A Taste of England

Haven't posted in a while.  I thought I was going to be all good about it, and post things from England, like how lena, courtney, and kate did on their travel blogs during semesters abroad.  Not so much.  Here's one of my favorite pictures from England, just so I can pretend I did this while I was there:

Instead, as of October 1st, I started keeping a diary of sorts.  Mainly, I bought a book at Blackwell's that has a page reserved for each and every day. I think its designed to keep track of homework or something.  Lame. Whatever it's supposed to do, it's been very good at getting me to write or draw something every day.  Twice I have made other people write in it, so I don't have to.  It's nice.  Maybe I'll have my grandma write in it over Thanksgiving.

So, I have agreed to write an article about Web 2.0 and its influence on biomedical science for the Oxford Biochemical Society's termly journal.  It is incredibly interesting to learn enough about this topic to write a semi-coherent article.  The ideas of open source computing, twitter, blogging, podcasts, etc. are having real effects on scientific communication.  I just have to figure a thesis around which I can organize these thoughts and facts.  I will probably post it, or a semblence thereof, on here when I'm done.  It's due November 27th, so that's not too long from now.   Another picture just for the hell of it:

Regarding the whole computers are becoming more and more important thing, I am hoping to become much better at the internet in the near future.  For one, I'm planning on getting a brand new shiny macboook pro over Thanksgiving.  I currently am unable to do many things like watch videos and run iTunes smoothly.   Really, I think these are both fixable problems, but it's about time for me to get a new computer anyway.  Secondly, I now own sonyahanson.com and I need to figure out something to do with it.  Lastly, my mom gave me this sweet digital SLR as a graduation present, and I might start a flickr page on which to post my good pictures, since I kind of dump everything on facebook regardless of how I feel about its quality.  We'll see if I follow through on any of these things, but I certainly enjoy day dreaming about them.   Especially the new computer thing, and I don't think I can really survive if I procrastinate on that for much longer. 

A few twitters

You ever feel parts of your life are like a soggy puzzle? Every piece you try kinda fits... but not really.

I may, perhaps, be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. But then... if I am, maybe we all are in our own way.

Thinking about this on my ride home: Was Nietzsche the first blogger? So I decided to find an article to post that could articulate my thoughts better than I have the energy to. I was just thinking about how some of Nietzsche's books, really read like a twitter page. APHORISMS = I Heart Nietzsche.  Twitter is such a fascinating thing, I wonder if they had any idea when they started it.

Also, do you think men would feel threatened by a woman who drives this car?

(brrp)

I don't

ever want to feel stressed out.

I don't ever want to feel like I have to do something that I don't want to do.

I feel like this means something.

My two favorite Beatles songs:



And this has nothing to do with my current situation right now, or anything.
They've been my favorites since I was like 14.



Don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't like Hey Jude or When I'm Sixty-Four or any of their 400 million other amazing songs, it's just that these have always stood out to me.

However, I've never been a fan of I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Way better than the moon landing.

hahahaha. The Daily Show half hour summary of yesterday is hilarious. This British dude is having people compare Obama's inauguration to the moon landing.

My mom called today and said, "Hi Sonya, this is mom, I was just wondering if you celebrated for that... you know... how do you say? Obama becoming president thing. I still can't believe it really happened. Anyway, call me later."

On that same topic:


Obama's limo would be a Cadillac.

So, the theme of this post is that today was a super good day, despite the fact that I turned in a physics homework that I know I didn't do correctly, mainly because I didn't start it til this morning. Just getting the shitty out of the way, on the first graded item of the semester. That's how that works right?

Part of the reason I didn't really care about my physics hw was that I was finalizing my travel plans for das two grad school interviews Feb 10-12 and Feb 12-14. I'm so stoked that that's done, now I just have to go interview clothes shopping, and do a shit ton of research on the interests of the people who are going to be interviewing me and... on what I should pretend my own interests are.

Today being good was not based solely on money, BUT I did make $110, BITCHES! In addition, I found the $100 bill in my drawer that I had forgotten I was saving for Vegas this weekend, BITCHES!

SPS and friends went out to dinner for Bickers' Birthday at El Cholo with bunches of his current and former students. It was great. I think he had like three margaritas, and was working the table like mad. There were some old, old students there (like from 98, FUCK that's old). They told us stories about how they used to do the wave during class, and how apparently people used to go drinking at La Barca with Bickers. We're so bringing that back! w00t!

Bringing Back "Kill Whitey"

Hey Guys!

It's been a little over 12 hours now that Obama's been president.

And so far...

AWESOME!!!

Currently watching MSNBC wondering where Rachel Maddow went. Is this the B Team?

Also looking at pictures of young Biden:
Look at those cheek bones!

Anyway. Obama is giving his last pre-ball speech. That's right. Go HOME!! Be the first black man to fuck your wife in the Lincoln Bedroom Just do it!

This isn't the time for U-G-L-Y, You Ain't Got No Alibi.

So this kinda goes along with my idea of having my facebook status be:

"Sonya is a hot blonde, LA, 21, just wants to have fun. I stay up late. XOXO"

But this one is more like a line from a movie from the perspective of say, you know, that girl from Clueless, maybe:

"Just cause you're ugly doesn't mean you wanna be pretty.
Just cause you're fat doesn't mean you wanna be skinny.
Just cause you're dumb doesn't mean you wanna be smart.
But I know for a fact that everyone at this school wants to be me."

