| Steampunk Style Test |
[Aug. 10th, 2008|12:11 pm] |
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Your result for The Steampunk Style Test... The Scientist50% Elegant, 52% Technological, 50% Historical, 36% Adventurous and 23% Playful! 
You are the Scientist, the embodiment of steampunk’s academic side. Where other technological styles might emphasize the gadgets of the genre, you realize there is more to science than doohickeys and gears. Your accessories are medical bags, test tubes, measuring instruments, and academic papers. You are more likely to carry a compass, quadrant, or ether-attuned spectrometer than a wrench or welding torch. You probably carry a timepiece, and your prolific reading gives you every right to wear spectacles. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of your style is that it combines the frock coats and bustle gowns of the 19th century with the trappings of Victorian science. Try our other Steampunk test here. Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy |
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| One of those silly journal games |
[Aug. 31st, 2007|07:03 pm] |
- Comment and I'll give you a letter.
- You have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter.
- Afterwards, post this in your journal.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fxl gave me the letter "S":
- Strangers in Paradise (by Terry Moore)
- Sojourn (by R.A. Salvatore)
- Snuff Box (BBC3 Series)
- Soup (Grandma's Cheesy potato-, Pea & Ham, Cream of Mushroom,)
- Space (Outer, Wide Open, Hearts of,)
- Sunkist
- Stetson Fedoras
- Science Fiction
- Suits
- SLR (Digital) Cameras
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| Tick Tock |
[May. 29th, 2007|05:42 pm] |
I like my clocks to be either wind up mechanical or powered by electricity through a cord. If they have a battery backup- thats cool, but I generally don't like clocks that are solely powered by batteries. I have never bought a clock that only runs on batteries.
I do actually own a few pocket watches that run on batteries though. However, my favorite is the one which does not. |
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| Eurovision 2007 Semi-Final results |
[May. 10th, 2007|04:45 pm] |
Well, what can I say?
First of all, out of my picks the only ones who needed to qualify in the semi-final to make it to the final was Andorra, Israel, Georgia, Czech Republic, Estonia, and Bulgaria.
I am happy to say that both the entries from Georgia and Bulgaria made it to the finals. Particularly, Bulgaria, which was a surprise to me.
What didn't? The two big shockers to me is Israel and Andorra. MOSTLY Andorra. Anonymous from Andorra should have been a GUARANTEED entry into the finals. But it was not. That blows my mind. They rocked. They had great crowd reaction there in Helsinki. They had more fresh raw energy than any other participant.
Yet they didn't make it past the semi-finals. I heard a good deal of boo-ing there after the results, I suspect that I was not the only one to be shocked Andorra didn't make it. I find myself rather pissed they didn't make it actually. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
On a side note, I didnt pick Serbia but they move on to the finals. I do like their song. Great song actually. Kind of a lesbian looking group and the lead singer looks like Roy Orbison but it was a great performance.
Oh well... now we wait for the finals on Saturday. |
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| Real Life Mystery |
[May. 8th, 2007|01:15 pm] |
In my life, I can only recall two strange mysteries I have encountered. The first, and perhaps biggest mysterious event I have or will ever encounter in my life isn't something I am going to talk about here. But I will discuss the 2nd one, because it happened today.
Earlier today I pulled out my laptop carrying bag to get it ready to carry my laptop in. Inside the main pocket, one of my pieces of paper I had jotted notes on years ago was very damp to the touch. Picking it up, I could feel that it had been recently soaked, and was still very damp. The the ink from the writing had started to bleed in the paper as ink tends to do when it is on paper that gets wet.
The reason why this is so unusual, of course, is because I haven't even looked inside this bag for weeks. Nothing else in the pocket was wet. The pocket was not wet. I checked the bag and the area around where it has been sitting... nothing else wet. I looked up at the ceiling for signs that the rain had dripped in on top of my bag... no signs of a external water source whatsoever. Nothing to explain how a piece of old note paper in my laptop bag got wet... nor why nothing else around it got wet either. Just that single piece of paper.
As I now write this, some 2 hours later, the piece of paper has dried out.
I have no answers. I only have this unusual mysterious event. |
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| My Eurovision points distribution |
[May. 5th, 2007|02:34 pm] |
I decided to rank my current preference of Eurovision entries just as each country assigns points in the voting process.
| Eurovision Points from Starius |
If anyone is interested in using this table for themselves, I'll post the code. Just a simple html table though.
I feel I should explain some of my picks as they do differ from my previous top 4.
After listening to a lot of the entries now, my opinion has changed a bit. I still favor Verka Serduchka as my top pick. Some people will think me crazy for this. (Those that really know me allready know I'm crazy.) I start off every day listening to that song now. It just puts me in a happy mood. Do I think he will win? No, not a chance. But thats not gonna stop me from giving him 12 points. (Like my points really matter.)
