It was my first time participating in Blogathon and I enjoyed it, though it was a bit hectic. I wrote more than I thought possible (and hopefully at least some of my posts were interesting!).
Since Blogathon is over, I will not be posting every day. In a way, it will be nice not to have to worry about coming up with post topics, but I hope deteriorate into a cycle of not posting for weeks on end, then guiltily writing five posts in one day.
Not only is it Memorial Day, it is also Wordle Day for us Blogathoners. Wordle is a clever little service that allows you to create a visual representation of the most common words on your blog. I’m not sure why Spanish is coming up so strongly on mine…
Click on the image to see it larger.
I saw this film yesterday and it was pretty good. In short (I don’t want to give anything away!), it is about a group of young people (I assumed they are recent college graduates) who embark on a European tour. After seeing Kiev for a bit, instead of heading to Moscow as planned, they decide to go to Pripyat, the city that was evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster, for a day. Unfortunately, they get stranded there and realize they are not alone.
I enjoyed the film (there is Ukrainian spoken and I understood it!) though it did have some flaws. There could have been more character development – for example, two of the people traveling are brothers and one of them is living in Kiev, but we are never told why the one brother lives in Ukraine. There also could have been more backstory about what they find in Pripyat.
Overall, Chernobyl Diaries is an entertaining film, and if you like the horror genre, you’ll probably like it. An interest in Eastern Europe doesn’t hurt, either!
Today, the Blogathon theme is haikus, so today’s post will be very short.
soft fur, loud meow
piercing blue eyes, and gray tail
a Tonkinese cat
That is in honor of my cat.
sea lions swimming
flowers blooming on the hill
sun in the blue sky
That was inspired by a trip I took to California six years ago.
(For the record, I haven’t written haikus, much less published them in public, for years and years, so this is a bit embarrassing…)
Dear readers (I know you’re out there), I need your feedback. I have become interested in finance (specifically currency trading) and am thinking of writing more about it on my blog. However, I know a lot of people view finance as boring and therefore probably would not want to read about finance (and believe me, I don’t blame you for not wanting to read about something you are not interested in). I know I blog about a pretty wide variety of topics (I have very random interests), but for some reason I feel like I should separate my finance-related posts onto a different subdomain, which means they would not be viewable on this blog.
Any thoughts?
I took two photos today on my university’s campus. The first is of an airplane pulling a Geico sign. It amused me.
If this doesn't make you sign up for Geico, nothing will!
The next thing I saw was several hours later. I was walking to meet my friend B. at the cafe and I suddenly saw four men walking in front of me. Three of them were wearing identical pinstriped suits, which struck me as funny, so of course I had to take a photo.
Meet the people more intense than Men in Black: Men in Blue
I hope everyone has had a good week. Mine has been pretty good – classes are wrapping up and the weather is actually behaving (i.e. no rain, thank goodness).
(Of course, it will probably rain now since I’ve written that…)
So, back when I was still on Christmas break, my mom read about an Apple recall for first-generation iPod Nanos with a battery issue. Apparently the batteries would spontaneously blow up or something, so I thought it was a good idea to submit a request for my lovely white iPod Nano to be fixed. Apple received said request and sent me a box to be shipped FedEx.
Here’s the problem: there apparently is not a FedEx center within ten miles of my house. Why this is, I don’t know. Admittedly I do not live in a big city, but where I live isn’t that small, either. On the way home from what we thought was a FedEx shipping center (it turned out they only shipped USPS and UPS), my mom and I saw a FedEx truck. Luckily it pulled into a shopping center to make a delivery and we pulled into the same center. I took my box and all but ran to the truck, where the driver took my package, but was unable to give me a receipt.
Keep in mind this happened in early January. When Apple did not update my repair status on their website, I assumed the FedEx man had stolen my iPod, or somehow failed to deliver it. Finally, Apple acknowledged receipt of my iPod, but took forever to actually ship me my replacement. I just received a confirmation email today saying that my new iPod is winging its way to my house. The best part: I have a FedEx confirmation number! Which means I can track my iPod (it just left the facility this afternoon, in case you cared).
The only potential problem: this is not the same device I shipped to Apple. The email informed me that my replacement product has a new serial number. Seriously, if this new iPod is in less than perfect condition, I’ll be so disappointed. The one I sent was in brand-new condition. My replacement had better be the same. Most importantly: let’s hope it doesn’t have any engravings on the back. Unless it’s an engraving with my name. Then that’s okay.
Happy New Year! С Новым годом! I can’t believe it’s 2012 already, and that I haven’t written yet this year. I have been relaxing at home and doing a lot of reading, both books from the library and on my brand-new Kindle that I received for Christmas. I’ve also been working on my thesis. It’s due in fewer than two months, so I’d like to have a decent draft by the end of this month so I can start revising it before I turn it in.
