Brainwaves of Sken

A bad time for it, but when is a good time during Vet school, anyway? With no warranty, she’s pretty anxious about it.

I am not -the- macbook expert, but we’ll borrow the OSX install CDs from the ever-kind Dave V, and at least run it through the diagnostics.

Meanwhile, I’m pretty glad Athena’s running – I’ll bring it over to her tomorrow so she can access her online class videos in the meantime.

If any of my lansing people feel they’ve got the chops to help, I’m sure we’d both be grateful. Apple wants 50 bucks just to talk to her.

Poor the Lucy.

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So the fascinating question is, are there almost three times as many women(19%) as men(7%) who agree that the gender stereotypes have some element of truth to them because the men are more afraid of being called sexist, or because I am much more likely to be friends with atypical men, or some other reason entirely? (note: I don’t think you’re sexist just because you agreed, we’re just talking about the perception here)

Fascinatingly, the smallest proportion of people taking my survey think they’re reasonably typical in the traits for their gender (at 14%), with almost 40% of people thinking they’re somewhat atypical, 22.8% thinking they’re moderately atypical or very atypical in a few traits, and 24.6% saying they don’t believe in gender traits as defined. The question there: Was it my definition, or were these people stepping forward with their own understanding of gender stereotypes? (Both are valid, I wasn’t clear.)

Approximately half the men who voted consider their weight, height and appearance to be a significant factor in how they behave toward women they don’t know (I didn’t ask whether a person thought they had significant weight/height/appearance) … and, as it turns out, half the women do, too.

16% of women in my poll don’t change their behavior when a strange guy exiting from the same place is behind them, and only one man and two women never think about getting assaulted, in such a circumstance. Nearly equal proportions sometimes consider it, but three times as many women are always on alert.

Out of the people who voted in my last question, 16% have been assaulted by a stranger. While that is still a large number of people, and it surged near the end there, I was still surprised at the low number.

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My schedule is changing – I may now be in the Los Angeles area around the 2nd instead of the 7th. At least I’ll get a little breathing time between that and Vegas.

Speaking of which, I scanned in a photo that was taken when I was in Vegas last year. K.T. was up for work, and Jeska flew in for s&g’s, and hilarity was had by all. It’s rough, y’know, this life of mine. I don’t know how I survive it.

From Miscellaneous

While I’m sure I’ll learn loads this year, I doubt it will be quite as entertaining without them.

PS I just uploaded a ton of old photos into that misc folder – check it out if you want to see me looking ridiculous, or with long hair. Sometimes both. ;)

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Chicken noodle soup with pepper
A grilled muenster and american cheese with rosemary and parm (shredded) on the outside
cream soda

Yum :)

(this is me not getting pizza like I was tempted, on the way home)

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I’ve seen this meme going around, so I just have one question.

Is there any damned thing I don’t post about?

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I love this kind of post – somewhat inspired by Wil Wheaton. It links to a really great Reservoir Dogs shirt. :)

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I think I should do a second poll at some point, because it seems to me that some stereotypes are different depending on where and how someone was raised. In my life, the stereotypes were that women were more creative, dynamic, and capable of deeper emotion and a closer bond, and men were more strictly intelligent, narrow in scope, more agressive, and less capable of emotion and bonding.

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So, I’ve been considering wiping my home laptop entirely and reinstalling Windows XP SP1, right? It’s been acting slow and jenky, the small C: partition was a bad idea (I love you, picasa, but fuck your immovable thumbnail temp folder), and I’m sure my OS is littered with bits and pieces of software I’ve tried over the years since it was last reloaded.

I’ve also been considering playing around with a dual-boot of XP and Ubuntu Linux. See, while its lack of support for current Adobe products (CS3, specifically) means it isn’t exclusively right for me… I’m more and more a-feared of the ways that Windows has been taking over my access rights. As an end user, I’m philosophically opposed to my OS telling me what I should and should not be installing and using when I have Admin rights, so I’m considering my next long-term shift.

more thoughts

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Solid-state, microchip-sized fan promises to cool laptops

The compact, solid-state fan, developed with support from NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research program, is the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. It produces three times the flow rate of a typical small mechanical fan and is one-fourth the size.

…

“The RSD5 is one of the most significant advancements in electronics cooling since heat pipes.”

…

“The technology has the power to cool a 25-watt chip with a device smaller than 1 cubic-cm and can someday be integrated into silicon to make self-cooling chips,” said Schlitz.”

Wow. Completely silent computers. Even lower power consumption. No moving parts to break down.

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I was surprised not to see Keanu Reeves on the wing of our plane, shouting for “Guns, lots of guns!” because we were totally in the Matrix. It was white above, below, and all around us for the entire descent. I watched closely for when it would break, and we were no more than a few hundred feet off the ground before I could see. At that point, cars were cars, not specs, and roads were wide, instead of tiny lines. When the attendant reminded us to check our seatbelt security as we tooled into the terminal, I helpfully pointed out to the guy next to me that she meant, “holy shit we’re sliding”.

The shuttle arrived at my car, and, naturally, the rear door wouldn’t open. So my luggage (and everyone else’s) was stuck. He hemmed and hawed, tried it four times, drove up to the front, and finally a resourceful fella next to me pulled out some pins and the plastic hinged down and we all got our luggage.

Of course my car was covered in snow, and I drove 30 mph the whole way home.

So I’m kinda tired. However, I have a friend in need of amusement and affection! So I shall do my best to provide it. :)

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