typhoon_warrior on Xanga

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Taheela leaned back, the ridge of her brow tightened into a shallow 'V' as she contemplated the data she had been pondering over ever since the storm. There were too many things wrong with it - the wind speed, the size, speed, and density of the raindrops, the frightening rapidity with which it built up, and at least ten or twelve other, less obvious things - for her to know where to start analyzing. And all the information she had pulled from weather stations across the country had only served to complicate matters. Nothing matched up, nothing made sense. Nothing had served as the trigger for her mind to click into place and rearrange all the scattered pieces of UN-enlightening information into a single, coherent, whole. Neat as they seemed, sorted into rows and columns on her monitor screens, all the data she currently had on the storm was about as organized in her mind as puzzle pieces flung across the room by a frustrated challenger.

Her computer clinked, softly, having just finished downloading a new batch of data sent by the central weather monitoring station in the next country over. T'eel didn't bother opening her eyes right away, preferring instead to rest them. The columns on her monitors shifted, making room for the new data spilling in as they were analyzed and sorted. Lighter colors appeared, and the miniature map in the the lower right corner showing the coding of the data - black in the center, where their town was, then fading outwards; the hues ranging all the way across the rainbow with red in the south - expanded briefly to accommodate the greater area before swiftly shrinking back to its former size.

A sigh, then a slow creak as the back of the desk chair was relieved of most of its burden. The last cinnamon-scented drops in a heavy mug rolled down the sides of their prison, which was then replaced onto its original spot. A brief pause, while it was weighed, then it sank into the desk and reappeared seconds later, slid onto an empty cart.

Saturday, 14 November 2009

...just when I had sat down and was about to start typing a new blog entry I got sent off to wash the dishes - a whole pile, collected from this morning, with a bunch of new things thrown in. 2 pots and pans, at least 5 spoons of various types and sizes (how THAT happened is beyond me) etc...

Given that I had baked the main course for breakfast, and that 'lunch' involved nothing more than a bit of reheating, I thought that was mighty unfair, since all of that had to be washed with soap and hot water - easy food preparation doesn't mean easy washing up, added to which I prefer the food preparation bit anyway, had aid so long ago, and was given the (mistaken) impression that I would be relieved of it.

Whatever. I started, but tiredness (walking for several hours earlier hadn't helped, nor did the thing with IKEA yesterday which is still haunting me, nor did mom's incessant coughing last night which finally drove me mad enough to try to pummel out of her. Pummel as in the massage-type, whatever were you thinking?) Indeed, I had wanted nothing more than to sit down comfortably.

Well all of that combined with the unwieldiness of the new chopping board (it was longer than the sink, so when I tried to run water over it with the pile of dishes all over the sink... well, the water went everywhere) means that halfway through I went 'aaaargh I'm not doing this any more you finish up'.

...mom had fallen asleep and apparently I woke her up. The ensuing argument (of sorts) added to her final 'all RIGHT then stop washing' when I was about TEN SECONDS AWAY FROM FINISHING drove me through the top.

...Yes, I was temperamental. I'm tired, I guess. Physically, psychologically, emotionally. Tired. Fatigued. EXHAUSTED.

Which means I am no longer in a mood to update right now. I guess you'll just have to wait a bit for more story.

Friday, 13 November 2009

...my mother swore never to buy anything at IKEA ever again today. They're not that much cheaper than other furniture places, you have to build them yourself, and there are all sorts of extra charges.

And the extra charges come with various strings attached...

Like the delivery service. 35 GBP they charge for delivery, and the window they give us for delivery time is 6-12 hours long. They tell you that they'll call before they start the van, but they don't actually do so until they're nearly at your place. Then even if you couldn't take the call for whatever reason they go to your place (in case someone is waiting there), leave a card, mark the delivery as 'failed', and take your goods back to the store, even if you call them 15 minutes later asking about it.

And then they give you two options - be charged another 35 GBP for another delivery (of the same sort of service), or pick it up yourself.

And eve with all that they tell you to sign a disclaimer because they won't be held responsible for damage of any fragile goods.

