I'm experiencing an unusual phenomenon right now.

It's called "free time."


My new semester is relatively slack. I've got an assignment due tomorrow... but I'm done it. HOURS AHEAD OF TIME. This has never happened before.

I've done 5 loads of laundry today. Basically every article of clothing I own. I've even folded and put away every single thing that's dry. This has never happened before.

And now I don't really know what to do with myself. Maybe I'll go to bed. At 9:00 p.m. This has (almost) never happened before.


The workload of last semester has changed me. I'm all productive and stuff! I sleep well and wake up early! And you know what? It paid off, because I got a freakin' 80% in what's generally known as they heaviest workload Computer Science course at my university. OH YEAH MAN. I AM AWESOME. AND NOT AT ALL EGOTISTICAL.


What other mundane occurrences have I got... watched the first season of Flashpoint, and have enjoyed it. Going to the lake again this weekend. Feel like dancing! The dial-up interet has even been relatively speedy today (THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE).

All in all, I'm content!

H'okay. One more day until the end of the Spring Session. Oh man. Last week was brutal... 3 huge assignments (well, one was not so huge, but I didn't have a clue what I was doing), my presentation (with a partner whose accent is so strong that I literally can not understand what he's saying 75% of the time), and a lab exam (only one of my three programs worked by the end... the other two were barely started). And now I've got two final exams tomorrow! Which I'm currently avoiding studying for. :D

Nevertheless, this last semester was AWESOME. School hasn't been this fun or satisfying (or frustrating) for a long time.

Also, I now can not look at a computer program without wondering how it works (or rather, without mentally figuring out how I think it works).


On to more fangirly things...

So, I've watched the entire season of The Listener now. I couldn't wait weeks for it to air, so I did *cough* download *cough* it. Rest assured, I will watch it on actual TV when it does air (since I actually can, for once!).

And you know what? I really, reeeeeeally like it. For the first time in a long time, I would go back and re-watch my favourite bits over and over, sometimes the whole episode.

Also, the season finale was AMAZING. And ended with a cliffhanger, so it seems they may be anticipating a second season.

Something semi-random that I loved... there was real, genuine snow. I'm not sure I've ever seen snow like that on TV before. Full-on character-slipping, piled-on-the-roads, fluffy, Canadian snow. It was brilliant.

Ok guys, I've got a new show to recommend for you.

It's called "The Listener", about a paramedic who happens to be able to read minds (whoo!). The main character, Toby Logan, has been a telepath his entire life but always tried to ignore it, until one day he realized he could use it to help people.

Maybe not the most original premise for a show, but I enjoy it. Toby's paramedic partner, Osman "Oz" Bey, brings great comic relief to the show, and I quite like him as well. Also, as you may notice from my display pic, the guy who plays Toby sorta resembles Jake Gyllenhaal and Jon Togo. Whoo!

No, it's not the most OMG ABSOLUTELY AMAZING show in the world, and hasn't necessarily been getting the best reviews, particularly from American critics. But, here's the kicker: it's not an American show.

That's right, folks. This show is actually a Canadian show. And it doesn't suck. And has been picked up by an American network. Which, you know, NEVER HAPPENS.

See, Canadians have the inate ability to instantly recognize whether a show is American-made or Canadian-made. Usually it's because the production quality just isn't there, which is a direct result of the budget not being there. But, for like, the first time ever, I actually WANTED to watch a Canadian drama, because it ACTUALLY looked GOOD. It is thisclose to passing as American. Except it's not!

So yes, I am totally biased because I would like to see it succeed. But, from an objective standpoint, I watched it and liked it before I even knew it was airing in the States. I hope you all check it out. I would really love to hear your opinions on whether it up to par with the heavy-hitting American dramas.

P.S. It has aired internationally as well... actually I think the season's already over in most places, yet we're just starting here.

( And now, some more in depth discussion about Canadian and American TV )

Anyways, I've kind of blabbered on long enough about this. I had more interesting things to talk about originally, but I kinda lost focus. Perhaps another time I will remember the things I wanted to bring up. For now, I gotta go. This laptop is way too hot on my lap, and it was over 30 degrees out today.

TTFN!

Look, it's me again! Right now I'm bored-ish and don't know what to do with myself.

I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7, the successor to Vista. So far, it's decent. Actually, it's mostly identical to Vista, just takes a little less RAM, and has fewer annoying pop-ups. Everything basically looks and is organized the same though. Has some new wallpapers (that are gorgeous!) but that's about it. The taskbar is a little different, with big quick launch icons and icon-like button things for your open windows.

