Actually, what I should be doing is reading 60 year old journal articles for my Ion Channels class (yeah, you can actually take classes devoted to ion channels. It could be worse really... American roommate is taking classes about genocide. She says it's how to prevent it.. but you never really know). The papers are actually awesome (I'll spare you the neuro geekery about that though), but they're very long, and involve trying to understand algebra again, which I've successfully avoided for quite a few years now actually.

So... update!

And the Giants won the Superbowl! Clearly I picked the right city to come to this year.... I was down near Times Square last night, and it was awesome. People celebrating on the street, everyone honking (well.. okay, that's normal. But it was in a happy way, for once!).

A meme that I've had kicking round for a couple of weeks (from quenya_tattoo, which given that it's about music, will surprise no one). The idea is to post here, so that I can pick three bands that I know you're into, which you then choose your top 10 favourite songs for. And list them.

So, onto the ones she picked for me... whee!

I just heard that Edmund Hillary passed away this morning in NZ, and because I'm feeling more shocked than I should be (he was 88), I feel the need to share the news.

In case you're sitting there going 'who the fuck?', this was one of the first two guys to reach the top of Mt Everest (he'd never say which of them was actually first, and it's really not that important), and a kiwi. He's on our $5 note, not exactly for that achievement, but because he followed it up with a lifetime of being what I can only describe as a Top Bloke.

Obituary

Thoughts are with his family, and out to New Zealand and Nepal, since I know that he meant something huge to both countries.

Meme time again, following a bunch of flisters who've posted the first of these:

Ganked from valhalla_sol and spirit0fstlouis

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

Back to New York and the weird world of grad school tomorrow morning - no more of this fresh air and exercise and other types of Canadian madness! Yay! Actually, I already want to go back to Canada and explore more (ubiquitous Australian tourists aside, it's so sane up here!) - I hear awesome things about Montreal, which is convenient, what with it being the closest to New York. Any other suggestions of particularly cool places though?

Check it out - after weeks a while back thinking about it, not doing it, driving frogmanmw85 a little insane when it was late, and finally pulling  finger:

My newly published "comics art debut".

Scroll back over the last 6 or 7 comics for context, or just wonder about how messed up science makes you.


Alright, enough fun... I should get up and go... find my day's mouse. *sigh*

Partly in the interests of balance, partly because I'm bored and my (always decent) procrastination tendencies are currently spinning out of control, and partly because since the writers' strike is denying me the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and thus my weekly dose of outraged/hilarious political ranting, I have an urge to point out one place where the US political system has the rest of the world (or more accurately, the parts that I'm most familiar with) well beaten.

In two illustratory articles:

1) Democrats and Republicans join together to override Bush' veto: If the link doesn't work for people, it's just an article discussing a couple of funding bills where Republicans have crossed or are crossing the floor to get things past Bush/the Executive being dickheads.

Of course, if Bush wasn't there being a dick, he wouldn't be using the veto on what seem like pretty decent bills generally, but the more I think about it, the more I do like the fact that you every vote here is what we'd call a 'conscience vote' - i.e. that you're not obliged to vote with your party. It redresses the polarity of the two party system to some extent, and is a good check on things if a small group in the governing party starts running completely amok with their electoral mandate and doing crazy shit to the country (which is pretty much what happened back home in the mid-80s, and we're still recovering).

Contrast this with current events in NZ politics, where you always vote the way your party/caucus (the MPs from that party who are in parliament) has decided to vote behind-the-scenes, and where the two major parties have gotten so similar in the run-up to next year's election (which IMO is still an improvement on the Opposition party's last strategy, which was to appeal to white middle-class armchair racism and get funded by scary fundamentalist religious sects that don't even vote) that they literally pretend to disagree in public just so that they're not seen to be supporting bills from the other party.

2) 'the Government is Evil for Giving Everybody Money, but we'll take it anyway...'

Yeah, so we're kinda totally insane too. I guess it's kinda nice that they're both relatively sane on a lot of issues, so there's not really that much to argue over.. but COME ON! If there's nothing to argue over, there's a very simple thing to do, and that is to STOP ARGUING. Go do something more useful, like shaking hands and kissing babies...

...oooh, speaking of which!

3) at least we're not fighting over babies!!

Someone last week (and I can't remember who it was exactly, but nevermind) expressed to me their sympathy for having the misfortune to arrive in America in preparation for an election year, I think since it makes it more insane than usual....