...搶錢呀?

That sure made my day ==

I tried baking Castilla/castella cake (a kind of traditional Japanese honey cake... based on something introduced from Spain...) and cranberry muffins today. We put the muffins into little tart molds, and they rose beautifully... the cranberries are a bit tart, but I had added less than half the suggested amount of sugar after all :P The castilla doesn't look like it should, mostly because I don't have the proper utensils :P Still tastes nice, though XD

...ah... perhaps I'll update the story tomorrow?

Monday, 09 November 2009

Currently
Apollonius Rhodius The Argonautica [Loeb Classical Library]
By translator) Apollonius Rhodius (R. C. Seaton
see related
...Nightmare.

It's not like I hadn't been working on those assignments. I had! I had already done most of the research, or analysis... all I needed to do was to pin it down to specifics, in the first case by writing it up as a proper essay instead of an outline, in the second by actually answering the questions and typing it up.

Nightmare.

The essay was due on Friday, the assignment on Monday. The essay took first priority, of course, as its deadline drew closer. I devoted Wednesday and Thursday to it... and as it turned out, most of Friday morning, as well.

I went to bed when the day was already light enough that it was properly 'morning', not even 'early morning', see.

For 2 hours.

If my first lecture that day had been on as usual, it would've been 1 hour.

So I rushed to the library to get it printed out (.....0.8 GBP on printing my assignment out... it's NOT FAIR.) and went to the tutorial that was the only thing on that day... (thank heavens. I love my schedule.)

A tutorial that was for the same course as the essay. The previous week we had very few people, but surprisingly nearly everyone was there on Friday.

And then... I slaved over the assignment during the weekend.

Oh sure, I also started preparing for my mother's arrival on Saturday (... I even prepared crepes for her to eat as soon as she got back... ), but Sunday was devoted entirely to the essay. I didn't even dare to care about the housework I'd have preferred to have done before mom got here.

I ended up... not sleeping at all this morning. The gradual darkening and then re-brightening of the sky spelt my deadline in terms clearer than any clock.

I had planned to leave my flat at 9 that morning, to leave myself time to print my work out at least at the library... I ended up working until 9.

Strangely, toward the end the fatigue was slipping away - in the dark hours of the morning I had felt so tired I couldn't think properly, but somehow I revived with the light levels.

Well, Linguistics this morning, in the dark, old lecture theatre where it was... proved I WAS extremely tired. I couldn't stop falling asleep.

English Language proved that fatigue is all a state of mind.

And then I got home and busied myself with putting away all that mom had brought me (most of it belonged in the kitchen... yay hahaha all the baking tools I had asked for and more besides! Colanders! Bowls! That clamping device to lift plates up after you've finished steaming something! Notebook paper! (That was almost the most important, believe it or not.)

I spent today alternately chatting animatedly and cooking/putting things away, and sitting there feeling cold and dozing off. Wierd, huh?

Ah... I guess I was lucky it was so sunny today! I always feel more energetic when there's sunshine and blue sky around.

I had felt blessed over the weekend, because apart from the cold the weather had been flawless.

Before sunset today though.... it looked as if it's getting overcast again. -sigh- oh well, gonna go to bed early tonight, try to sleep tight...

... with mom crowding onto my 4"-wide mattress with me, her jetlaggedness and so forth... I wonder. Or maybe I'm so tired it won't matter >___>

Ah, was gonna update the story, but guess I'll have to do it some other time. Perhaps tomorrow, if I've decided I'm really going to choose my current topic for the gobbet on Friday...