Russia's entry has dropped quite a bit in my personal opinion. The only reason why its on my ranking is because I do like the tune quite a bit. The reason for dropping? The lyrics... too much sexual innuendo and I don't think that will actually hurt them in the voting from a lot of the countries involved.
Romania, Israel, and Andorra are ranking high in my opinion now. Romania's entry being the most friendly of the bunch. Israel and Andorra are a bit more political in nature, which I think historically doesn't do that well in Eurovision but they're great fun songs never the less.
Finally, I'll just point out Georgia's entry. I have no clue as to how well this song will do in Eurovision but it's really grown on me after repeated listening. Love the tune, love the voice. |
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| Starius' top 4 Eurovision 2007 Picks |
[Apr. 28th, 2007|02:12 pm] |
Well, I have no big favorite this year. I don't imagine ever seeing a group grab me again like when I found out Lordi was going to Eurovision last year.
I don't know what the hell England is thinking, their entry is horrible this year. I'm not even going to post a link to it.
Here are my top 4 (so far):
Ukraine
Its so catchy in a crazy kind of way. Probably my current fav.
Romania
I think this song best captures the spirit of Eurovision.
Bulgaria
No way in hell it has a chance to win but I love the performance.
Russia
Kind of standard pop fair but the girls are hot. Better than Russia's last entry, I personally think. Though the guy they had last year was in the top 3 or 4 I think. |
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| Enemies of Utopia? |
[Jan. 10th, 2007|01:18 pm] |
I saw this in the Wikipedia entry for Utopia a few minutes ago:
Take notice of the first line. I didn't particularly think the use of "dick" and "ass" should be used in a definition of Utopia that way. It's not even grammatically correct! And just as I was wondering how I might report such a thing, I hit refresh and the offensive line was gone.
I guess Wikipedia is generally pretty good about staying on top of such things. |
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| And life goes on... |
[Dec. 2nd, 2006|12:24 pm] |
Since I've been living in a hotel in Rochester, we've been getting our groceries on Saturdays at a Walmart.
In the checkout isle, this morning, the woman ahead of us had the following items in her cart: A newspaper, a cloth item of some type, and 16 2-liter bottles of Diet Dr. Thunder. That's a lot of Diet Dr. Thunder, a drink I have never seen until today.
When we took our cart of groceries out to the truck, the parking space next to us had 2 empty carts in it, in spite of the fact that the cart receptacle was just 2 parking spots away from our location. I had a instant urge to put them in the receptacle.
My father placed our own empty cart right next to the 2 lone carts and I made the comment, "You're just a part of the problem, not part of the solution."
My fathers reply, boastfully, "Yep, I'm part of the problem!"
In a rare instant act of karmafication, the wind picked up and one of the carts started rolling away and hit the door of a nearby car.
I retrieved all 3 stray carts and put them in the cart receptacle myself. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 22nd, 2006|06:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  numb | ] |
My mother has cancer in her esophagus. |
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| Green grass and high tides |
[Sep. 19th, 2006|07:08 pm] |
Today I've fantasized about using Zoysia grass for my dream home lawn. It's a nice shade of emerald green and billows around in plesant round clumps when it really gets going.
Unfortunately, according to something I read on a horticulture iastate page, it would be dormant 8 months out of the year, here in Iowa. Which, just isn't very suitable at all.
Anyone know of any other slow growing thick grasses that are similar? They'd have to grow well in cooler climates.
I'm thinking I should investigate various forms of prarie grass, this is prarie land after all. |
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| The CW |
[Sep. 17th, 2006|10:01 pm] |
Tomorrow (Sept. 18) is the premiere of The CW network.
Which, is pretty much just The WB + UPN's America's Next Top Model & Veronica Mars if you weren't aware.
Speaking of Veronica Mars, it starts Tuesday October 3rd, at 8PM CST.
However, Smallville & Supernatural start Thursday Sept. 28.
And those are pretty much the ony shows I care about on the network. Other than "Hidden Palms," which will hopefully be a midseason replacement this year. The pilot leaked out months ago, and I found it very intriging.
And thus ends the CW public service announcement.
Everything else of interest, I'm just going to keep to myself. |
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| The Starius State of Address |
[Aug. 14th, 2006|05:50 pm] |
From the time I was young to my early - mid 20s, I was very much a avid fan of modern technology. Specifically, I imagine mostly "consumer technology." However, this took a drastic change.
It started simply enough with a decade of internet use and frustration with the windows operating system. The Internet, for me, turned from a limitless resource of innovation and educational expansion to comercialized system of commerce. It was also a way for me to be more socially free but after time, just became a limiting factor of my own social abilities. And as far as computing experience goes, windows has been a steady downhill decline for my user experiences.
