Star Trek marathon

Philosopher-Linguist and I spent the weekend watching all the Star Trek movies, except the newest one which we had seen a few weeks ago.

I suspected I had already seen the first movie, but didn't remember the content. It turns out I was right. I've heard criticism that it was just like a long episode rather than a movie, but frankly I don't understand the distinction in style. Wrath of Khan seems to be everybody's favorite and consequently I'd seen it a number of times - but still, I don't think it's that great.

Search for Spock and the Voyage Home, I did think were that great. Both were funny, compelling, and did a wonderful job of playing the distinctive personalities and especially showing the particular weaknesses of McCoy, Spock, and Kirk. Final Frontier was okay, and the Undiscovered Country was somewhat grinding but I liked it, mostly because of the extensive and multifaceted involvement of the Klingons.

Generations was entertaining, but logically full of holes, and I don't mean just the usual Star Trek continuity glitches. First Contact was great, as I remember it. Funny, I didn't remember the Borg being involved, but they were, and I LOVE Zeffram Cochrane. Insurrection and Nemesis were both solid sci-fi films, though I think I liked the first better.

Finally, the latest Star Trek film is AMAZING. Its plot is kind of arbitrary, and the direction is predetermined because it's a prequel, but I love what they did to show all the characters as young. Also, Kirk's mom is Cameron from House and young Sulu is Harold from Harold & Kumar.

On kouroi

"The main argument of the lecture, as I recall, was that 5^th/4^th century kouroi evolved from a kind of prototypical anonymous person into a kind of ideological art representing the ideal of being Athenian, autochthonous, divinely descended. All the features were still in a sense idealized, abstract, even if the form became more realistic, but increasing realism invited the viewer to identify with it. This reminded me so much of advertising, particularly the beauty industry, today. Viewers, readers, consumers are encouraged to identify with images representing a small, culturally praised section of society – and with techniques like airbrushing, the visual markers of that group can be further idealized."

Xmas list updates

Add:

digital camera, because I can never take photos

Subtract:

bike helmet, because apparently there's already one.

Dear Santa, this year I want in my stocking...

I've been pestered persuasively enough to post my wish list earlier than I had intended. I actually went to the trouble this year of starting a list on paper about a month ago. Yay for preparedness! Here it is:

sneakers (size 8.5)
rain boots
new insoles & laces for my Docs (size 6 British)
soft scarves
everyday pants

new helmet
bike repairs

a red lamp, bulb, or shade for my current lamp
squirt bottle
a cool tote or small backpack
a copy of the Odyssey
chocolate, Burt's Bees, incense, and soap

geeky T shirts (some of my favorites below, usually wear size L)
*Music + science = sexy
*High on chemistry
*Particle physics gives me a hadron
*Mu kitten

Freezing

I don't think it's ever before been so cold (relative to my location and what I'm used to) that I actually think about how to spend as little time outside as possible.

(that was more yesterday than today)

Last day of classes!

Joints, fire, and wind

If you thought that subject line was going to lead into a stoner joke you will be disappointed...

Thursday night I twisted my ankle by "rolling" my foot, that thing that can happen where the sole kind of folds to the side underneath your foot. Unfortunately I was running at the time so it caused a bit of damage. It was quite painful for about 20 seconds, then seemed alright so I continued on... about 10 minutes after sitting back down inside it started to hurt again and swell. I had to use crutches to some degree for most of the weekend. Now, however, with the aid of my super-ankle-support hiking boots, I can walk pretty normally, if a bit slowly.

This morning in physics lecture we had an AWESOME demo. Our prof took a metal tube which evidently had holes in the top, though I couldn't see them until he started, and a hose feeding into it. Apparently it was a gas hose, and he set the gas coming out the holes in the top on fire so then there was this tube with a row of little flames poking out of it. Then the cool part: a speaker on the other end of the tube. He adjusted the frequency and the flames changed in height! When it was at a random frequency, they were mostly the same height. When it was at a resonant frequency, standing pressure waves were formed inside the tube and the flames were short, taller, super tall, back down again in a static waveform according to the pressure variations. It was awesome!

It's just starting to get cold and windy in the way I normally associate with most of October and November, and which I'm used to seeing break with a nice rain in mid-December. Since it was already raining quite a bit earlier in the fall, I'm not sure what to expect from the weather this year. Strange.

And this is only the first semester

Yesterday I got up, had breakfast, and got to my classroom around 8:30 to do some reading before class. Starting at 9am I had three hours of class. I grabbed some food and oriented myself to my options, and decided to work through most of lunch. Three more hours of class followed, after which I went to work and did dishes. Finally after work I got dinner and messaged online for about half an hour while I ate. After that breather, at about 6:30, I swung by Commons for an energy drink and packed some books and my computer to the library, where I finished the first draft of my current paper and then continued reading Aristotle. At about 9:30 I got hungry and realized I'd better get to Commons quick before they closed. I got my snack and then migrated back to the library. It wasn't until 11:30 when, my concentration fading, I looked up at the clock and thought - my god, I've been working almost nonstop for 14 hours. I'd known the whole time, of course, that I was planning to stay up until about midnight - that was the purpose of the energy drink. But it didn't hit me until the very end that I'd done nothing but school for just about the maximum amount of my day plausible.

I really like this final paper I'm writing. It's about irrationality in collective life as portrayed by Plato and Euripides.