I recently took a quiz that claimed it would tell me which US cities I'd be happiest living in. Link is here, but be warned: The site put my pop-up blocker to work. You also have to supply them with "your" name and address. Anyway, I thought my results were worth sharing. Maybe I will use them to guide my residency application.

( On to the list!! )

Random music thought: I wasn't a big fan of the Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars" when it was all over the radio. I didn't change the station in disgust when it played; I was just sort of indifferent to it. But recently the cover band that plays music for the final wager at trivia has started to do their own rendition of "Chasing Cars," every single week. Their rendition usually involves completely butchering the lyrics. You'd think that would turn my indifference into hate towards the song, but oh no. I am now its staunchest defender. Every week, I think "THE WORDS AREN'T DIFFICULT!! LEARN THEM! YOU ARE RUINING THE BEAUTIFUL SIMPLICITY OF THE SONG!!!!"

Uh...yeah. That's all I have to say. Second year ends the day after tomorrow!!!

The Letter Meme: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

Tara gave me Z. EVIL!

1. Zerodette My main internet handle was a gimme, of course. I think I've gone over its origins before, but for the newbies: I used the name Odette in my French classes because I thought it was funny (I knew nothing of Swan Lake). When I started posting on internet messageboards, specifically one devoted to the show "Friends," I made Odette my username. Then there was some sort of crash. We could neither use nor reregister our old usernames, so I switched my letter O to the number 0. I first used the word "zerodette" in an AIM conversation with beinginitself (I'm sure she doesn't remember).

2. Zydecore This genre of music is a fusion of zydeco (Cajun music) and hardcore punk. A typical zydecore band consists of a vocalist/washboard player, drummer, (stand-up/slap) bassist, two accordionists, and two guitarists. There are no real zydecore bands out there (that I know of), but I invented one called Kasmarkin Rising for my NaNoWriMo novel. I had a lot of fun doing that, but it made me realize that I have more fun writing about stuff that's actually happened, and entertaining people that way, as opposed to making up completely new stuff.

3. Zoroastrianism The oldest monotheistic religion, with origins in Persian. I became the team expert on this and other less well-known religions for academic team. I would usually get tossups pretty early, and if a bonus began "Identify the following terms from Zoroastrianism," the rest of the team would lean back and leave it up to me. I also knew Druze and Asatru, although those came up less often.

4. Ziegler The last name of my favorite character from The West Wing, Toby. He's a writer. He's a bit prickly. He doesn't put up with BS. He has a lot of good lines, which I could quote at great length. But I won't.

5. Zwitterion an ion that has both a negative and a positive charge, so a net charge of zero. The phospholipid C8 lecithin, which the simulations of my research project were modeling, is a zwitterion. So of course the word will always remind me of the two years I spent on the project. Amino acids are also zwitterions at neutral pH, and MCAT problems based on that fact gave me HELL. Therefore, the word will always remind me of my thesis and the MCAT.

6. Zephyr When I was 10 or 11, Baton Rouge got a hockey team and there was a naming contest. I submitted the Zydeco Zephyrs. They became the Baton Rouge Kingfish instead. I went to one of their games and it was really fun. I think I could be a really big hockey fan, if I didn't stop forgetting about the sport's existence for years at a time. Remember when I was all about Slovak hockey? Me neither!

7. Zodiac When I was younger, our local cable guide had horoscopes. I read them because I was fascinated by the concept of the exact same thing happening to one-twelfth of the EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD in a given week. I think I was six or seven then, and I kept pestering my parents about "Statistically, how can that happen?" I was a weird kid. Anyway, I also liked having another way to classify myself, and according to those, I was a Capricorn. So until I was about twelve, I was a Capricorn. Then I found magazine horoscopes that said I was a Sagittarius. Which I thought was a MUCH cooler word and had a MUCH cooler symbol, and the chance to just instantly change some aspect of myself, however silly, was really appealing to me. (I didn't like myself very much in middle school.) So now I'm a Sagittarius.

8. Zap This word reminds me of an online game that I used to devote quite a lot of time to. Half the people on my friends list know me through that. With the other half, I don't talk about it a whole lot because well, it's kind of embarassing to prove that I'm THAT big a nerd. I usually don't go beyond a simple "Games with pictures aren't worth playing." Zapping was a kind of punishment that I actually never experienced.

9. Zinnia One of my favorite kinds of flowers, along with Dahlias. They're like...balls of petals. I love them. Once, when I was little, I tried my hand at growing zinnias. Turns out, I did not inherit my dad's green thumb. Instead, I got my mom's ability to kill even the most alive and vibrant plants, seemingly just by looking at them.

10. Zzzzz This might be cheating a bit, but z is hard! I love sleep. It's weird, because I also like staying up until the wee hours of the morning. Once I'm asleep, however, I like to stay in bed as long as possible. You'd think I'd figure that if I just went to bed earlier, I could consistently get more wonderful, wonderful sleep. My brain hasn't processed that concept yet.