At least the gobbet has a word limit of 600 words ==

Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Currently
Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)
By Alan Cruse
see related
I'm working on my English Language essay... therefore take a look at this footnote in one of the articles I'm reading:

It may be significant that BoEr and Lycan's broadside against Geis and Zwicky's 4.1-page squib ran to twenty-two pages. I calculate that any full rejoinder to their critique would at this rate now require a 241-page treatise, on the assumption that the progression has been arithmetic. The size of a monograph determined by a geometric progression will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Maybe this is more philosopher-style joking to go with one of Grice's submaxims for Manner - 'avoid unnecessary prolixity' (i.e. be brief)? Considering the complexity of language in most of these papers, I'm rather surprised at the dry humour :D

Here's another... I detect a note of sarcasm:

"To those who hopelessly confuse the order of horses and carts, affirming the consequent is a fallacy whichcomesnaturally... 'Whencatsarebittenbyrabidhedgehogstheydie.Hereisadeadcat,soobvi- ously there is a rabid hedgehog about' ... The arguer has mixed up the antecedents and consequents." (Pirie, 1985: 7-8)

Follwed by...

"This is an extremely good fallacy to use when you wish to impute base motives to someone. You can always gain a hearing for your suggestion of less-than-honourable motives, by use of a skilfully affirmed consequent: 'She's just a tramp. Girls like that always flaunt themselves before men, and she did appear at the office party wearing a dress that was practically transparent!' " (Pirie, 1985: 9)

Hmmm... bitterness?

Here's more from L. Horn himself:

instances of fallacious reasoning from commercials to political sound bites (perhaps not that long a stretch)

...he's even got Plato in there:

In this respect, the latter differ palpably from those sophisms and fallacies in dictione, those dependent upon ambiguity, ety- mology or other aspects of linguistic form and development, as in the classic casuistry of Ctesippus in Plato's Euthydemus (298): 'This dog is yours, this dog is a father, ergo this dog is your father' (Hamblin, 1970: 27, 55ff.).

Whoa... talk about harsh. Could you imagine that from Plato???

I considered leaving this out because this entry is getting rather long... but I just can't. It's too classic:

But there is no immunity against the drawing of unnamed fallacious conclusions, even for those who should know better. Here is Douglas Walton, professional Cana- dian fallacist and author or co-author of over two dozen important books and papers on the topic:
"For similar reasons [to those determining the invalidity of inferences involving affirmation of the con- sequent], denying the antecedent turns out to be invalid as a form of deductive argument. For example, the following argument is incorrect: 'If you're in Toronto then you're in Canada. You're not in Toronto. Therefore, you are in Canada'. This argument is invalid because the premisses could be true in the case where you're in Chicago. But it does not follow that you're in Canada ... Perhaps unfortunately, apply- ing deductive logic is not so straightforward as one might think or like." (Walton, 1987: 74)
Indeed, not so straightforward at all, especially since Walton is not instantiating the conventional (5b) mode for the denial of the antecedent but is rather inventing the brand new fallacy in (5b'):
(5b) DENYING THE ANTECEDENT: TRADITIONAL MODE
If p then q.
Not p.
Therefore, not q.
(5b') DENYING THE ANTECEDENT: WALTONIAN MODE
If p then q.
Not p.
Therefore, q (anyway!)
- not a mode of inference likely to tempt too many down the paralogical primrose path.

He goes on to pull the Greek philosophers into it:

For an equally implausible mode of fallacious (or sophistical) reasoning that is less likely than Walton's to have arisen from the failure to proofread one's copy, we have this curious non sequitur from the Stoics' compendium:
"Incoherent arguments are arguments which are invalid because there is no logical connection of the premises with one another or with the conclusion.
If it is day, then it is light. But in fact wheat is being sold in the market. Therefore, Dion is walking." (Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math. VIII, Pyrrh. 2.146, in Mates, 1961: 82 and Ebbesen, 1981: 27)
Or, more generally,
(11) If p then q.
r.
Therefore, s.
Even the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues never tried a ploy quite that blatant.

Oh ye who worship Plato and/or Socrates... don't hurt me! I never wrote that! :P

...in any case, even though the author invented the concept I'm researching, this article seems to be completely irrelevant... or at least, not at the level I'm studying. Alas. On to the next one.

...or not.

For some reason I've been waking up to about an hour before my alarm sounds, and then getting sleepy at around 10... geez. What the heck is going on???

Was going to update Dancing Among the Aspens (the next bit will be about Taheela... it's been too long :D) but guess that'll have to wait a bit...