...now, I didn't really agree, because I quite like being in the midst of all the insanity, because a) what happens in to the American Presidency has huge ramifications for everyone else in the world, so it's not like I'm getting that much more coverage on it (particularly since I avoid current affairs shows here - with the obvious exceptions of the daily show and colbert report - like the necrotising brain plague that they so are), and b) as I've been told semi-regularly, 'you need to live in america to really get it'. Not sure that Northern Manhattan really counts on that line, but nevermind.. I'm at least pretty close to the thick of it when the Iranian president comes to town to be insulted and then say crazy shit.

But sometimes, my mind truly boggles at how elections (and to some extent, the entire country) work here.

Today's Reading: If lying about facts and then not admitting it works for Bush, why can't it work for me?

So the article raises a lot of things I'm confused about (starting with 'when did the idea of socialised medicine gain similar pariah status to, say, industrial pollution of drinking water, so that it can be used as a bogey-term to inspire fear in the hearts of Americans, and why did no one pass on the memo to the rest of the world?' But never mind... that's something I'll be wondering about for a good long time to come, I'm sure), but mostly...

....how the hell does Giuliani think he can get away with that sort of patently ridiculous lie? Actually, no... because clearly, he pretty much has gotten away with it... how the hell can he do that? Is it just a case that people WANT to believe that the American health system isn't really so bad, so they won't jump all over something (no matter how wrong) that suits the bias? 'Wouldn't it be nice if Britons really did die more than we do, in spite of it all? Damn royalist colonial oppressors, they deserve it!' Or that it doesn't matter what he says, because he isn't a) a woman, b) a black guy c) a guy with a poofy haircut, so how can one think to actually criticise him?

Okay, so I'm exaggerating, but really... I just don't get it. 6 Years of being lied to by a guy that refuses to own it when proved wrong.... and now one of the biggest candidates for his successor is doing exactly the same thing, with barely a slap on the wrist. At least England, for all its devilish commie-fangled 'socialist medicine' had the sense to get a new Prime Minister who does things differently...

Having an indulgently lazy weekend this week: laundry, cooking (I now have stuff in the freezer that ought to feed me for the week, yay!), cleaning the bathroom (French roommate and I went through experiments with baking soda and boiling water this morning so that hopefully it'll take less than half an hour to drain the bath after anyone has a shower now... yes, maybe you wouldn't want to believe it, but apartments with four girls in them are GROSS). More importantly though, since that so far sounds neither indulgent nor particularly lazy, yesterday I took a trip downtown (well, to 72nd St, which only counts as downtown for Columbia students) to find myself the most recent Q, and ended up in Barnes and Noble being seduced by books.

I managed to limit myself to a couple from Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, which I have read before, essential reading for any music nerd, especially of the  British persuasion, and About a Boy, which I have only ever seen in the Hugh Grant film version), and the complete works of Lewis Carroll. But that won't last for long.

I also read a book that my mother left here in September - the Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a doctor that gives away his Down Syndrome daughter in 1964 and tells his wife that she died. Somewhere between 'scarily poignant' and 'disturbing look into varieties of WASP emotional repression', but I liked it.

Following up a great tip from krazycake I've joined www.goodreads.com - last.fm but for books!  That's right, I needed MORE outlets for my obsessive/lazy tendencies. Check it out people, it seems pretty awesome.

Anyway, I shall return to High Fidelity now, and leave you with a quote that inspired me to actually write a post in the first place.

"All my life I've wanted to go to bed with an American, and now I have, and I'm beginning to see why people don't do it more often."

 Hmmm.... to update, or not to update?

Okay, quick update: I'm good, New York is still awesome (although at times freakishly irritating, as with this morning when three subway stations (mine and the ones on either side on the line were closed so the police could investigate some sort of accident),  grad school is starting to own my soul...

...yeah, that's pretty much it. Other stuff's been happening, but it's most out of date by now... so whatever. You don't get to hear about it. At least not tonight.

Time for another round of the lyrics game!

Ganked off fatal_blue and quenya_tattoo.

BOOK MEME THING
These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise that you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand.