I think it’s time for a brief year in review, which is admittedly a bit late (but better late than never!). 2011 was certainly not my favorite year. I think the saddest thing that happened was when my little green parakeet died. Luckily I was home when she got sick (if I had not been on my study abroad program, I wouldn’t have been home). Then I had a short summer (third term of my study abroad went until the end of June) and returned to my university.
One thing I would like to accomplish in 2012 is more writing. I used to write a lot, but I feel like I wrote less last year. Specifically, I would like to finish my novella. I have been working on it, in one form or another, for quite a long time. It began as historical fiction, but now it’s fantasy and an allegory for Russian history. I have a few photos of settings from the story on my Pinterest.
(As for why I’m writing a novella instead of a novel: “novel” sounds so intimidating. I always begin novels, but never finish writing them, so I’d like to have a project that I actually finish. Who knows, perhaps my novella will become a novel, but for now, I am aiming for a shorter work.)
More writing doesn’t just mean my fiction – I also want to write more on this blog. Once upon a time, I ran a relatively popular political/current events blog, but when I stopped that, I began to slack on my writing. I have considered having a regular posting schedule on this blog, such as Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, because I think that would help me post more regularly.
I’d also like to pick up a new language starting this year, but more on that later.
I read an excellent article today on Forbes about Steve Jobs and how his education made him who he was.
I would like to send this article to all of my science-major friends who say that my field of study, history, is useless – because, according to this article, there is value in a liberal arts education. There’s nothing wrong with loving science, but it is not the be-all, end-all. Jobs went to Reed College for one semester, then he stayed on for a little while longer attending classes even though he was not a proper student. He famously attended a calligraphy class, one that had no practical use for him at the time. But that calligraphy class is the reason why computers have lovely fonts now.
Jobs also loved music, which led him to have Apple make the iPod and open the iTunes store, both of which revolutionized the music industry. Would Jobs have understood the music business if he did not love music so much? Probably not, the author concludes, since you can’t fake passion.
I love that quote because it’s so true. It’s the reason why I chose to learn the Russian language, not Chinese or Arabic, which are billed as “critical” or “important” languages nowadays. There’s nothing wrong with learning Chinese or Arabic – I would love to speak them both fluently someday, but at this point, I love the Russian language. Over the past three years, the Russian language has become one of the great passions in my life. Learning it has been, at times, incredibly frustrating, but I would not trade the experience for anything.
It’s also the reason why I chose to study history, and not something like English (I don’t like literature nearly enough) or business or engineering or a scientific field. I’ve loved history for as long as I can remember and I cannot picture myself studying any other subject. My passion for history enabled me to gain recognition in my department: I was nominated for my study abroad program and I presented a paper at an undergraduate conference. Now I’m writing an honors thesis. If I did not love history, I guarantee none of those things would have happened.
I’m terrible at writing conclusions, so I’ll just stop here. I ought to go to bed anyway, as I think I’m getting sick. I must have picked up a cold from all those people coughing in one of my history classes….
Seriously, today I felt like Bradley Cooper’s character in Limitless. I got so much done (not as much as I had wanted to, but still a lot): loads of writing and I downloaded an app for my iPhone. (That is more of an accomplishment than you may think, being that I have no wireless internet in my room, and I cannot use the UK networks without incurring huge fees.) And now I am editing the first part of a story that I semi-forgot that I wrote, and it actually isn’t too bad. It’s about a murdered journalist in Russia.
Oh, and the best part of all this? Unlike in Limitless, I did not need crazy mind-enhancing drugs to accomplish all this. A good night’s sleep last night did wonders.
Yes, it’s true: I caved and got a Tumblr. I used to hate Tumblr and vowed that I would never have one, but I also once hated computers in general, laptop computers, iPods, Apple, and Twitter. (I know adore all of the above-mentioned things.)
So if you’re on Tumblr, follow me.
In other news… I met a lovely German family at dinner tonight. My German friend’s sister and grandfather visited her today and came to dinner. I enjoyed meeting them and hearing them speak German. Unfortunately, the food at dinner was not as pleasant as the company, as it was extremely, extremely salty.
Also, the E. coli outbreak over here in Europe might have been caused by beansprouts. It’s very embarrassing for the German government, as they originally blamed Spanish cucumbers for causing the outbreak.
Wow, it’s June already and I have not blogged in ages. That is quite a tragedy. Here are some random updates in honor of the fact that I have only two essays (and three weeks) left.
Now, back to my essay, which is on the rather morbid topic of murder: specifically, the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934.