Other things to think about:
Just cause you're nice doesn't mean you want to be mean.
Just cause you're poor doesn't mean you want to be rich.
Just cause you're locked up doesn't mean you want to be free.

You can do the race and gender thing with it, too. It's sort of fun to think about things when you phrase 'em this way.

No, I'm not high.

Try not to engage in wishful thinking.

-Prof. Hogen Esch, Chem 322b (2nd semester Organic Chemistry)

So it seems I would actually love to go to the drag art show I mentioned earlier. It opens on January 15. I'm not really available this weekend or next, but maybe the weekend after that or sometime on a weekday we could arrange a field trip. Courtney and Heather have expressed interest. I would also like to bring as many sophomores and freshmen as possible. Corrupting the youth is in. The juniors are a lost cause.

It's against my programming to impersonate a deity.

- C3PO in Return of the Jedi.

I'm still really impressed with this movie. I think a lot of it has to do with John Williams' music. It may be totally corny, but it works so well.

So... my facebook status right now is about how I am watching Return of the Jedi, and like within seconds after I posted it, an acquaintance of mine (below)from high school (I seriously don't think I ever had a conversation with him) responded with a very positive "Fuck yes!".

When I was home over break and drinking beers with my band director and the rest of my marching band class, we started talking about this guy, and apparently he is in a band now with a few current high school students. Dubie (high school band director) told us the whole high school like worships him now cause he's some badass drummer. We had no idea! He just played keyboard in the pit in marching band!

It's also highly possible that he's not really that good, and high schoolers are just dumb, but it makes me think about my hopes and dreams for the following year and upcoming future. I hope to continue playing French horn, probably mellophone, perhaps dabbling in trumpet (I know they suck, but I have my reasons), to the point where I'd love to be in some makeshift funk band or something. I don't care how good it really is, it just seems like it'd be fuckin' awesome. Like a random stress reliever and something to care about other than work.

For a reference point, this is pretty much how I envision my future:

The Internet is a Wonderful Place Full of Rainbows and Puppies

So, although officially it may seem like my brother is unemployed, he introduces himself as an 'internet entrepreneur'. He even has business cards! Yesterday at the bank when asked his title he said 'President' and after I, he, and the banker had a good laugh, he showed me his card for this company called Reducible Systems Inc. Apparently it's 'one of the first quantum computing companies'. I like to think he's full of shit, but I have no idea.

On a similar entrepreneurial note, today he's borrowing my car to go to lunch with someone interested in this domain name that he owns: http://www.mathissexy.com If you click on it, it will take you straight to my brother's homepage, which honestly is not that interesting, other than the fact that has a picture of him on it that prompted Courtney to comment on how we look a lot alike.


I did a search for 'math is sexy' on google, and came up with some interesting things, such as the blog at http://calculust.com/ which provided me with such interesting things as the holiday classic above entitled Present Parallel Universe, and the inspirational video below, which is corny, but whatever.



Also this quote:
"When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability."

And finally, a great picture from the google image search for 'math is sexy':

So, my brother just got off the phone with said partner in his mathissexy.com venture, and apparently the lunch date is off: they talked about everything they needed to talk about over the phone. All I have to say about that is that I kept on hearing my brother say 'Algebra is for Lovers'.

Scientology: Funny and then not so funny.

So after the World of Wonder my brother and I walked to the Psychiatry Museum on Sunset:

As suggested by Pepper Ann, sometime during bowl week.

It was sweet. I mean, granted, hilarious, and ridiculous, and you wonder how much money they put into it. Just check out how well done it is.

I'm sure there is some truth to it. The abuse of mental patients back in the day a la One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And the abuse of the words ADD and depression nowadays to sedate the human population into robot functionality.

But... Scientology, I'm sorry, you've gone too far with things like this:

And this:

Little Foot is da bomb shizzle. So is Ducky.

Today I hung out with my brother (left).

That is, after catching a little bit of The Land Before Time on TV while eating leftover pizza for breakfast.

Because there is nothing to do in Riverside, we ended up driving back to about 15 minutes away from my apartment to go to an art gallery called the World of Wonder in Hollywood. We almost bought this print (right), but then we realized neither of us had a good place to put it. At least not a good enough place to spend $50 each.

This was also one of those art galleries with lots of pictures of genitals, gay sex, girls fingering themselves, and transvestites.

WHICH reminded me that we haven't taken the freshmen to Hollywood nearly enough.

On a similar note, these are the last few days of this particular show, and on January 15, the World of Wonder is hosting a NEW exhibit featuring DRAG QUEENS. Anyone else interested? The collage of RuPaul on the left is a sneak preview of what you would be missing.

Killing Time with my Rhymes.

I'm going to my mom's tonight to see my brother in the first time in like a year. My christmas present to him was a ticket to the Rose Bowl, so he's in town right now (well, he's in Riverside, with my mom). He's also unemployed, so has nothing better to do than hang around. I'm ready to leave for the side of R now, but I can't because I would get stuck in traffic:

So I'm killing time for the next few hours, by doing a bunch of random shit while listening to this radio station that I found a while ago, and I don't remember why or how. It's SCAD Radio, from the savannah college of art and design in savannah, georgia. It has single-handedly increased my respect for that area of the country. It also reminds me of NPR, but for cool people, which is like the story of my life right now:
JADED about the liberal college life of my dad (etc), which is basically NPR in life form.
BUT at the same time realizing that there are some good things about it, and
TRYING to figure out how to incorporate them appropriately into a life of awesomeness:

AKA: music, drugs, alcohol, violence, and nudity.