Apparently I don't really hate anything. Or I hate/can't finish stuff like the Forsyte Saga (which is sad, because it's where my name came from, and the reason I hate it is that I hate my namesake for being dull and submissive...) . Anyway, lack of strike-through is making me feel a bit sad. Maybe I should try reading more Dickens, just to give myself some opportunity. And in general, kinda a poor showing. Ah well, the street book sales with their $2 second-hand 100-level english requirements should set me up eventually. Well... in between finishing off George RR Martin, anyway. 

Well, as of 8 minutes ago, I've turned 23 on every continent on the world (except California. Which clearly is not only it's own continent, but also solar system, universe, and ice cream flavour of mindliness. No really).

Which means that big celebrations are in order, for I am OFFICIALLY a spinster! At least, by Regency Standards, which are the only ones that matter (you can't argue with a period that makes you wear dresses that have your boobs falling out that much. Seriously). I also found a fellow Austen enthusiast today at our Neuroscience department party, and we had a good chat about the movie versions of Persuasion. And Cyclops Flies. Good times, as only biologists can have (which probably means immensely lame times by anyone else's standards).

Also, in case I don't stay up late enough to talk to you tonight, quenya_tattoo you rock so much, thank you!!! Now I can see the lameness of my meme-ified house for reals! Actually, I'm totally reconciled to being a Baratheon now that I have G for company. Oh yeah.

Right! Bed time! Or George RR Martin time. Either way. Enjoy the Gummi Bears, folks.

Man, what happened with the science marks? Clearly this is telling me I should stuck with history. Or maybe done Lit Studies on Graphic Novels ....

Ah well. At least I'm socially awkward, so I can blend into classes without looking too cool to be doing science or anything. Very relieving.

If I was your first experience of kiwis, you probably already think we're all insane...

...which, although true, is possibly somewhat misleading. We are all insane, just not usually in all the same ways as me. But one thing that the vast majority of us do tend to share insanity over is rugby. Not league, not football, not soccer, definitely not gridiron... rugby.  So right now, there are two days to go before the Rugby World Cup starts. The whole country (with the exception of my mother, and maybe some other weirdos) is kinda on edge, to see whether or not we'll finally win again. And I mean on edge... to be honest, it's quite nice to be out of there, and not caught up in the general media stress over every single detail of every thing that's half related to the bloody game. (Although of course I've already gone to some lengths to organise somewhere to watch it over here).

Anyway, the point of this ramble is to introduce you to this article from the Independent (my snotty condescending British liberal newspaper of choice). I came across it this morning, and not only does it neatly encapsulate some of the NZ insanity over rugby, but it absolutely cracked me up. Read it, and know that it is all basically entirely true about us. If anything, it's an understatement.

Honestly. Losing the World Cup has consequences in NZ. The economy crashes. Governments are changed. Periods of National Mourning (and of course, blame-games) ensue. I'm not even kidding. Well... actually yeah, mostly not kidding.

Less than 24 hours till I leave home and start on the Big Journey... I'm currently stuck somewhere between melancholy, anxiety, and badly-controlled panic and frustration over trying to pack all my stuff (or at least all the stuff I want to take for the next five years... which is near enough to the same thing) into a few suitcases and boxes. Thankfully my mother is a genius with the last one though, so I think that's pretty much sorted. Just the computer left to go in, apart from the last day sponge bag type shit which will have to wait till tomorrow morning, so I guess I should probably not take too long over this entry.

...but then how would I procrastinate?

Anyway... the last month and a half or so has been kinda hectic - or at least, these last two weeks have been. But I've got through the end of work (I went in the weekend, monday and tuesday after my contract ran out, because I'm a geek), the going away party (yay for parents buying lots of nice champagne!), the final grandparent visit (which was combined with the visit to get Granny to go into respite care... an interesting few days), and the decisions about which CDs, and comics come over with me (All the CDs of course, Watchmen, Preacher, Sandman, Sin City), and the thick fantasy book for aeroplane reading (Scar Night, by Alan Campbell - I took half an hour looking through the various titles at a bookshop that I hadn't read before, and this was about the only one that stood up to flicking through to see whether the writing was horrifically genreish. I've caved already and read the first chapter, and I'm excited. A few of you will probably have it forced on you when I'm over, I think).

