Thanksgiving

I never really did anything deeper than write down tasks I could do and some how-to links for different professions.

On another note, a housemate let me borrow a fan, since my old fan is in one of the bins somewhere far back.

( Read more... )

I, for one, welcome our new Russian overlords, and would like to inform them that fanfiction is not harmful, counter-revolutionary, or bad for your 'associates'.

I wouldn't be writing any polislash about Putin, though.

(Oh, that joke is really popular on the Internets)

You may have seen this. Being that I am well aware of the ability for half-true information to get around and somewhat aware of psycholinguistics, this meme amused. I also began to wonder.

( I can read l337sp33k, so this was easy )

It sounded plausible, I know that there was some psycholinguistics research done in the US and the UK. I had to find out though.

A Cambridge University student breaks down true and false bits of the meme

Hey, it's on Snopes.

Languagehat includes links on that theme

I hope I can summarize this correctly:

Yes, you can read and understand jumbled up words in your native language. It's more involved than that. It depends on the features of the language (Some words in English aren't spelled the way they sound), the different words that could fit the jumbled word, and short common words ('teh') are better understood. Readers take longer to look at a jumbled word, but most do understand it.

Also, one guy pointed out that reading it quick makes it easier to understand than slow.

Woke up with a hacking cough, headache, aches and runny nose. Figuring that temperatures in the negatives is not going to make it better, I stayed home. Right now, I am looking at 25 companies and seeing what they do and taking a peek at job listings.

So, from looking at the job listings, to get the jobs in my major, I have to be working toward the PhD. I have to be really good at statistics, and be an experienced programmer. This is aside from having 3-10 years experience.


I am none of those. I'm screwed. I originally wanted to do informational interviews with people working on interesting-looking projects, but I am wondering if that is useless. Hell, what do I tell them if they ask how I came to be interested in it and what my experience is?

I can write, I have a portfolio of linguistics and technical writing, but it isn't worth shit, apparently. How am I going to improve my statistics and programming skills anyway? If I do come up for a job, are they going to look at me taking basic classes after I earned my degree and assume that I am an idiot?

In other news, I did pay off my first credit card bill.

So, the paper is finished and I am still very tired. There is not much to do except pay off what I owe for medicines and a transcript. I also need to study for my phonetics exam. I am not sure I want to go home right away. I could opt to change planes and land home rather than a stopover, but it will touch down late at night, with a lot of luggage. I perfer to stay in a hotel, explore the city, then go home.

Two interesting sites: Multiracial Activist and Race Traitor. There is a part of me that does want to forget the whole division of humanity into races, but I worry that 1) that while groups like Multiracial Activists are all for breaking down for 'perferences' in hiring and education, that they forget to look at 'perferences' for legacy scholarships (still mostly benefitting 'white' folks) or people 'perferring' to search their car or flush their name out of voter rolls because of their skin (never mind if the person calls themself 'black,' 'biracial,' or 'my mom is Scottish-Irish and my dad is Jamaican'), and 2) just saying that you are examining and rejecting the privilegesyou were given because of your skin might not be enough. Self-examination is risky and some people don't want to ask themselves "how much is what I got due to my abilities and how much is due to being the right place at the right time and the right sort?"

"Whiteness, not blackness, is the original sin of identity politics," Eric Liu

I am silently despairing of finishing my paper. It is not the length, but that I am so afraid that I will sound like an idiot on it, like I am not sure what point I want to get across. How do you set up tests for these unanswered questions? One person volunteered if I read psychological work, I would know. No, no, it is not a matter of subjects, I don't know WHAT kinds of tests to give.

I am doing nothing this weekend, breaking up long periods of reading by fusting around on the computer. Dinner is the highlight of my day (which I typed earlier 'dead.' Yeah).

Someone's post about programming made me think of it. I am not a good coder, I do not the organization necessary for it, even though I understand the concepts behind it. If I make up my mind to re-learn C++ and Perl (maybe Prolog, I am told it is used much in natural language processing), it will be a purpose, with lots of hand-holding.

I need some hand-holding, because it is lonely here. I don't always think about it, and it was amerolized due to meeting new people, but I never talk much to them. It is my fault, feeling exposed and judged and not doing enough and slacking off too much. Maybe I don't want to build any kind of resume anymore. I was mildly obsessed about while attending classes, but I don't know if I even want a career in the field I have my degree. Maybe I just want a job that pays okay, where the people are okay, and I have some free time.

But what if I regret not going to grad school? How long is too long to wait? Is there a glut/shortage cycle of jobs in the natural language processing area? Will I pay those student loans? What am I going to do in the end?

Um, innocenti, if you're doing that non-goth challenge thing, don't read my entry. Lots of mopey angst here.

( mopey mono-induced angst )

My first time learning bellydancing was very sweaty and physical for something that doesn't seem hard. It's gotten to the point that I hear different songs ("Like Cockatoos" and "Ostia" seem to be big ones) that sound good to belly dance to, coordinating them with the admittedly small reportorie of movements I learned.

Creativity seems to be the key word, getting over some major scenes in my novel, finishing the rough demo of my songs, biking up and down Isla Vista. On the other hand, I am cramped and don't feel up to going to the Chancellor's Reception. I wonder if I should take more advantage of the Institute--sit in on a few classes during free periods, go to lectures, see free movies, actually start conversations. I don't know how actually. "Excuse me, are you going here for the conversation analysis classes or the courses in Chinese corpus linguistics?"

If academia is as focused on who you know more than what you know, I am fucked. I have no razzle-dazzle names to throw around, and while I am interested in certain things, I have yet to do actual work in them, although I read a couple of journal articles, as if that matters. I just want a profession where I can do stuff I like, and make at least enough to pay bills. I bitch about jobs like the telemarketing job, but if that is what takes. Actually, maybe I should push harder for scrubbing floors--no one bothers you when you're doing cleaning work, or insults you for washing the bathroom sink. Sure. Like I get one with my housekeeping habits.

Lingomotors is now not hiring until 2001, so it is up to me to find another job. Back to career fairs and searching the Linguist List. Aw well.

I am on the border of understanding Symbolic Logic, but I am never sure I know a lot or enough to fuck up. "C'mon," Angus says, "you know it cold, why are you having such a hard time?" All I know is that the rules of formal proofs fly out the window when I try to use them. And I still don't know if my Spaulding Rehab stuff would qualify for laboratory work.

I will meet with some Hoffman Grant committee and explain why I am planning to take five courses tomorrow. I will pick up my green notebook, read Statistics stuff to bone up on tests and homeworks. I will try and make up work. I am cash-poor and not sure which CDs to sell off, or when my federal tax return will come in.

Please, I want to make it.