Overall I give it a thumb up. It's not terribly exciting simply because it's the same as Vista. It's basically akin to how Windows 98 was just like Windows 95, only functional. *shudder* Windows 95 *shudder*

Also, did you know that you can fit the entire human genome in 3GB? As my Compy Sci prof said, you could carry your entire genetic code on a USB keychain wherever you went!

Hmmm... what else. My lovely roommates have gotten into watching Supernatural. There's been a wonderful droolfest going on lately.

Yup. I'm gonna go slink back into my little cave of boredom now.

*waves* Remember me? Contrary to popular belief, I did not actually fall of the face of the planet. In reality, my computer died. Which is close enough, I suppose.

But I've got a new laptop now! And it is SWEET. Oh baby does it ever rock. I mean, it's not outrageously awesome, but 4GB of RAM is all a girl could every really ask for. And the Bluetooth has been handy too!

I have almost completely and utterly neglected LJ since my computer died (complete with grinding noises and smoke... very dramatic). My primary computer was this crappy old desktop that couldn't seem to handle an internet connection. So, in short, I haven't read a damn thing in the last two months. Someday I may catch up, but that day is not today.

That's because today (and by today, I mean this current time frame as opposed to specifically today) I am super-motivated regarding my classwork. I am going to show them all how awesome and smart I am! As one of a handful of female Computer Science majors, I have extra motivation to kick everyone else's asses - both for pride and scholarship reasons.

If I'm being honest, my LJ updating is going to continue to be extremely sporadic from hereon in. Now that I've kicked the habit, I find I've got all this extra free time to put towards important things like studying and/or cooking proper meals. P.S. I have become a culinary genius!

So, Internet Land, I bid thee yet another temporary adieu. Someday I may return, sharing stories of my great triumph over Geek Land, and how they crowned me Emperor for Life of the Computer Science department due to my outstanding awesomeness. Not that I've spontaneously developed a giant ego or anything.

TTFN!

I'm suddenly feeling very confined to a small area of the world.

Here I was, randomly Google Mapping, when I realized that last weekend I'd travelled farther west than I'd ever been before, and I didn't even realize it.

We went to Calgary for Thanksgiving last weekend, and on a whim drove out to Golden, B.C. Gorgeous drive through the mountains, and gave me an appreciation of the fact that I don't necessarily have to travel halfway around the world to see some amazing places.

The farthest south I've ever been is somewhere in the Florida Keys (around Duck Key, a name which never ceases to amuse me, as it sounds like "Ducky").

Until now, I'd always thought that the farthest east I'd ever been was somewhere in Florida too. But Google Maps showed me that that's not true. In actuality, the farthest east I've ever been is... Toronto (and only in the airport). Suddenly my world felt a whole lot smaller.

The farthest north I've ever been is roughly here, around Kingsmere Lake. In Saskatchewan, this is starting to be "way north" and there are few roads anymore (in fact, the particular point I marked was reached not by road, but by canoe/foot). Then I scrolled east a bunch, and find out that it's still farther south than places like Belfast and Moscow (not to mention all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland... and Scotland too).

It's funny, because while I know my geography pretty well (and am not totally ignorant of the rest of the world like an unfortunately large number of people on this continent), it's hard to grasp the actual relative latitudes and longitudes of these places. Florida seems really far east because it's on the Atlantic coast. Kingsmere Lake seems far north because not many people go past that point. Golden doesn't seem that far west because it's not so far from the edge of the Rocky Mountains.

I still desperately want to travel. But you know what? Canada is a pretty big place. There's plenty to see here, and I don't even have to buy a passport! :D

P.S. Saskatoon is here. Head east a bunch, and it puts me roughly halfway between Birmingham and London. Guess I had better start walking!

Holy crap, is this for real?!

I saw a promo for the upcoming CSI:Miami premiere.

( OMGSPOILERS )

In other news, there's a cute boy in my chemistry lab! (lol) Also, school is going brilliantly (but boring so far, as I haven't learned anything new yet).

First off, has anyone else been enjoying the daily Olympic-themed Google logo? It looks like today it's a chicken playing baseball. Brilliant.

Secondly, I just finished watching Firefly (and Serenity). ZOMGAWESOME. Now I know what all the fuss was about. Highly recommended. Excellently character-driven.

As a result of watching Firefly, I have now officially entered a Nathan Fillion phase. He's a fantastic actor, his expressions and delivery of lines are just spot on, and he's hilarious. And Canadian!