So... yes, this will have to stand in for a proper update, which I've been completely useless at for the last few months. Next time I talk to all of you, I'll probably be in Manhattan, trying to do one of:
a) make myself understood through a kiwi accent/or attempting to pick up a Noo Yawk one
b) stalking Bret and Jemaine
c) cashing in on Bret and Jemaine's fame by thickening up my accent...
d) hoping that my packages haven't got lost in the mail (CDs! Comics! Sexy knee-high boots! I shan't be able to live without them for long...)
e) actually doing something useful to get myself set up there. But if you guys see me, odds are that I'll be as far away from productivity as I ever am...


Right, time to put the computer down and away in the suitcase, Reenie. yes it is.

Kia Ora, folks!

Right! Carry on!

Alright, for some reason productivity is escaping me tonight (probably because I'm a lazy bitch... but still), and I've been sitting here listening to music again (as pretty much always), pondering the recent lyrics game, that sort of thing. Anyway, it occurred to me that quite a few of the bands that are 'Reenie music' don't really lend themselves to recognising lyrics games, since they're just... yeah. Not exactly lyricists. And yet still rather recognisable, I think.

So this time around, new meme!

1. Pick 10 Artists you think of as 'yours' - your favourites, the ones that most distinguish you, whatever....
2. For each, pick a song that you really like that isn't totally obvious (i.e. no songs with the title in the first couple of lines)
3. Post the first couple of lines of lyrics up here, and a list of the 10 artists.
4. See if people can correctly match the artists to the lyrics

So!

• Tell me where you're goin'/ or what is going wrong/ I felt you leavin' before/ you'd even gone

• Won't you set me up and show me how, its gettin' late/ All these people around me wear me out, can't concentrate

•  My eyes have dried, my hands are tied/ Nothing I can say/ If you feel the need to go/ I won't stand in your way

•  I got two armfuls of magazines for you/ I’ll bring em over /so hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden

•  Despair to the point till they provoke/ The punchline before they have told the joke

• Libraries gave us power/ Then work came and made us free/ But what price now for a shallow piece of dignity

•  You try so hard to be cold/ You try so hard to not show/ I give you nothing to doubt, and you doubt me

•  And all the poems melted/along with the sweltering sky/glass canyons shimmered empty

•  You say you've got to go home/ cos he's sitting on his own again this evening/ and I know you're gonna let him bore your pants off again.

• On a highway unpaved going my way/ you're so alone today/ like a ghost town I've found

The Artist List:
Manic Street Preachers, Pulp, Black Keys, Dave Dobbyn, Gomez, Beck, Arctic Monkeys, The National, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ray LaMontagne

Some of these should be really easy... but we'll see! Match them up (and don't look at other people's posts before doing yours.. you know... if more than one person wants to do this), and bonus points if you can name the actual songs!

Man I'm a geek.

Okay, it's one of the questions in there, and I'm bored... so I've copied this on from quenya_tattoo

Copy, paste into a comment, and complete.

1.)Q. Can you cook?
1.)A.

2.)Q. What was your dream growing up?
2.)A.

3.)Q. What talent do you wish you had?
3.)A.

4.)Q. If I bought you a drink what would it be?
4.)A.

5.)Q. Favorite vegetable?
5.)A.

6.)Q. What was the last book you read?
6.)A.

7.)Q. What zodiac sign are you ?
7.)A.

8.)Q. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
8.)A.

9.)Q. Worst Habit?
9.)A.

10.)Q. If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
10.)A.

11.)Q. What is your favorite memory?
11.)A.

12.)Q. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
12.)A.

13.)Q. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
13.)A.

14.)Q. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
14.)A.

15.)Q. Tell me one weird fact about you:
15.)A.

16.)Q. Do you have any pets?
16.)A.

17.)Q. What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
17.)A.

18.)Q. What was your first impression of me?
18.)A.

19.)Q. What's your favorite food?
19.)A.

20.)Q. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be???
20.)A.

21.)Q. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
21.)A.

22.)Q. What color eyes do you have?
22.)A.

23.)Q. Ever been arrested?
23.)A.

24.)Q. Bottle or Draft?
24.)A.

25.)Q. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
25.)A.

26.)Q. Where's your favorite place to vacation?
26.)A.

27.)Q. What 's your favorite bar to hang at?
27.)A.

28.)Q. Do you believe in ghosts?
28.)A.

29.)Q. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
29.)A.

30.)Q. Do you swear a lot?
30.)A.

31.)Q. Biggest pet peeve?
31.)A.

32.)Q. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
32.)A.

33.)Q. What's your middle name?
33.)A.

34.)Q. Will you repost this so I can fill it out?
34.)A.

