/. articles producing scary thoughts in twentysomething

yikes! i could help but shudder at the post on /., especially since i took a course a few years ago at uci called social analysis of computerization that showed how much computerization of society is changing the way we think and live. i think the biggest lesson i took away from the course was the responsibility of those who know about technology to inform citizens and influence those in power. politicians do not have enough time to understand all implications of technology integration in society, so it is the burden of the experts to make sure the politicians don't go too far. i don't think it's been going well lately, considering how the whole issue of software patents in europe is turning out. hopefully my government won't become too paranoid that it restricts the rights of its citizenry and monitors all its activities.

*edit* originally had ./ instead of /. (oopie!) :)

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apparently i'm who i am

alright, so while spending time avoiding writing a summary for my 199 class, i decided to peruse some friends' blogs. one of them happened to be one of my favorite people (go figure!), and she had a just done a stupid (as in not erudite) survey, which I decided to do as well. What's with my doing these sophomoric surveys? hehe, oh well! :)

Your Brain is 40.00% Female, 60.00% Male

You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved

What Gender Is Your Brain?

You scored as Gluttony.

Gluttony		63%
Wrath		50%
Pride		50%
Sloth		44%
Envy		31%
Lust		25%
Greed		6%

Seven deadly sins
created with QuizFarm.com

You Are 30 Years Old

30 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

You are 59% Sketchy

How sketchy are you?

You Belong in 1969

1969 If you scored... 1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! 1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too. 1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all! 1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day. 1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

You Will Die at Age 64

64 You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well.

What Age Will You Die?

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more "quizzes"

apparently i can't get enough of these online quizzes, and i seriously have to thank my good friend Jen Chen for clueing me in on these quizzes. i took what political party i most agree with quiz and its suggestion that i'm an anarchist isn't that far from the truth, but it's not that close either (and again, i think an anarchist political party oxymoronic). in taking the quiz, i was confused quite a few times in how i should answer a question, since some of them were blatantly ambiguous. anyway, you can take the quiz yourself to see what i mean, but honestly i think i'm more green or democrat than the other political beliefs.

the other quiz i took attempted to figure out which Disney character is my alter ego. this one accorded more with my opinions of what Disney character i'm like. Donald Duck enjoys life but also can go off like a firecracker in certain situations. he also always reminded me of a very determined individual, and i see myself very determined too (i think stubbornness goes with this trait). anyway, the results for this quiz and the political party one are below.

You scored as Anarchism.

Anarchism		92%
Green		83%
Democrat		67%
Socialist		58%
Communism		42%
Fascism		33%
Republican		25%
Nazi		8%

You scored as Donald Duck. Your alter ego is Donald Duck! Try as you might, you have a nasty temper that is hard to control. But you try hard to please, and you arn't one to go down without a fight.

Donald Duck		75%
Goofy		69%
Snow White		69%
The Beast		63%
Sleeping Beauty		50%
Ariel		44%
Pinocchio		38%
Peter Pan		31%
Cinderella		19%
Cruella De Ville		19%

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jenga!

while waiting to be relieved from my oh-so-cushy job at the SAC, i started to play a game of Jenga with Margret. mind you, i can't even remember the last time i played it, but my memories don't suggest that i am totally enthralled with the game. despite my memories, i had an enjoyable time playing Jenga! Margret and i antually did a perfect game, with the end result being that it would be physically impossible to remove any block without making the tower tumble. i'm a pretty competitive person, and there were so many times that i was confident no other block couldn't be removed by Margret (she actually had the same opinion for some of my situations, too). but despite those opinions, we actually were very patient, and after an hour we reached the end goal! i'll post pictures here when i get them (hell yeah i wanted to document this monumental feat!), but near the end it was so nerve-wracking because the instability of our hands were accentuated next to the instability of the Jenga tower. at any rate, it was a lot of fun, and i'm glad Margret suggested that we play. now, i need to get ish done. :)

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fartlick

this entry doesn't have to do with stormicide's butt, but it is about instance of another eggcorn. i went in to get my teeth cleaned this last Wednesday. my dentist has a really nice setup: a nice chair that can move up, down, left, right, recline, etc. (which aides her in doing dental work), and a nice tv so a patient can zone out during any procedure being done on them. the channel is usually set to the Outdoor Network or set to a channel that runs programs that make you want to be outside and not at the dentist. anyway, this last time, the program was talking about an active lifestyle and giving pointers for various sports. after learning about some cycling workouts, the program moved on to running. one of the workouts they described was what's called a fartlek (the text on the the screen said fartlek is Swedish for "speed play"), and that was when i realized that i had been saying eggcorn ever since cross country during high school.

my buddies and i would do fartleks at least ten times a season, so they were not too uncommon, but i never once remember my x-country coach writing the word down. however, me and my fellow runners had always thought it was "fartlick", and made the typical juvenile jokes whenever we had to run them. anyway, for those who don't know, a fartlek is running at a fast pace for a certain distance, and then jogging for a short distance, and then running fast again, repeating this cycle for an extended period of time. so my teammates and i developed a reason why it was called a fartlick: you "lick the fart" of the person ahead of you when you are running fast and they have slowed down ahead of you. so we thought that when you jog slowly, that's when you let the farts out, and then the person behind you catches wind of it during his sprint (we usually did it around the track).

so anyway, our idea of why it was called "fartlick" was based on our ignorance of fartlek being a borrowed word. i google'd "fartlicks | fartlick", and got 155 ghits, while "fartleks | fartlek" got 34100 ghits. oddly enough, there seems to be an example of the "fartlick" spelling in a spanish context: Sistema Fartlick cambios de plano, alternando aer?bica y anaer?bica. so it seems that me and my teammates weren't the only ones who represented the spelling as "fartlick". yay for eggcorns and dental work!

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