I've missed a couple of days. Because I've been going to sleep early, and I'm liking it! Now, the other component of this plan is waking up early, so I can do the stuff I'd normally be getting done around 2 or 3 am. I'm not quite there yet. But almost!

Yesterday was very, very long, and I didn't even have TAR to look forward to. So that sucked. I also don't like getting all sweaty and gross in PE, and having to stay gross until I'm done for the day. Yesterday, that was 9:45. I might have to investigate the shower situation in the locker room.

I managed to make it through all of Analytical without falling asleep! This enabled me to realize that I'm thirteen chapters behind, having never opened my book. The concepts he lectures on are quite easy. The homework assignments are quite impossible (but pass/fail!). He said the test won't have long, super-involved problems like the homework, but I'm not quite sure what to expect.

I got an email verifying that my SURE application was received and was complete. I'll find out April 15, at the latest.

Kindt group meeting SUCKED. It started late, and was far too long. Crazy grad students, who have, literally, nothing else to do in life. It's only supposed to last an hour and a half, but they prepare like, three hours of presentation, and then they want to have a discussion about it. And I want to die.

Quiz bowl was pretty fun. I was asked if I'm going to play next year. This year I've taken off has been grand, and the lack of tournaments has done nothing but help my volunteer time. But we'll see.

I took this humor quiz once before, but I can't remember if I posted it or not. So here it is:

Sunny/Dark: 8/10
drY/Gross: 3/10
Traditional/Offbeat: 5/10
Active/Passive: 9/10


You are a DYT--Dark Dry Traditional. This makes you a Cynic.

You're a realist. You'll take the piss out of anything, and do it with style and a skinny gray tie. You find humor in the mundane. When the mundane is thousands of working class families watching their retirement savings get snarfed by unpunished white collar bandits, that REALLY gets the larfs.

You bring humor with you, and can flip over any situation to find the tender funny underbelly.

Incidentally, you're better equipped than anyone else to shake off the bad things happen to you. Mysterious lump? You've seen scarier lumps in your garlic cheesey grits. It seems like nothing makes you truly happy, but nothing really upsets you, either.

Your comic sensibility was more in tune with the eighties. But cross your fingers -- another coupla years of Bush and maybe we'll work up a nice Reagan-era national bitterness again. A sardonic orange cat will once again rule the newsprint, and Springsteen'll write more righteous Jersey retro-cock-rock anthems for the progressive pols of 2024 to cold gank. What's past is prologue!

You might like David Letterman, or maybe stay up to see if Conan has another "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage."

Of the 14379 people who have taken this quiz, 10.5 % are this type.

Your Active humor score of 9/10 means you are a comic house on fire. You are Def Comedy Jam (for the first five minutes, before it becomes repetitive and degrading). You are a library of witty rejoinders, in-jokes, ad-libs and meatballs. Yeah, I said meatballs. They're underrated.

The trick for you is to ease yourself into a situation, since you have the capacity to dominate. If you're socially well-adjusted, you're awesome. If you're kind of nervous and twitchy like Daniel Radcliff in the Prisoner of Azkaban special features, then there can be trouble.

And now a little fun. Warning...this is my matchbox twenty-free playlist. Correct guesses will be bolded.

1. On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty-five songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing).
2. Write down one (or two) line(s) of the song. Try to avoid lines that include the title.
3. Have your friends comment and see if they know the songs.
4. When someone guesses correctly, strike out the line and list the correct name of the song next to it, with the artist.

1. You're sinewy and shiftless and so forlorn, between here and there and everywhere you're torn
2. Half time goes by, suddenly you're wise "100 Years," Five for Fighting
3. Annie are you okay? -"Smooth Criminal," Michael Jackson. My version is the Dartmouth Aires (acapella)
4. One good day of the week, I'll be higher than the government.
5. Too-ra loo-ra too-ra loo-ra aaaaaaaaaaaaaay
6. Pop, six, squish, uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz - "Cell Block Tango," Chicago soundtrack
7. Then we started singin' and they said it sounded smooth.
8. Do you know what it feels like, being alone? I'll find someone new.
9. Once upon a time there was light in my life, now there's only love in the dark "Total Eclipse of the Heart," Bonnie Tyler
10. Remember that time we found your mom's Valium, and took it
11. Picture me, an Indian princess, diamond necklace from the house of Cartier "Baby Boy," Beyoncé (good job Mattie!)
12. You want the greatest thing, the greatest thing since bread came sliced
13. Maybe half the fault is mine that the sun didn't shine on Barrington Street.
14. That's just fine, that's just one of my names
15. If you have a shorty but you don't show love, oh yes son, I'm talkin' to you. "No Scrubs," TLC
16. And of course you can't become, if you only say what you would've done. So I missed a million miles of fun. "Steal My Sunshine," Len
17. She said 'Tell me are you a Christian, child,' and I said 'Ma'am I am tonight' - "Walking in Memphis," Marc Cohn
18. You're the one givin' up the love any time he needs it "Cold-Hearted Snake," Paula Abdul
19. Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming
20. Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight, too many runaways eating up the night.
21. Never shoulda called, but my head's to the wall and I'm lonely- "New Slang," The Shins (the song on which the theme of this journal is currently based)
22. So I turned the radio on, I turned the radio up, and this woman was singin' my song. -"Stay," Lisa Loeb
23. Now I'm here to stay, love can be so boring. "Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)," Vertical Horizon
24. The state looks down on sodomy. "What's My Age Again," Blink 182
25. Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures.