35.)Q. Are you happy with the way your life has turned out?
35.)A.

For anyone who was interested in the answers... (i.e. Katey...) here we go!

1. Head Home - Midlake
2. Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye ( quintessmiley )
3. Empire - Kasabian ( quenya_tattoo )
4. Love Your Ways - Salmonella Dub (yeah, it' s kiwi, so no one was ever going to get it)
5. High Royds - Kaiser Chiefs ( quenya_tattoo )
6. Where It's At - Beck ( quintessmiley )
7. It's Not My Place in the 9 to 5 World - Ramones
8. Gotta Know - Supergroove (another kiwi one. But I like those lyrics, so they had to stay in)
9. The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene ( quenya_tattoo )
10. The Girl Who Wanted to Be God - Manic Street Preachers ( quenya_tattoo )
11. One Last Chance - James Morrsion
12. Filthy/Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters ( cad27 )
13. Brilliant Disguise - Bruce Springsteen
14. Arcade Precinct - 1990s
15. 10 AM Automatic - The Black Keys (for shame on all of you!)
16. Buena Vista - Gomez
17. The Wanderlust - Flogging Molly ( quenya_tattoo )
18. The Scientist - Coldplay ( doublel27 )
19. Femme Fatale - Velvet Underground
20. Apartment Story - The National
21. Lay Down - Dallas Crane
22. Trouble - Ray LaMontagne
23. Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers ( cad27 )
24. Quantum Theory - Jarvis Cocker
25. Wake Up Alone - Amy Winehouse ( cad27 )

In other news... I'm too lazy to actually write up any sort of news. Maybe later.

Okay, since cad27 started it off again, time for another round of the lyrics game!

1. No-one seems to be around today/ They must've all gone off without me again
2. I've been really tryin', baby/ Tryin' to hold back this feelin' for so long Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
3. Too much information/ Well I said you're good for nothing Empire - Kasabian
4. I won't settle for second best/ I won't take nothing no less/ And you, (girl it's got to be you)
5. I remember nights out when we were young/ They weren't very good they were rubbish - High Royds - Kaiser Chiefs
6. There's a destination a little up the road/ From the habitations and the towns we know Where It's At - Beck
7. My mom and dad are always fighting/ and it's getting very un-exciting/ to get a good job you need the proper schooling
8. I said "Please Mr. Bankman, I need 10 grand to buy me back my car/ I can't give you no cookie, but if you give me the cash I'll buy you the whole jar"
9. I never saw it as the start/ It's more a change of heart/ Rapping on the windows, whistling down the chimney pots The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene
10. There are no sunsets just silence/ You could see that she was true and faithless The Girl Who Wanted to Be God - Manic Street Preachers
11. In my life I don't mean much to anyone/ I've lost my way can't go back anymore
12. When you're walkin' down the street/ And the man tries to get your business/ And the people that you meet/ Want to open you up like Christmas  Filthy/Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
13. I hold you in my arms as the band plays/ What are those words whispered baby just as you turn away/ I saw you last night out on the edge of town
14. Thursday walking in the arcade precinct/ Jackie was looking so bad/ Couple of girls from the catholic school/ Turning their heads to look back
15. What about the night makes you change?/Oh from sweet to deranged
16. Wake up butterfly/ The sun's fallen down/ The clouds are rolling over/ And we still got many miles to go
17. Do you still walk the streets at night?/ With the wanderlust you fight/ Back to the corner where we went our seperate ways Wanderlust - Flogging Molly
18. Come up to meet you, Tell you I’m sorry, You don’t know how lovely you are The Scientist - Coldplay
19. Here she comes/ You'd better watch your step/ Shes going to break your heart in two, its true
20. Be still for a second while I try and try to pin your flowers on/ Can you carry my drink I have everything else
21. Well the ocean spreads out the front of my house/ If you come from north start heading down south
22. Trouble.../ Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble/ Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born
23. Oh my love/ My darling/ I hunger... hunger for your touch Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
24. Last night I slipped through time to a parallel dimension/ You were alive and happy/ Our children played in trees/ were strong and wise/ and knew no fear
25. It's okay in the day, I'm staying busy/ Tied up enough so I don’t have to wonder where is he/ Got so sick of crying/ so just lately Wake Up Alone - Amy Winehouse

this time, it's from my top-rated... so there's at least half a chance of knowing some of them.