Segueing to my third point now: ( Accents )

I was having a fantastic night/morning/whatever you call it when it's now 6:00 a.m. and I haven't slept yet. I was reading about various technology advances, and discovering that there are some ridiculously cool new developments in the tech world that I thought would still be years away. It has suddenly occurred to me that the difference between mainstream knowledge and the absolute leading edge stuff is huge, and that I've been missing out on this whole new interesting world by sitting around and letting information come to me instead of actively pursuing it.

So I suddenly had this renewed faith in society and what humans are capable of.

Then I came across this, and it all went down the crapper:

Crazy Ranting Dude

I am now sad.

(For the record, I am nothing like this with my whole OMGWANNAMOVETOENGLAND thing. I have sanity.)


So, to cheer us all up, enjoy this lovely photograph:

By Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin Gorskii

Oh yeah, did I mention that the above photo was actually taken sometime between 1905 and 1915? It has been digitally retouched and fixed up a bunch, but despite that, it's still pretty fricking amazing. This is basically the untouched version.

See here for more info and brilliance

AMAZING.

I seem to be in a bit of a "Stickin' it to The Man" mood today.

Started with a brief desire to convert to Buddhism. Progressed to reading about legal mind-altering drugs, as well as the debate about teaching evolutionism or intelligent design in classrooms. Now I have this strange urge to write a book about the epidemic of modern-day propaganda and misinformation.

Society, overcome your obsession with materialism and prestige! Throw off the chains of conventionalism and the status quo! Embrace your fellow human and work together to improve the world instead of destroying it!

[/liberal rant]

Gah, man are LJ Layouts ever a pain in the ass. For several reasons:

1) I thought I was being all clever by coding the ads to not display. Then, I upload the CSS and nothing works, at which point I nearly lose it. Then I see this little gem in the source code:
/* suspect CSS: trying to alter LiveJournal ad placement */
Whoops. I guess LJ's a little smarter than I gave 'em credit for. :p

2) I don't even bother trying to work around Internet Explorer. Reason being.... well, it's Internet Explorer. 'Nuff said. So, yeah... screwed up layout in IE is just a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the sake of my sanity.

3) Inexplicable inability to change the colour of the links at the very bottom of the page. I am utterly baffled. I could change the font size and underlining and everything, but not the colour. Weird.

4) Haha, my monitor colour/contrast/saturation is so sucky. I've had the same problem with icons... everything looks good on my compy, but then on a different screen it looks too bright and hideous. Same thing here... I see a classy-looking, subdued, autumnal colour scheme. But on a different monitor... whoa. Very garish. Very seventies. I feel like I should be wearing a polyester leisure suit just looking at it. *shudder*


Fixing the archives and tags pages is gonna have to happen another day. I'm going to bed. 6:30 a.m. seems late enough, eh?

I am of the belief that multi-cat strength kitty litter is a very good thing. There are some things in life that are just worth spending the extra couple bucks on. I'm guessing this is one of them. Not that I have any experience with regular strength litter, but I think I'd rather not know.

Actually, I'm not even that bothered by cleaning cat litter. Oddly enough, my bigger issue is the dark, claustrophobic little corner that the litter box is in. *shudder*

[/important philosophical topic]

Heh heh, nice little contrast to my entry 10 days ago... then it was the middle of a fricking blizzard, and the streetlights reflecting off the clouds and snow made everything glow eerily orange, bright like the sun was rising.

Right now it's nice and dark, and there were plenty o' stars! No more snow, and this time I stood outside in shorts and sandals instead of fleece pants and winter boots. Yay for Canadian weather!

(Then I got creeped out by a windchime and hurried inside... that's what a Supernatural Season One marathon over a 30-hour span does to a person, lol)

In a hurry, but wanted to do this meme quickly, so in no particular order:



List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

1. Disturbed - Down With The Sickness
2. Collective Soul - Where The River Flows
3. Snow Patrol - Run
4. Weird Al Yankovic - White And Nerdy ...lol
5. The Poodles - Metal Will Stand Tall
6. Letzte Instanz - Gewissen (hope there's no typos in there...)
7. Snow Patrol - Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

w00t!

SO BIZZARRE.

You are a dog

Or maybe you are a mosquito, you certainly can't be human. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 21.1kHz

Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

Everything was great - loud and annoying - right up until the very last one, and then... nothing. So strange.

I first heard about this "different age, different frequency hearing" thing in my psych class last year. Apparently teenagers sometimes use a high-pitch ring-tone so they can hear their cell phones ringing, but their teachers can't. My prof got someone to Google the audio, and all us young'uns heard it, but he was like "Yeah, I got nothin'" (he was about... 40-ish). WEIRD.