So while reading for one of my classes, I found out about TESS and WEXTOR. Joygasm! ^-^;

So for a while now I haven’t bothered to make my own coffee at home anymore because it was always turning out nasty. This weekend, I figured out the problem — it’s the splenda! I’ve always loved splenda in my coffee before, so wtf is going on now, splenda? In any case, my coffee tastes way better without it. But now I have to find a new sweetener for when I want my coffee sweetened, and I would prefer for it not to be the full-calorie sugar. You see, some days I drink a lot of coffee and those teaspoons can really add up, and the calorie-free thing was the whole reason I used splenda anyway.

I guess I have to stick to coffee with creamer/milk or plain old black coffee for now.

In other news, quals are coming up and I’m going to fail miserably. kthxbai.

I finally got the Google apps on my BlackBerry  to work with my nachtimwald domain, yay!

Today I moved all my music to the Windows partition of my computer. I died just a little inside.

For a long time Rhythmbox had been having problems downloading and storing some of the podcasts I listen to, namely, some of the Scientific American ones. I decided a couples months ago to just download iTunes on Windows so that I could download and sync the problematic podcasts there. This was an okay system for a while, but then I started using Banshee, which happily was able to handle my podcasts. Unfortuantely, this solution didn’t last long because once I had updated my iPod software, Banshee couldn’t recognize the music anymore. It could reformat all of it, but then it showed up weird on my iPod and my podcasts couldn’t be found under the podcasts menu; I had to use the search function to find them. Further, when I would sync with iTunes on Windows again, it would freak out and not know how to deal with my iPod. So I switched back to Rhythmbox for the purpose of syncing music, Banshee for the purpose of downloading and listening to some of my podcasts while on my Ubuntu partition (but not syncing), and iTunes on Windows 7 for the purpose of downloading and syncing my Scientific American podcasts.

So John suggested that I simply move all my music to my Windows partition and just use iTunes whenever I wanted to sync my iPod. To listen to music while on my linux partition, I could have Rhythmbox and/or Banshee mount my Windows partition and then play from that music library. iTunes has no problem downloading any of the podcasts I subscribe to, so using iTunes alone should help me avoid the issues I was having with podcasts and with software compatibility issues I brought on myself by using multiple programs. Further, I can now listen to my music while on my Windows partition while I’m using SPSS (even though simply listening to my iPod while running my multiple regressions has always been good enough for me).

But now Steve Jobs has won; he wanted me using iTunes exclusively for my iPod all along, didn’t he? Bastard.

I find it amusing that the Facebook group, “I Tried Being Normal Once. Worst 5 Minutes of my Life” has nearly a million users. What’s more, it looks to be a relatively new group, with its only “recent activity” according to the wall is that it joined Facebook. And when I refreshed the page just a couple minutes later, the number of users grew by about several hundred at least.

However, as a social psychologist, one thing I’ve learned is that it’s actually probably quite normal for a person to think that they are different or in some way not normal. As a related tidbit, according to several psych classes that I took as an undergrad, teenagers (at least those in the U.S., I’m not sure if this has been replicated elsewhere) also commonly describe themselves as different from other teenagers because they believe themselves to be complicated or complex. Apparently, the notion that one’s behavior often (appropriately) changes according to one’s social settings constitutes “complexity,” lol.

In any case, it seems the actual behavior of defining oneself as different or not normal probably simply serves to classify that person as, in fact, normal. Please don’t be insulted though; “normal” is no more an insult than it is a compliment. It is merely a statistical term, after all.

Yesterday, I defended my master’s. And yes, I passed.

Taking the weekend off and celebrating the end of the semester/my successful defense at Sake (酒 or さけ) Café tonight. Hooray for sushi!

So in my weekly meeting with my advisor today, I mentioned how I had been sick during most of the winter break. I only got sick after classes were over, and I started feeling better right before they started again. Also, the doctor wasn’t sure what it was that was causing my fevers, but suspected it was some sort of viral infection.

Advisor, however, had a different theory as to the source of my illness: “You were having grad school withdrawal syndrome.” Right. That must have been the problem…

–Tati

Yes, I am still alive and I still plan to update this blog. This poor little blog needs a new post though, and I need to set myself reminders to write. I’m not sure what to write about now, but I just felt the need to update, so my blog wouldn’t feel abandoned I guess, lol.

I just found and installed a cute new widget for the blog, “Now Reading.” I actually saw it on husband’s blog (john.nachtimwald.com) first, but I thought it might add to my blog too, so I copied him. On the right hand side, it’s the little part that shows books I’m currently reading, books I’ve read recently, and books I plan to read. I’ll try to remember to update that. It even has a section for ratings and reviews, so maybe I’ll do those for a few books. But reviews tend to be a lot of work, or if not that, they turn out poor or mediocre at best. And I’m quite lazy, and not a fantastic writer, so any reviews may well turn out to be lousy. But whatever, we’ll see what happens.