You Are From the Moon

You can vibe with the steady rhythms of the Moon. You're in touch with your emotions and intuition. You possess a great, unmatched imagination - and an infinite memory. Ultra-sensitive, you feel at home anywhere (or with anyone). A total healer, you light the way in the dark for many.

Hey! Good thing I have an infinite memory, because I need it now!

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that's why they read your posts as often as they can!

And my strengths, according to http://www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman/strengths/

1 Humor [playfulness]

You like to laugh and tease. You bring smiles to other people. You see the light side. You make(but don't necessarily tell) jokes.


2 Love of Learning

You master new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether on your own or formally. This strength is obviously related to the strength of curiosity but goes beyond it to describe the tendency to add systematically to what you know.


3 Humility/Modesty

You let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You don't seek the spotlight. You don't regard yourself as more special than you are.


4 Appreciation of beauty and excellence [awe, wonder]

You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.


5 Fairness

You treat all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice. You don't let personal feelings bias decisions about others. You give everyone a fair chance.

Blame Mercan (mercanization) for the quizness. Here's the linkage.

I'm a unicorn! How fancy.

Unicorn
Air with Water

Astrologically associated with Gemini and the Third House

Unicorn types are very concerned with the communication of ideas. They are witty and likeable but can also be quite shy. They are easily bored and easily distracted, and may seem unpredictable and superficial for this reason. Actually they are very deep and are usually trying to find the connections between the people and things around them. They are highly imaginative but not very practical. They love knowledge for its own sake and are not concerned about putting it to use. They are socially astute and sensitive to others’ feelings, but may still appear somewhat aloof. They are drawn to grand schemes for unifying people but these often don’t extend beyond the initial idea. Very logical and rational, Unicorn types are also unconventional and even bizarre. Other people may regard them as fey or just strange.

I wrote in my regular journal today, so I've nothing to bore you all with. Except this quiz.


find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com

Thank you, and goodnight.

The faerie of water. You have a laid back attitude,
and take life as it comes. People come to you
when they want to hear the truth, even if it
hurts. You will always be there when someone
needs you. People sometimes think you have a
cold heart, that's why sometimes you can also
be known as the Ice Faerie.


What's your inner Faerie?
brought to you by Quizilla

Whee. I just spent an hour in the quantum zone. I understand everything I studied! The book is really really good. Definitely better than the book I had for thermo. And much more helpful than the lectures. Considering that the guy lecturing me is the guy who wrote the thermo book, that makes sense! My parents are always happy when they see me hitting the books. It simply would not do to tell them that I've only just caught up on the reading through February 23.

After the Daily Show, I'll catch up through February 25th! Gooo me.

Your Energy is Turquoise. Full of fresh ideas,
liveliness, and imagination, you bring faith
and enlightenment to others. You usually
project a calm and cool exterior and are
capable of dealing with demanding events with a
take it in stride attitude. You tend to see
things clearly and dont panic easily.

You relate well to the world of ideas and anything
innovative. You would make an excellent
inventor, scientist, quantum physicist, airline
pilot, astronomer or New Age entrepreneur.


What color is your energy?
brought to you by Quizilla


Freaking quantum! There's no escape!

You are SALUTE YOUR SHORTS. You are a wangsta who
knows business. You have fun in the sun and
know how to have a good laugh.


Which old school Nickelodeon show are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yay! I really liked that show, back in the day. Oh, the good times.

Today was a blur . We woke up SUPER EARLY for church, and boy, that just gets harder every time. Mom kept asking what was wrong, and all I could say was "The little hand is still on the 6!!" Somehow I made it. Saturday evening services ..that's the way to go.

Then, family dinner, which was fine. Almost everybody greeted me with a "You're back already??" I was home less than two months ago, so I can't blame them, hehe. I stuffed my face with wonderful food, then I slept a lot.

Now, I've got to work. Work work work! I read some French, and I've looked at the stuff I've got to do for my lab reports. Since I was productive last week, I only have to do two, instead of four. I've no clue how to do the Mathcad, so it should be a fun time.

Heart of Gold


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
brought to you by Quizilla

Habitat was cancelled. Stupid lack of interest in service. I stayed up until like 3:30 this morning, then slept until 11-something. I got ready for the day very veeerry slowly, then went to DUCbrunch. I ran into Kim and Mike, eating with all the APhiO national bigwigs, so I talked with them for a bit. Of course I've forgotten all of their names by now...one might've been Sandra. I really suck at that aspect of people skills.

After brunch, I spent an intimate afternoon with some very close friends of mine. Ohm, Faraday, Kirchoff, Baudelaire, Rimbaud...ah, I had a great time with those guys. We have another date scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait.