Life as a Science

I'm not sure what I want to write about today. I could write about the fact that I'm coming home in 13 days, but I think I'll let that wait for a little bit longer...until the count has reached the single digits. You won't be able to shut me up, then. :)

I could write about the things I've been reading lately....about the developing world...about poverty, and malnutrition, and starvation of thousands, even though the country has a surplus of food....about disease, and illness, and the respect of the person...about inequality, and biomedicine and how they are all connected....
I could write about these things, but I think it would just come out wrong...like a pathetic cry of "think of the starving children!" from a tv campaign or something.....but it just gets you thinking, when you realize 21.8 million people have died in the past 20 years from AIDS, how TB is infecting and killing millions...even though it is completely curable if only the drugs could be made available. I guess the inequalities have become more real to me over the past few months, and the thought that people can dismiss them, talking instead of politics and personal gains, and the joys of earning money and getting rich...see, this is starting to sound cliche, which is why I didn't want to write about it. It just makes me sad, that's all. Sad because it's horrific and unfair and just not right......and I'm not sure that we'll ever do anything about it.


posted by sordaria @ 5:38 PM

I love musical theatre. Anything involving great voices and fun dancing puts me over the edge, even if it's contained within a rock musical crossing Shakespeare's The Tempest with Star Trek, as in the play I went to go see last night at the Oxford Playhouse. Imagine this: a spaceship set that looked, as my friend said, "like the play spaceships I used to make out of the living room furniture with my brother" complete with shiny tinfoil like wallpaper and random lights and flashing bulbs. Songs out of every genre were used, from "Monster Mash" to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" to "It's in his kiss"....I laughed, I slapped my knee, I marvelled....so corny, but yet so incredibly funny....if I was good enough, this is where I would like to spend my days, I think. On the stage, dancing and singing and living the lives of characters....if I was good enough. I've more than accepted the fact that it's not a possibility for me, but yet, that doesn't stop me from getting a small pang of saddness ever time I watch a ballet, or a musical or go to the theatre.

In other news, it's amazing how quickly a night can pass by, how the sun can sneak up on you, how the realization that you haven't yet slept can creep up on you....and how easily you can dismiss it, not caring, saying "let there be light....bring it on" because you can't imagine a better way to spend the dark hours of the night.

Sleep is for chumps. :)

posted by sordaria @ 1:48 PM

Last night was FANTASTIC.
It started with dinner with the other canadian Rhodes Scholars. We made nachos and apple pie, ate pizzas and started making plans to tour eastern europe. This is an amazing crew of people...my stomach was hurting from laughing so hard. :)

Of course, then my stomach almost EXPLODED from laughing so hard, while I doubled over in the agony of total body paralyzing laughter as the boys emerged from the bedroom, dressed up to go to the HALLOQUEEN cross-dressing party we were going to afterwards at St. Antony's College. There is no way to describe these amazing "ladies" and do them justice...the dresses...the makeup..the hair bows...these 'girls' had the mantra "go big or go home" and man oh man...I'll have to get some pictures up.....oh Aaraon, Tom and Aerial...you guys made my night....

The most interesting thing for me, was to see how well the girls and I fell into our roles of the sexually charged dirty men we were dressed up to me. I happily slapped the guy's (er..guys dressed as girls) butts, made sexist remarks and used "clever" pickup lines....all while trying to figure out with Zinta and Eliana how actually to "dance like a man". We figured it involved a lot of staring at girl's butts and drinking beer.

In total, this morning I have a lingering headache, dark circles under my eyes, marker on my hands and various pieces of men's clothing strewn around my floor (my own, of course...). All signs of a FANTASTIC NIGHT!
Oh the joys of the tickle trunk. :)

WOO HOO!!!


posted by sordaria @ 6:35 AM

For all you people out there who have ever owned a cat, this should ring true:

Cat Haiku:

You never feed me.
Perhaps I'll sleep on your face.
That will sure show you.

You must scratch me there!
Yes, above my tail!
Behold, elevator butt.

The rule for today
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.

In deep sleep hear sound
cat vomit hairball somewhere
will find in morning.

Grace personified.
I leap into the window.
I meant to do that.

Blur of motion, then-
silence, me, a paper bag.
What is so funny?

You're always typing.
Well, let's see you ignore my
sitting on your hands.

My small cardboard box.
You cannot see me if I
can just hide my head.

Terrible battle.
I fought for hours. Come and see!
What's a 'term paper'?

Small brave carnivores
Kill pine cones and mosquitoes
Fear vacuum cleaner

I want to be close
to you. Can I fit my head
inside your armpit?

Wanna go outside.
Oh, crap! Help! I got outside!
Let me back inside!

Oh no! Big One
has been trapped by newspaper!
Cat to the rescue!

Humans are so strange.
Mine lies still in bed, then screams
My claws are not that sharp.

Cats meow out of angst
"Thumbs! If only we had thumbs!
We could break so much!"

The Big Ones snore now
Every room is dark and cold
Time for "Cup Hockey"

We're almost equals
I purr to show I love you
Want to smell my butt?


posted by sordaria @ 8:35 AM

Holy crap...Japan's got some FREAKIN' WEIRD tv shows......

More on this later.
I am currently too confused and disturbed to write more.



???????!!!!!!!
posted by sordaria @ 7:45 PM

It's FRIDAY!!!

wait...how the hell did that happen?

Did I DO anything this week?

What was I SUPPOSED to do with week?

What am I doing tonight?

What am I doing tommorrow night?

oh crap..this means that monday's coming....

I think I have had too much time to think this morning.


posted by sordaria @ 6:26 AM

I remember asking my grandmother and her sister last year what it was like to be in England during the bombings. They didn't really want to talk about it, but I think last night I got a bit of the picture.

Last night was Guy Fox night...apparently, a very big holiday in Britain. There have been fireworks every night since Saturday, and since it seems like anyone and his dog is allowed to set them off, they randomly pop up all around you....which is, I must admit, rather nice, if not horribly startling. :)

Last night I was at a potluck, and all of a sudden, it was like England was being bombed. All we could hear were these loud pops and explosions, coupled with that whistling sound that signals that something is falling towards you very quickly and you'd better get the hell out. On the way home you couldn't so much SEE the fireworks, but you could hear them exploding all around you, their light relecting off the buildings and museums, screams and shierks echoing out of every college and back-yard.

I realized that I was completely on edge -- it was alarming to feel as if your city was being bombed. But then as I was rounding a corner, I looked up, and there above the empty street, was an explosion of white lights, whizzing and flickering through the sky, then falling downwards like a hundred shooting stars.

There's something completely surreal about seeing a fireworks display all alone -- as if it's all for you, kind of a "hello" from the sky.....

What else? Oh yes. This morning there was a beautiful red sunrise over the river...but now it's cloudy and wet. Ah england, how I love how you give me the flu. ;)
posted by sordaria @ 6:20 AM

ARRGH!! I need to stop procrastinating!!!!


ARRRRGHHH!
posted by sordaria @ 9:16 AM