Sunday, 01 November 2009

The degree to which the weather affects me is rather amazing... Allow me to daydream a bit in the middle of (finally) working on my linguistics assignment, and imagine that I am somehow connected to some kind of supernatural being(s) that control(s) weather...

Earlier I had a separate daydream - Wouldn't it be nice (especially for people like me, who are slightly claustrophobic and whose moods are also highly sensitive to weather, particularly light levels) to have blinds that act as mirrors? Imagine - during the day, when the weather is nice, you open the blinds so that the natural sunlight could come in and flood the room; when the outside becomes dimmer than the inside of the room, you close the blinds, and voila! Instant mirror! Not only does your room feel bigger, but it's also brighter thanks to the reflection of the lights in the mirror. Wouldn't that be grand?

I've been fantasizing about how the skilful placement of mirrors could make one light take the place of dozens, incidentally. I mean, since mirrors reflect light so well, surely it makes sense to use them to maximize the amount of light in a room, right? Right??? Especially when we're all trying to save energy!

Saturday, 31 October 2009

Currently
The Golden Bough
By James George Frazer
see related
The dish on the windowsill still held some syrup, but that didn't matter - it would attract other soon enough. Brown and white markings wove slow patterns in the air as the butterfly warmed its wings up, then launched itself into the air. It dipped at first, heavy with its large meal, then, recovering, glided across the garden. The flashes of colour on its wings drew wandering pathways through the air for a while as it searched lazily for the unique composition of scents signposting the route it wanted to take, gaining height all the while on minute currents.

High it climbed, and still higher, trailing glimpses of brown that looked curiously like writing behind it on paths that covered ever greater areas. Brushing past the top of an oak, it paused, fluttering to maintain its position as it sifted through the potpourri of odours carried by the breeze. It plunged into the stream of air then, satisfied, and was swiftly borne away out of sight in a smooth curve.
I'm tired from working on my essay and have therefore just started reading a book I borrowed from the university library... since I didn't get to buy books on minor religions and couldn't attend courses on them either, I've got no choice but to do something like this, right!

Lol.

I've JUST started it, and it's already disturbing. Check this out, and this is just the SECOND paragraph of the PREFACE...

Thus, for example, on the crucial question of the practice of putting kings to death either at the end of a fixed period or whenever their health and strength began to fail, the body of evidence which points to the wide prevalence of such a custom has been considerably augmented in the interval. A striking instance of a limited monarchy of this sort is furnished by the powerful mediaeval kingdom of the Khazars in Southern Russia, where the kings were liable to be put to death either on the expiry of a set term or whenever some public calamity, such as drought, dearth, or defeat in war, seemed to indicate a failure of their natural powers. The evidence for the systematic killing of the Khazar kings, drawn from the accounts of old Arab travellers, has been collected by me elsewhere.[1] Africa, again, has supplied several fresh examples of a similar practice of regicide. Among them the most notable perhaps is the custom formerly observed in Bunyoro of choosing every year from a particular clan a mock king, who was supposed to incarnate the late king, cohabited with his widows at his temple-tomb, and after reigning for a week was strangled.[2] The custom presents a close parallel to the ancient Babylonian festival of the Sacaea, at which a mock king was dressed in the royal robes, allowed to enjoy the real king’s concubines, and after reigning for five days was stripped, scourged, and put to death. That festival in its turn has lately received fresh light from certain Assyrian inscriptions,[3] which seem to confirm the interpretation which I formerly gave of the festival as a New Year celebration and the parent of the Jewish festival of Purim.[4] Other recently discovered parallels to the priestly kings of Aricia are African priests and kings who used to be put to death at the end of seven or of two years, after being liable in the interval to be attacked and killed by a strong man, who thereupon succeeded to the priesthood or the kingdom.[5]

In short... a whole bunch of customs involving periodically (short periods, not long ones.... ranging from 1 year to 7 years...) the election of a 'king' and, some time after, ritual killing of said king.

It seriously gives me the creeps...

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

...serves me right for not updating the story yesterday... now my effusive entry about my wonderful, WONDERFUL apple crumble is gone... dang...

Ah well.

IT IS WONDERFUL DAMMIT.

