonight. Our winner of her very own essay is Venkarel who ducked in at the last moment. Congratulations. Second place was WMC with 52 and third place is Kourin at 48. WMC will get 4 tanka and 4 haiku written for her and Kourin 3 tanka and 3 haiku written. Also, since I'm a nice person (^_-)...I'll write a paper on a topic that the two of you come up with (if I can at least ^^;;) The prize for those who entered but didn't finish in the top three is 2 tanka and 2 haiku. Ming-Ling...heh heh heh. I'm just as bad...my sign off on IRC refers to going to perform an Eastern blot XD XD XD. In fact, easternblot.com would be a hillarious domain name in my opinion ^^; The plan was initally to post the key and put up my new layout yesterday to mark my 21st birthday. Unfortunately, my internet connection was down all evening ;_; [and is still down as of 6:30 AM >_< (it's up as of 7:40 AM, when I'm now at the university). Thanks to those who remembered my birthday mind you :) Also, thank you to all of the entrants into the contest...I think I know the winner unofficially, but the score is reasonably close, so I'll have to score carefully before I can announce the winner and prizes. Section I: About Me
1. What's my birthdate (year required) [2] Section II: Reviewing the Blogging of 2001
1. Who should be 'thanked' for the creation of this blog? [1] Section III: Miscellany
1. Provide me with the title of one of the four songs on DDR that I've gotten a S (or SSS rating) on plus the foot difficulty? [2] [Grand Total: 100] |
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