Septemberians bash

This is the first post I am typing from my newest computer, an MSI Wind U123 netbook that I got for myself on my birthday. I really thought that I would use my old laptop until I graduated, but the “k” key on it gave out on me a bit too early… ^_^ Is it just me, or does my new netbook just pounce on my old laptop in performance and price? I thought so until I realized that my old laptop is more than three and a half years old!

I am trying to throw a party for myself and all those who were born in the month of September. If this describes you and you are free this Friday, please call or text or email me so that I could give you directions or a map. The two hardest things to do for a party are:

• to get enough people to come
• to make enough provisions (food, drinks, etc.) for all those people

September seems to be a really popular month to be born. Well, amongst my friends, at least.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. You know you’re in Agana when you find yourself having to parallel-park. ^_^

Song in my head: Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody”. I don’t know for certain whether I already had this song in my head previously, but I wouldn’t care too much as it’s a pretty good song.

Liberation

First of all, Happy Liberation Day, everyone.

The word "liberation" has so many meanings today. For starters, on Guam they say that on 21 July they were liberated from Japanese control and placed back into American control. (I know, right? You ask them this time.) Also, this year being the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's landing on the Moon, we as a people were given a break from all the Cold War fear and had cause to be hopeful after all. We as human beings (maybe) stopped looking furtively at each other and became free to all look up together.

Well, I wasn't yet alive back in 1969. So it is with relish that I'm tuning in to We Choose the Moon to hear the audio exchanged between Houston and the Spacecraft. It makes me feel as if I were tuning in to a piece of much older electronic equipment to hear voices coming from more than 200,000 miles away. I'm planning on staying up to get to the tape where Neil Armstrong says, "That's one small step...", then I intend to go out to that section of Marine Corps Drive in Hagat'na to check out (and maybe photograph) the floats and the camps. Will it rain? Nobody knows, man, and that's what makes it exciting.

A random thought came to me as I was driving around today. Has it ever occurred to anyone out there who is a literary type that our preoccupation for aliens starting in the 20th Century could have been a message of hope? What I mean is, if people had to turn to beings from other planets to get aliens, does that mean that we ran out of humans to alienate? That maybe the "Otherness" of every human out there just ran out, and we were ready to see every human being as part of our in-group?

OK, just thinking out loud. Feel free to shoot this down... ^_^ But thanks for reading, at any rate.

Song in my head: The Pussycat Dolls, "I Hate This Part (Right Here)".

All right, now don't bother me. I'm trying to hear what Buzz is saying.

Past time

While I was walking by myself maybe about a week ago, I stumbled across a random thought. I cannot remember the thought that ignited it anymore, but the notion is this: We should never assume that the past was a strictly simpler situation than the present. This immediately seemed true, and I started to wonder how the complexity around us could be compared with the complexity of the life of someone living in the 18th or 19th Century. For example, a twentysomething from the 19th Century would not have known or even comprehended what a computer was, but then again, he or she wouldn't have had to keep up with upwards of a hundred "friends" on some social networking site.

It seems to be true that while progress is certainly being made, there are things that remain the same, allowing our brains to relate these to the new things.

I have a feeling I wasn't the first person to ever say that. ^_^

Song in my head: Maino, featuring T-Pain, "All of the Above".

Selflessness

Today, as I sat down in front of my computer, I had the brilliant idea that I should record a song or two that I've written recently so that I don't forget the lyrics or arrangement so easily. But just as I completed testing my recording equipment (really just my 9-year-old computer running today's Linux and a microphone attachment) I get two requests for help. One was to help build a teapot on a 3d modeling program. The other one was to help edit a piece of fiction. Weighing my options, I asked myself, "Should I work on my stuff first, or should I help the ones who asked for help?"

Needless to say, it is now almost four in the morning, my voice has left me without me ever singing a single word, and I have finished building a kettle and is now starting on editing the story.

I think that right there is cause for a pause. I just can't say no to people. It's a streak that I have lived with since I can remember. Why help yourself when you can be helping someone else? I keep telling myself that I should be more careful in choosing who to help so that I can make sure that I have time for things that are important to me (like homework, my hobbies, etc.). But somehow, when I turn to the things I do for myself, I keep thinking, "Perhaps I can do this later, I'm still going to be around, right?"

Right?

Maybe. Anyway, it was fun to make the teapot, and even though I am a bit sleepy I will attempt to make inroads with the chapter. Perhaps it's the tutor/teacher in me that wants to keep helping.

Thanks for reading. And Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers.

Song in my head: Jim Jones, Ron Browz, feat. Juelz Santana, "Pop Champagne".

Late or early

I have got to stop staying up late. My three extra awake hours ended up being spent on chasing rainbows about some new thing I can do with my Linux machine that would allow it to share files with... yadda yadda yadda, I can't even remember why I was "improving" my system in this manner. Maybe I have a natural affinity for following directions... ^_^ Anyway, in the end I was not able to get the result I was looking for, and all I have to show for it are red, swollen eyes.

Maybe resting them a while would do the trick.

Song in my head: Kidz Bop, "Stickwitu".

What about some high-order communications topic?

What about, indeed. If you've got a few minutes, please help a fellow friend out; one of my friends has written a reflection on underlying gender messages in popular fairytales; she invites as many people as possible to give it a read and place a comment. She hopes (as do I) that you be enriched by this endeavor.

http://vee-f.blogspot.com/2007/11/fairytales-not-so-happily-ever-after.html

No, you don't have to leave a name. Yes, it's for a class (hers, not mine ^_^). Any other questions? Go on over to her blog and ask her yourself.

Thanks for reading. Now, what are you waiting for!? Go on, I won't be upset. Not too much.

Seventeen syllables, No. 8

Only the keyboards
Don't sweat as the fingers dance
On them busily.

Fake chemicals

OK, so here's a really simple yet addictive game you can play in Wikipedia. I'm going to call it "Fake Chemicals".

1. Go to the Wikipedia website.
2. Think of a possible name for a chemical. Maybe you've heard generic names for drugs on TV ads, or the chemical name of some popular recreational substances, or industrial cleaners, stuff you put in your hair, etc.
3. Type it into the search box.
4. If there is no Wikipedia entry for the chemical, give yourself 2 points and write it down somewhere (I use a Notepad window).
5. If there is a Wikipedia entry for the chemical, give yourself 0.5 point.
6. Stop doing it when you're tired of it, or if you're not bored anymore.

My list of fake chemicals? I scored 28 points!

• Cycloparaben
• Isoquinone
• Pentathone
• Hydroxycalbutenal
• Dimethizone
• Lamic acid
• Hydrokeratinol
• Pentaphthalate
• Stereoxanthylline
• Metrocyanibinol
• Polymethylacridase
• Propanodione
• Multidecanine
• Hydroproxin sulfate

As an option, try scoring your chemical names Scrabble-style, by adding up the Scrabble values of the letters in the chemical. That means q's and x's and the like would score very high.

What can you do with your list of words? Nothing, really... but if you're a science fiction writer (or know someone who is) this list may come in handy someday. ^_^ Oh, and advance apologies to any Biology or Chemistry majors whose sensitivities are offended by this kind of nomenclature-wrangling. ^_^ It's all in fun, I promise. And tell them the Math Wizard thought you'd have a laugh for it.

I watched my old school's rendition of The Little Mermaid tonight. It was great, as their productions always have been. The parents section went wild when my sister's class appeared on stage; hey, my sister and her friends were celebrities in their own right. ^_^

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Regine Velasquez' version of "Harana".

P.S. OK, found one more... Phosphydactilone. This is addictive... ^_^

Broken packages

I'm having a lot of fun with Linux. ^_^

The trick to Scrabble is scoring as many points as possible with as few tiles as possible. I played three and a half straight rounds of such, and, while I consistently placed third out of four, I felt that I'm a lot better at it now than when I last played it (which was years ago).

I'll need to find work for the summer. Save up a little for next semester.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Regine Velasquez feat. Andrew E., "'Di Bale Na Lang".