Right now, I’m reading Outliers (a.k.a., Outliers: The Story of Success) by Malcolm Gladwell. Well, I guess technically I’m still reading it. I’ve finished all the chapters and the intro and all of that, I’m just not done with the epilogue yet. I should have finished long ago — I read the last 3 chapters on Christmas Eve — but I haven’t been feeling well and headaches make it hard to read. But anyhow, basically I’m done with the book, so far the epilogue doesn’t contain any surprises or major points that weren’t already articulated in the actual chapters. And it is a good book. Since I began studying social psychology and the external forces that influence our own lives and decisions, I’ve started to realize that people don’t just get where they are through sheer talent alone. I’ve also noticed the lucky breaks and fortunate timing in my own life. That’s basically what Outliers is all about; how things about our culture and history, or even just timing and lucky opportunities, have been significant factors contributing to the success of extraordinary people and groups — the “outliers” of society. Even beyond intuitive influences of success (e.g., family background and economic status), this book highlighted some weird, arbitrary advantages that some “outliers” have had, for example, how lucky the greatest hockey players were to have been born early in the year, especially January, otherwise they may not have had the opportunity to become the great hockey players that they are today (read the book for explanation; I’m too lazy). Even if I wasn’t interested in the influence of external factors on success, I probably would have continued to read because the book also provides interesting tidbits of history on various successful people, such as Bill Joy, Bill Gates, and The Beatles. It wasn’t as statistical or research-oriented as I had expected, given the title, but as I was on break while I was reading it, I don’t really mind that so much.

And here I thought I was just going to write a quick update saying that I’ll make a real post later. Well, I do plan on making more posts soon, but I think I’ve written enough for now. Also, I’m getting a little dizzy and tired from staring at my computer for so long. I think I need to adjust the contrast. Adios.

–Tati

Last Friday was my birthday and it was a pleasant one, so I thought since I haven’t posted in a while, this was a good enough topic. (Plus, this is my blog and I can post about wtf I want.)

There was a bit of a fiasco in the days leading up to my birthday, but luckily everything turned out okay in the end. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a birthday dinner with my fellow grad students or where I wanted it, so I dilly-dallied around and still had not made any plans. But then, the weekend before my birthday, one of the grad students made plans to host a special event and invited a bunch of people to it. And of course, the day he was hosting this event was none other than my own birthday. Not feeling it would be right to invite those same guests to celebrate my birthday on the same night, I felt as though the decision of whether or not to have a dinner or celebration was taken out of my hands — and naturally, as soon as I felt I no longer had that option, I wanted it. Of course, there were several people who had planned on celebrating my birthday with me that night even before the other grad student made plans, as well as people who the other grad student didn’t know (so obviously didn’t invite), and these people were able to make it to my birthday dinner.

I stayed up until midnight the night before my birthday, as usual, because I like to be awake to enjoy the first few minutes of my birthday. Plus I very much enjoy the competition between friends, cousins, and siblings to see who can say happy birthday to me first. Eventually I went to bed and got a few hours of sleep before heading to brown bag. It was a good talk. Laura made cupcakes for everyone and put sprinkles on mine, and it was very tasty. I also devoted several hours to my favorite game, Kingdom Hearts II. I was in the middle of a battle and couldn’t get to a save point when it was almost time for us to leave for dinner, so I almost declared that dinner would just have to wait. Fortunately, I kicked those Nobodies’ and Heartless’s little butts and made it to a save point so I could safely put away my game.

John and I met up with everyone at Momoyaki for dinner at 7:00. Delicious Japanese-Korean fusion and entertaining conversation ensued. This was followed by Cold Stone, where a single bite of my friend’s ice cream was rich enough to give me a tummy ache. Yet despite the tummy ache, I took a second bite. But it was worth it; it was really good coffee ice cream…

After arriving home I got to open my presents, which were awesome. I had asked John for The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, but in addition to that, he also got me The Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. John’s mom also took me shopping for a birthday gift on Sunday. I must admit, the shopping itself kinda drained the life out of me, but I ended up getting a nice corduroy jacket and a really awesome pleather jacket which makes me look like a bamf (bad-ass mother… well, you can figure out the rest). I also got a nice corduroy jacket.

So, all in all it was a pleasant weekend. I played some much needed KHII, got to have dinner with my friends, spent a little time with the in-laws, got some really cool gifts, and just had a good time. Oh, and did I mention how cool the jacket was?

Happy Birthday to me!

image taken from flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97968921@N00/672049353/