Random Ramblings

It's getting towards the end of yet another year, and as always, that's made me kind of introspective. And because I'm me, my mind has trended towards the idea of learning. I'm working full time, which means that I'm no longer in school. That makes me sad. But on the flip side, internet resources for learning are becoming more and more plentiful, such that I can learn pretty much anything I want in my own time, at my own pace, to whatever level I desire. That's the good thing. The bad thing is that I've never really had that level of discipline.

BUT! What if I could design myself a curriculum for 2013? What would it include? Roleplaying 401 probably isn't necessary (though I can imagine all sorts of cool topics, like, "How to design a GM-proof wish spell," "Min-maxing with classes you never knew existed," and "Statistics and dice: how to cheat believably"). But there are plenty of other things I'd like to learn, and here are some of them:

( Cooking 101: The Basics and Beyond )

( SCA Life 103: Persona Research )

( Bardic Sources 302: The Golden Legend, Volume II )

( Bardic Performance 211: Songwriting )

( Bardic Performance 221: Harmonizing )

( Bardic Performance 231: Guitar Basics )

( French 356: Intermediate Written French )

( Physical Fitness 102: Conditioning )

( Science 101: Introductory Science Overview )

( Math 251: Introduction to Statistics )

Yeah, see what I did with that last one, there? Tied the whole thing together. 'Cause I'm just that good. (HA!)

In any case, if I had all the time in the world, that's what I'd do this year. As it is, I'll try to do as many of them as possible. At least I know I'll always have something to do if I'm bored.

1. Hi-Fidelity Star Trek Quartet (3-minute video) -- a barbershop quartet spoofing Star Trek! Too funny! (And if you like this one, check out part 2.)

2. The proliferation of a virtual species (you'll like this alot) -- for those Internet grammar mavens who get frustrated by people spelling "alot" instead of "a lot," this is your site. You'll like it. Alot.

3. Welcome to the Dark Side: British Isle Named Skywatching Paradise -- when I was younger, I used to do amateur astronomy. This article makes me really want my next vacation to be to Sark Island.

4. Norse problem flowchart (picture) -- anyone with even a passing interest in Norse mythology owes it to themselves to take 10 seconds to view this 4-item flowchart. (Warning: may not work for non-Facebook users.)

5. Life-size Settlers board for Burning Man (pictures) -- I'm an avid Settlers player, and when I win my millions and buy a mansion in some tropical paradise, I'm putting this up in the backyard.

6. Tim Minchin - If I didn't have you (4-minute video) -- hilarious and catchy. Be sure to watch until at least 0:50 before making any snap judgments.

7. The Iowa House v Zach Wahls and his moms (3-minute video) -- I don't often delve into US politics, but this one's worth watching. When I have kids, I want them to be this articulate and persuasive regarding their beliefs.

1. Hospice medical care for dying patients -- a very nice article from The New Yorker, in which an oncologist follows around a hospice nurse for a few days and deals with both his own conflicting feelings and the difficulty the North American medical system has in dealing with terminally ill patients.

2. Pocketful of dough - tips on tipping -- the challenge was simple: arrive at some of New York's most exclusive restaurants with no reservation, only a few large-denomination bills, and try to get a table. Interesting results.

3. Offended by rank objectification of writers -- I'm not a professional writer, but I resemble these remarks anyway. Very funny.

4. Chemistry PhD thesis explained via dance (4-minute video) -- okay, I admit I'm still not entirely sure what the thesis is about, but it's a really cool dance routine!

5. There's a high likelihood that your job postings suck -- having recently some intensive job-hunting (at least in theory), I really wish more companies would read this post and do what it says. I really, really wish that all job postings looked like this, but I'm not holding my breath.

6. If movie characters didn't make horrible decisions -- this article from Cracked is hilarious. Really, while I wouldn't go see any of these movies, the premises are great!

7. How it should have ended (2-3 minute videos) -- I stumbled across this amazing site recently. It's got short videos of how popular movies *should* have ended. Great stuff. And a huge time suck.

1. McJohnson's (1-minute video) -- a clever little parody of the McDonalds Olympics ads. (Featuring the awesome line, "You take a nibble of my big Johnson!")

2. Top Secret Drum Corps (6-minute video) -- if precision drumming was a sport, these guys would win gold. Seriously. It just keeps getting better as it goes on.

3. How I was able to ace exams without studying -- the secret in short: connect new knowledge to what you know already and be creative. Rote memorization sucks.

4. Cell size and scale -- last time, I posted a link to the size of large space objects. This time, I give you a link to the size of really, really tiny objects. (Caveat: The site seems to be down right at the moment. Hopefully it'll be up again soon.)

5. The paradox of choice and the dangers of perfection -- a book review of The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. In short: choice is good, but more choice is not necessarily better, and perfection is not best.

6. This is a Photoshop (4-minute video) -- I don't know if this program is actually available for the general public, but I wants it, precious.

7. Medieval warriors on a campground in Pennsylvania (3-minute video) -- for those of you who are yearning for Pennsic (you know who you are), a 2009 news review of our favourite home away from home. (Friends of loreleiskye will see a familiar face around 2:20. Other bardic friends will recognize Hector of the Black Height at 2:48.)

The Webby awards are out. For the last day or two, I've been browsing through their nominations and winners, and I've come up with quite a list of nifty links. I thought I'd share.

- Love Letter to Montreal -- not actually a Webby, but a site full of beautiful pictures and links about Montreal. Well worth a look.
- Dream it. Do it. -- A career site of nifty jobs. I really like their "career caculator" which combines type of job (eg: social, creative, hands-on) with an interest to give you a list of cool job possibilities.
- How Stuff Works -- Everything from Legos to lightsabers, this site explains how it works. Very well put-together site, with lots of pictures and useful information.
- Slate Magazine -- Slate happens to host one of my more favourite blogs (Blogging the Bible), but it also looks like it's got a lot of other great articles and columns. This one's going to require a bit more investigation.
- These Times Demand the Times -- A portal to many of the New York Times' columnists. I haven't done much exploring, but I like the interface.
- Smithsonian Education -- I always like sites where I can learn more about Nifty Stuff (tm). This is one of those.
- Move Out Move Up -- While I don't necessarily agree that everyone should own a home, the site does have a lot of fun games.
- NPR Podcasts -- A huge podcast provider. I've been browsing their listings for the last hour.
- Earth Guide -- A very nifty, very interactive (if somewhat simplistic) guide to "stuff" about the Earth, such as where we exist in the galaxy, how far up you need to go to hit "space," and the substance of our planet. Well worth poking around.
- A parable for the passing of Jerry Falwell -- Not a Webby, but a very nice parable written by dicea.
- Discovery Atlas -- Some nice video and information about some of the world's countries.

Once I got moving, today was actually a wonderful day. I got some schoolwork done, sucessfully translated Latin in class, and spoke with some level of confidence in my other class. But the real fun started afterwards.

( Click here for the rest, in which I find a new hero and help unlock the mysteries of the cosmos )

So that was today. Tomorrow I've got class until 2, then I'm meeting with two profs. I need to decide whether to go to B5 tomorrow night or to skip it in order to do work. I'll make that decision depending on how I'm feeling tomorrow afternoon. For now, I'm going to take it easy and relax.

I leave you with one final thought: why is it that blogs don't factor in significantly in CSI-type shows? You'd think that, given how many people have blogs and what they tend to put in them, that blogs would have shown up as key pieces of evidence for some of these crime-buster / evidence-collector shows by now. And yet I've never seen one where a blog has even been mentioned offhand. Theories, anyone?

G'night all.