I am a nerd
I mean, I don't often think of myself as a nerd...but recently, I've come to realise just how much of a nerd I am. Not in a L337 way, just in a really academic way.
I know I'm reasonably cool. Not painfully hip, but not a granola munching hippy either (and hippies are arguably quite cool).
I guess...I came to this realisation that I can think of more than 5 PhD students offhand (all of whom skipped masters and are freakishly young), and count them as friends. Not acquantainces, but real friends.
And while it all seems pretty common to me, and we all try to rationalise it (there are about 18000 PhD students in Melbourne Uni alone so they say) a PhD is still a pretty rare thing. One may certainly have the brainpower to achieve a PhD, but the drive (read: nerdiness) required to actually go for it only resides in a much rarer breed.
And I think of how many masters students I know, how many honours students, and suddenly the number just doubles.
So here I am, friend of academics. I was hopeless at the whole studying business, but I realise that if marks and papers weren't an issue, I'd love to sit and read. How nerdy can I get? I just want to sit and absorb information.
Last night I spoke to a PhD student I was introduced to by Brydon, another PhD student. Brydon introduced him as "the one stop information shop" and from a PhD student, I reckon that's pretty high praise. Coming from Brydon, himself a repository of anything from "how to germinate warratahs" to "it is technically possible to create a chicken with no head, beak, feet and 4 wings"this was very very high praise indeed.
So I sat there grilling him on really silly questions that no one had been able to answer satisfactorily.
"Why is Naploeon considered the 1st antichrist?"
"What's the entire history of Palestine and Israel?"
"HOW did they decide that there was going to be a Jewish state?"
"Why do they speak Hebrew if the state was kind of formed only 50 years ago and they mainly spoke Yiddish anyway, and Yiddish is now a dead language?"
"You mean Palestine does not technically exist????"
"Why do the French have such a superiority complex? What gives them reason?"
"How exactly is the Taiwanese Paliarment structured?"
"Why is Nostradamus considered seriously?"
"What's the difference between the Howard goverment centre-right and normal centre right?"
and he actually managed to answer it all. AND.
I was actually interested.
WHAT THE HELL. I just sat there absorbing it all in, because I'm actually interested in knowing about France's superiority complex. and exactly how right wing is very right wing.
and it struck me that I AM SUCH A NERD.
The 9 year old who finished Lord of The Rings in 3 days while knocked down with food poisoning, the 8 year old who finished the abridged texts of Shakespeare, the 12 year old who enjoyed reading encyclopedias, and started on dictionaries- but it started to bore her. Tried reading the Chinese classics, but her Chinese was crap, and ancient Chinese is a pain.
My childhood heroine whom I still greatly admire today is
XiShi, someone who lived over 2500 years ago, whom I found you guessed it, reading. Climbing on 2 chairs to reach books on ancient Chinese history.
I don't know about you, but if I had a child like me, I'd be freaking out no end. (I blame my upbringing- especially my dad and his nerd friends) I don't want kids like me. And I don't want kids at all actually. But kids like me would have me panicking.
It's just. not. normal.
My nerd roots are showing, and I'm actually alright with that.
abnormal periods
apparently I've been having abnormal periods for the last 14 years of my life.
I always knew my periods were irregular, but never paid that much attention since that's pretty normal, and it's occurrences were within normal range. and I've never ever missed one.
I thought I didn't have period pains, even though I would pass out from the pain of bloating. and when I finally realised I did suffer from PMS (after a particularly bad episode), I started on the evening primrose oil.
Then I started getting cramps. At 22.
and then, I read that the average flow is much less than what I go through and it's advisable that I head to a doctors. yay me.
Which means that as soon as my visa checks are done, it's straight to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth extracted, and the doctors to make sure my ovaries are in order. double yay me.
I have no wish to be attacked by XX's legion of rabid fans, but that photoshop she did of Furong jie was er, TOO SKINNY.
further proof that I have been aussiefied.
Now all I need is a speech therapist.
***
speaking of which, I think furong jie's english site is done by a Singaporean- who's using it as a joke site. Honestly.
Especially when some of the words are so English ed and it's purposely been made to sound like broken English, and that PRCs don't speak like that in general. sheesh.
conundrum
- How do I convince my mother that earphones will not make me deaf by next week? (leverage her headphones)
- How do I convince my mother that sending objects by mail may be expensive, but it won't break the bank and will certainly cost less than buying something here even after postage? (hmmmm. leverage the money issue?)
- How do I convince the same parents who used a hammer on my clock-radio to send me ONE iPod let alone two? (hopefully I can leverage my sister on this one)
- How do I convince the parents to let me use some of my 23-year-old heist of ang pow money when they've never let me touch it before? (same leverage)
- How do I achieve all of the above, without any nagging? (it's UN-possible!!!! and inevivavable hahahahhaha....oh erlin I will miss you)
How odd. Isn't it usually the younger child who uses the older sister as leverage? HMMMM HMMMM HMMMMM.
"But Muuuuuuuuuum, Lil' Sis has an iPod shuffle!!!!!!!! I want to use the money I've never taken out before, ever to buy things at over $100 cheaper!!!!! I'm SAVING MONEY!!!!!!!!"
rofl. oh. daydreaming can be so amusing.
talking to psychos is like trying to reason with drunks and children. It just doesn't work.
The best piece of advice so far has to have been
"Don't try to act sane in an asylum"
Listening to: Candice Alley- Falling
It's not the full moon and PMS is not due yet.
What gives?
world values
that Ingleheart World Values Survey is giving me a headache. and Catchmeladies is right, if you stare at it long enough, it stares back at you.
What I HATE about it is how few countries are surveyed and how they've come to such startling conclusions, conveniently omitting countries that (to me anyway) might not fit.
And what the heck is "Africa" and "South Asia" and "Confucian" and "English-Speaking" vs Protestant and Catholic Europe? Seems far too convenient for me. Where would Cuba fit in? Ex-Communist or Latin America? Where would Malaysia fit in? Secular or Traditional? You know what, I suspect it might even fit into Confucian. and WHY does Israel fit into Europe? because it doesn't. Its values simply correlate.
Bah. I told you. That thing is giving me a headache.
foodie lament
I have a sudden craving for South Yarra and St Kilda food.
especially
- Orange
- The Botanical
- tusk
mmmph. FOOD. want to go.
and phoenix. the moroccan soup bar. all two 80. nyala. abla. pekopeko. kaleidoscope. and that one that jess and gerri were talking about on lygon.
oh and.
the shit is bananas.
