Callistonian.net

The Rules of the Game. First, link your tagger and post these rules. Second, share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird. Third, tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names and link to them. Fourth, let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.

First: Plugging.  I’m it, I suppose. I was tagged three times. Kaylee, Chanel, and Aisling, thanks for showing an interest in me, and thanks for giving me something to blog about. ;)

Second: My Happy 7. Number 1: pronouns. When discussing hypothetical people occupying typical male positions, I prefer to use the use the terms she and her. For example, if a made-up soldier were the topic of conversation, I’d be likely to say something like, "If she goes to Iraq then …"

Number 2: Alexander. Alexander is my cat. Now, he’s resting, purring, and using my arm as a pillow. He’s always around. If I were a video-blogger, he’d be a constant feature: he’d be on me, in my lap, behind me, ripping keys off my keyboard (it’s happened)… I love him.

Number 3: pop music? Yes, please. I love syrupy sweet cornball saturated high energy pop songs. If it sounds cute and is Japanese, I’m down. Don’t believe me? I love this song (Momusu’s Mikan) (and I really love this (Korean; Girls’ Generation’s Girl’s Generation)). BUT I do have some taste, because I hate this stupid song (so what if it’s for kids)…

Number 4: food. I hate nuts, bananas, ham, pork, bacon, anything made of pig-meat, hamburgers, beef,  anything made of cow-meat, kimchi, wasabi, coconut, snickers bars, key lime pie …

Number 5: green. I’m partial to pretty things and to green things. The other day, I played an Xbox game, and I was childishly disappointed when I was unable to use the green controller.

Number 6: I watched more TV this month than I have in the last 4 or 5. Before, at the very most, I watched the box for an hour a week. But I like reality TV, and now there’s Kid Nation (♥), The Amazing Race, Run’s House (MTV!!!) …

Number 7: That exam. Well, it didn’t go as well as it should have. I did better than most people. I scored in the 90th+ percentile in the verbal section, but I got nervous and had some issues with multiplication. So the math part didn’t go quite as well so…I "phailed" and will be taking it again. Oh well. It happens.

Third. That’s it! If you haven’t done this, and if you’re in the mood to post 7 facts, consider yourself tagged. ;)

I know I turned some of you off with my last post. I apologize. But don’t get your hopes up. Math is still my boyfriend, and this entry—well, it’s more perfunctory than not. I’m blogging to blog, not because I have something profound to say, but when do I ever—enough rambling.

I have a tumblr (aerielle.tumblr.com). I will spam it with random thoughts, random quotes, and random pictures of pretty things.

I dragged a male friend into a book store Anthropologie. It’s odd that I remember the incident as one involving a book store; in reality Anthropologie specializes in unique and—dare, I say it? I could work there. Oh well.—ugly and overpriced clothes as well as peculiar books and pretty things. Anyway, my friend threatened to buy me a book, one on bullshit. What is it about BS and the ability to BS that people find so amusing? Why write a book on BS full of BS? What is the point? I mean, really.  BS is such a coarse term too.  Anthropologie is teeming with books on etiquette. What is On Bullshit doing in a place with expensive garments and works titled The Art of Civilized Conversation and Tiffany’s Table Manners. Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see that Anthropologie has a sense of humor. ;)

A new layout is in the works. I’ll won’t use Typepad, and I’ll be going with a white background … That’s all I’ve come up with so far. Suggestions, especially content suggestions, are welcome.

I have this thing with mathematics. Let’s call it a love/mild-dislike relationship. I love it; it mildly dislikes me. When I say I love math, I’m not joking. Look at my icon on Snark (courtesy of noldo_icons). It’s on the left. Sadly, two years ago, I got into a huge fight with darling mathematics. I wanted it to be fun and practical. But it insisted on being monotonous and abstract. It hated me. So I told it to go to hell and changed my major. I made the ultimate jump: I went from engineering to history. The break-up was messy and painful. It took me some time to get over. Every once in a while, I dropped by an engineering course I wasn’t enrolled in, but it was for the best. History pwns all. End of story.

The bad thing about all of this is that people assume I have a problem with math, because I’m a girl and because I majored in history. I don’t have a problem with math. I miss math; I love math. I’m just getting rusty. I don’t think that I know how to take surface integrals anymore, and this makes me sad. Today, I was talking with someone who teaches Diff. Eq. and—OMG—that made me long for math problems… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just going crazy. After GRE and grad. school application(?) HELL, maybe I’ll look at some math and some Dutch (language #5!!!) for fun. I’m studying math for the GRE now (speed multiplication woo!) so perhaps by then I’ll be satiated and not bother with any of it.

I’m a teacher/tutor. I started not too long ago, and I qualified to teach a ton of different things. As of yet, I’ve been busy teaching other stuff. I haven’t had a chance to teach what I really want to teach (ACT Math). I’ve done random math stuff, random reading stuff, ACT Reading, ACT Writing, and ACT English; I’m going to do Science Reasoning sometime soon… I know that I’ll do math eventually, but I can hardly wait. That was the first thing I was really excited about teaching, because I feel a silly need to prove that I have mad math skillz, and because the idea of a history major teaching mathematics is hilarious to me… :D

I want to teach Math. :X

I confess. I’m a logophile (aka dork); I even created a list of beloved terms. At this moment, ten minutes after one on a Sunday morning, my favorite English word is ebullience (n. zestful enthusiasm). My favorite word is 진심 (korean. n. jin shim meaning sincerity). I suppose I love fancy terms for qualities I wish to possess. What about you? Do you have any favorite words?

Yesterday, Caitlin—Happy (late) Birthday!!— was sweet and linked FreeRice.com in a comment. FreeRice is awesome, a must visit for logophiles, those wanting to expand their vocabularies, those who like to raise things for charity, and the bored. Every question answered correctly equals ten grains of rice (not much but it adds up after awhile). Also, there are 50 levels. Can you reach 50? I’m not that cool. (I can’t do it. 45 is my best? idk.) I have a tendency to wallow in the spaces between 33 and 40.

Also, the three words I dislike the most are masticate, tribe, and gargantuan.

Lovely things to do: blog everyday for the rest of November, study math(s), and learn 500, give or take 200, vocab words.

I want to blog more often. I signed up for NaBloPoMo after the first of November, so I haven’t failed in this endeavor just yet. But I have an exam, the GRE, on the 21st. exam prep > blogging everyday. This exam is hugely important; it’s an if I fail, I might-as-well-go-and-hide-under-a-rock-for-the-rest-of-my-life sort of thing. I exaggerate, but… Wish me well.

I think that it’s impossible to literally fail the exam, so everyone gets to apply her own standards. My standards dictate that to fail is to not do better than 90% of those (way more than most people) who take the test. If I fail, everything will go to hell, I’ll have to re-take it ASAP, and re-think my grad school plans (oh dear~).

I suppose that this post is more of a warning/disclaimer than anything else. If I blog everyday for the next few weeks, I’ll probably always have something to say (and it may not be positive) about the exam I’m preparing to take.