From this, I started to become much more critical of material goods and the material world I found myself in. Most of our exposure to new technology is in the form of consumer gadgets, and they are increasingly made more cheaply than ever before. Things are now mostly made to be disposable and I found I have no desire to have such things.
So, I took a complete 180. I began to appreciate elements of the past. Antique items... I started to pick up old cameras... took a interest in old telephones (I plan to pick up some Western Electric 302 phones whenever I can), I have a typewriter from the late 30s/early 40s I'm looking to restore, my dream car is the 1953 cadillac, and pretty much anything manufactured prior to the mid 60s has caught my eye. Things used to be made with quality, made to last, made to enrich life... not just add to it.
At some point, and I'm not sure where, my materialistic view helped defined my own... spiritual one? General life outlook? I don't know what you'd call it. I am much more interested in specific factors in all things now.... quality, naturality, and lasting well being.
In recent years, I've taken a interest in using old for new. My big future life plans consist of someday turning the big barn on my family farm into a home. I feel it holds wonderful potential. I don't know when it was first constructed, but at some point it was covered with tin and it has preserved the wood inside wonderfully. The 2nd story (loft) in particular has marvelous wood flooring, as bales of hay have been sliding over it for decades and have naturally made it quite smooth.
I'm very much interested in using environmentally friendly renewable and recycled materials to build my home. I'm very much interested in earthbag building methods as it seems to have a lot of effecient benefits. Should I ever start this project, I think I would also add solar panels and a wind turbine as well for not only a lower cost of living, but for more of a better impact on my environment.
Overall, I seem to be developing a philosophy similar to that of The Development Center for Appropriate Technology.
Although my dream of turning the barn into a home would certainly add to my longtime desire to have a very big house, I must admit I am facinated and somewhat attracted to very small environmentally sound houses. I discovered Tumbleweed Tiny Houses today and I love the little homes featured there. It has some ties to the Small House Society of Iowa City, ironically enough.
I think, for me, this all stems from a inner desire to be more self reliant and a fear of losing my sense of creativity. And of course, also my resentment of a ever comercializing world. As I've gotten older, I've found more things to be disenchanted with... that make me feel more empty and hollow. I don't want to dwell on such things. Creating a way to live, building my own home, and saving as much cost while still retaining my own sense of quality has me more interested in living than anything I can think of for a very long time. |
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| Destroyer! |
[Aug. 1st, 2006|09:35 am] |
At the risk of instigating jealousy in both enemy and ally alike, the purpose of this post is to inform you that I have the Remo Williams soundtrack.
Purely instrumental soundtrack, that is. It doen't contain Tommy Shaw's Remo's Theme (What If) song.
But that doesn't bother me much. |
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| Uhhhh... I suck. |
[Jul. 30th, 2006|07:10 pm] |
Week 2 (I think its week 2 or maybe the start of week 3) of my PC being down. Still waiting for Thermaltake to send me back my replacement power supply. Worked great for 2 years, then it died. Thankfully, they have a 3 year warranty on all products. For a high end 680w power supply, I'd hope it would last a lot longer. But, then agian, my particular model was a early version of that line.
I feel really stupid about something that is now a) in the past, b) ultimately nothing I can change, and c) probably bares little affect on my future. Yet, my mind keeps dwelling on it? Why must I obsessively dwell on such worries?
Current book I'm reading?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Picked up the mass market paperback version at Wallmart, had to the minute I saw it. I recalled reading about it a few months ago and that it sounded like they were going to turn it into a feature film. At 800 pages, it even dwarfs Neil Gaiman's American Gods... though Gaiman himself seemed to enjoy the book.
So far, the pace of the book has been very slow but I'm actually enjoying that quality about it. It certainly isn't lacking on detail in any shape or form.
I need a job very very soon. I have sent a resume in to a hospital for a help desk tech support position, twice actually. Once by fax and once by email. Wanted to cover my bases. (And I wasnt sure if the fax went through. It was my first fax from Mac OS X. It kicks major ass that I can fax from any application, like it was a printer.) I just need something decent very soon, I am soon approaching the threshold that I didnt want to cross in my savings.
I watched Beowulf & Grendel this weekend. There is something about the movie that seems a bit... unfinished? Unpolished in terms of editing? I don't know what it is... but in spite of it, I enjoyed the movie. Good cinematography. You might get the impression that it could be a horror movie, and they certainly could have gone that route, but it really isn't. Grendel's actions are shot in a way that rather tame compared to how they could have handled it. I saw it more as a drama really. And it's nice to see Sarah Polley again. I first saw her on the Road to Avonlea tv series and have been a fan of hers ever since. I don't see her in much of anything anymore. Seems she mainly works in France these days.
Why do I want a calliope? Like I could even play such a instrument.... would be awesome if I found one of the old ones that used piano rolls.
I've also developed a facination on nixie tubes recently. I'd really like to make a nixie tube clock.
Okay, thats all for now. |
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