The first time I ever ate crumble I fell in love with this kind of dessert. Dry, rich, biscuit-like crumbs on top, sweet and/or tart, juicy fruit on the bottom. It was the perfect combination.

Afterward, I went for it nearly every chance I got. And since my family doesn't do dessert much, most of those chances came when I was boarding.

Well, regardless of whether it was dorm food or proper menu item at a restaurant... I was usually disappointed. Quite often the problem had to do with the crumble - it wasn't dry enough, it was too sweet, it wasn't crumbly, in fact it was for some reason one hard thick layer that was a rather unappetising gray on the bottom.

NOT THIS TIME!

You know, people have been asking me why I've been cooking so much. The answer is simple, really: 1) It's so much cheaper to make it yourself, and 2) what can I do when what I want to eat can't be bought? After all, most of the food I miss is from a whole other continent!

...even the apple pies and cakes taste better back home... == And those are European inventions aren't they...?

Monday, 19 October 2009

...yes I am ashamed of myself.
'Do you realize you're muttering to yourself?' Laert jumped at the words he had felt more than heard, spinning around hastily and almost tripping over his own feet. '...wow, that's a great impression of a grasshopper. Do it again!' Ke'et's tradmark grin flashed as he watched his best friend make a spectacle of himself.

'Ke'et!' A flurry of emotions raced through Laert's mind - shock, guilt, embarrassment - before settling on exasperation at himself for having been surprised. '...I should have known it was you... geez, Ke'et!' He was still panting slightly from the shock, and paused for a gulp of air to calm his breathing. 'What is it now?'

Ke'et still looked far too amused at Laert's rare discomposure for Laert's comfort, but at least he didn't remark on it any further. 'That's my line. I didn't know you believed in faeries still... what, did you see Peter Pan last night or something?'

'Huh?' One word responses were all that Laert could produce with 99 percent of his brain occupied with the thought OH DEAR JESUS I JUST KNOW HE'S GOING TO FIND OUT WHAT DO I DO. 'Faeries?' FEIGN IGNORANCE TO THE MAX!!!! 'What faeries?' ...huh, maybe Ke'et wasn't laughing at his shock after all. Or rather, not JUST at his shock...

Ke'et raised an eyebrow as his Stop-Being-Stupid Face (ver. Victorious)™fell into place. 'You were muttering "The faeries did it" just now.' The line of his mouth slowly stretched into a grin as he shifted into interrogation mode. 'Spill!' The grin disappeared for a second as he pondered the guilt written all over Laert's face, then returned as he pounced, 'This has to do with the aspen grove you were supposed to ask your gramps about doesn't it!'
On another note, Toradora! (とらドラ！) is awesome.
Somerfield's new Co-op products aren't so much.
Overcast days definitely aren't.

... And I finally remembered what I wanted to blog about. Could you imagine someone taking only 2 courses (one with 4 lectures a week, one with 3) which are, moreover, back-to-back (10-11 and 11-12) missing about half and being late to most of the rest of the lectures of the earlier course because it wasn't her degree? Even though the two courses are closely related?

I couldn't... but they exist.

...well maybe the fact that the lecture notes (available online) are wonderfully complete has something to do with it...

Me, I choose the lectures...

Wednesday, 07 October 2009

...I have learned a lesson today. Never, ever start preparing a minestrone soup for dinner less than 2 hours before you plan to have dinner... and absolutely NEVER wait until you're hungry to start preparing dinner. Unless you could just stick it into the microwave or something. -sigh-
Ok... that was from yesterday. Today's lesson is: It's way too difficult to generate your own input method == And that I don't really like the Yale and Jyutping romanizations for Cantonese.

-sigh-

Does this mean that I can't make the system learn which words i use more frequently, and have to do it all myself by tweaking the code? And that if I want it to learn shortcuts I'll probably have to do them one by one myself as well? I don't really want to learn computer programming, seriously...

But at least Snow Leopard lets you cycle through the input methods you've chosen :D
...and all of that was ages ago. Or at least a few days ago... guess I'll just start a new entry ==