TV Shows, Importance of Belonging, and Grad School

Why is it that after awhile, great characters on TV shows will just become caricatures of themselves? Why, oh why? Many a good show has been ruined or at least highly diminished in this fashion (e.g. Friends). I believe FOX (curse you, ruiner of good show ideas) is in the process of doing this to House, M.D. This is currently one of my absolute favorite shows for two reasons: 1. The character of House is just awesomely awesome to watch and 2. The medicine in the show is pretty freaking cool and actually realistic/involved. However, in the third season, FOX has latched on to the big idiosyncrasies of House and made the show revolve around the drama of him. It's kind of lame. I'm really hoping they'll emerge from this story arc and go back to focusing on the cases and how smart House is and how they solve the cases- the true beauty of the show. That and laughing at House's antics. *sigh*

In unrelated news, I've come to realize how important it is to feel like you belong to some greater entity. So as I am kind of free-floating this year, it has been kind of difficult for me. I'm not an undergrad, I'm not a grad student. I'm not a young professional, I'm not a member of any extracurricular group. I was hanging out with some old Redhotties (old = senior), and we were having a group hug and someone said, "To the Redhot seniors!" (insert pause) and someone else said, "And Mari."

Umm... awkward.

I don't know. Soon I'll belong to something again, and it will be nice :)

Regarding grad school, my spidey-senses tell me that if I am going to hear from Stanford, it will be sometime this week. I had a strange experience where I called Stanford to try to find out when their weekend was so I didn't schedule anything on top of it, and somebody at the office kind of laughed at my question and then asked, "Have you received a letter?" I hadn't- and said so- so she connected me to someone else who gave me no useful information either. Weird.

Either way, I'll keep ya'll posted. For now, my upcoming weeks are going to be fun :) I've got Berkeley the weekend of the 9th, then Princeton on the 13th, UCLA the weekend of the 16th, and Northwestern the weekend of the 2nd of March. Weee!

Snow!

It snowed for 10 minutes this morning. It was very pretty.

Now it is kind of bleak... but the memory remains :)

Two for Two, Where Has All the Snow Gone?

So I got an email/call from UC Berkeley, and I have been admitted into their program, "pending budgetary approval". At the moment what this most definitively means for me is a free trip to California + a chance to hang out with friends :) I'm psyched. I'll be in California for two consecutive weekends thus far, and that is a-okay with me.

Regarding the snow: we had a beautiful sprinkling of snow this morning (8 a.m.ish) and now it is ALL GONE! It snowed for probably a measly half hour... sadness.

Although, my distress over the lack of snow is probably misplaced considering I want to be somewhere next year with a definitive lack of snow. I think I'll have to come back and visit during the winters :)

Happiness

Best day yesterday. No work (woo), went to Ivy Noodle w/John and Darrick, played Guitar Hero II (woo!), hung out with Mike for the rest of the night (woooooo!). Highlights = dinner at Cafe Adulis, ice cream from Ashley's, bluebooking online.

It was a very college evening.

Surprise Holidays!

So when you're in college, days off are never THAT exciting. If I had really wanted to, I could have just not gone to class. Even if I had class. "Officially" not having class didn't make that much of a difference because it still meant I should go into work or do some work.

However, days off when you have a full-time job are AWESOME. I was at Richter's last night having a drink with some friends when we were going to move to Rudy's to meet another friend. I mentioned that I couldn't stay out too late since I had work tomorrow, and I was informed that I did NOT have work tomorrow! WOOHOO! An entire day, completely open. Celebrate good times, come on.

That being said, I might go in for a bit anyway to have some extra hours to take off at a later date.

For posterity (and because I'm very excited)

I just got my first offer for graduate school: UCLA!

woot :)

wtfbbq

So I don't get this: women who wear complete, perfect makeup to the GYM.

Why??

Does this annoy me because it's genuinely annoying or because I'm being defensive? I like to gym to work out... not to put myself on display! Although, there was a really cute guy on the bike yesterday...

Subconscious, like woah, and Video Games

I had a bizarre sex dream about TMTMTL... I think for the first time ever.

Weird!

Also, I do not pay attention to anything when I'm walking sometimes. Today I was walking to work through Woolsey (as usual), and this guy in front of me goes to the doors of Woolsey (on Beinecke) and then turns and goes to the left. I think I may have processed this in some part of my brain but not enough to have it affect my actions. So I walk right up to the doors about 5 seconds after him, pull on them, discover that they're locked (as I'm sure he had 5 seconds previous) and had to walk off looking like a dumbass. Oh, and he was looking at me like I was nuts.

Ahh, yes.

Regarding video games, I was recently hanging out with my friend Chris Meyer- we played lots of Guitar Hero- which was great, but he also introduced me to the wonder that is KATAMARI DAMACY.

This game is bizarre, ridiculous, and highly addicting. So you play as the Prince of the Cosmos (bottom right corner of below photo):

Your pa, the King of the Cosmos:
He has, in a druken state, destroyed all the stars in the sky. Now it is your job to replace them by rolling a ball around earth, making stuff stick to it. This ball is the Katamari. It is sticky- apparently- and things will stick to it, making it bigger (see big ball of crap the picture above this one). At first, the ball is small, so things like thumbtacks, pencils, erasers, and strawberries stick to it. Eventually, the ball gets bigger so you can pick up things like birds, sandcastles, cats, dogs, large boxes, people, houses, islands, etc... It gets quickly ridiculous. The soundtrack is amazing and the sound effects are... crippling. GO PLAY THIS NOW. (It's for PS2).

I'm buying it for Darrick for Christmas (and by for Darrick I mean for Darrick and me). He is also buying Guitar Hero (wee!).

New recipe!

Someone else can give this a try and tell me if it turns out as well for them as it did for me :)

So I was hungry and had very few random things in the fridge. This is what I put together (based loosely on a craving I had for tuna casserole):

*1 1/2 cups of rotini pasta, cooked al dente, drained
*olive oil
*1 small can of tomato sauce
*1 can of water packed tuna (drained)
*1 tbsp of capers (drained)
*1 small can of baby peas
*1 tsp of dried basil
*1 tsp of red curry paste
*shredded mozzerella, to taste
*flavored bread crumbs
*salt and pepper

*all measurements are approximations

1. In a large pan, heat some olive oil (barely enough to coat) over medium-high heat. Add the can of tuna and sautee for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the can of tomato sauce and capers. Add salt and pepper. Heat this mixture through over a medium-low heat.
3. Add the red curry paste and keep it moving till incorporated.
4. Add the dried basil and peas.
5. Add the pasta to the pan and turn the heat down to low. Mix it all together so the pasta turns red.
6. Add mozzerella and bread crumbs so it's kind of chunky.

Enjoy!

I would substitute red onion for the capers (if I had any). I would sautee them with the tuna until they were a little soft. Then continue sans capers.
Also, I'm not sure the bread crumbs were necessary. It made it kind of pasty, which was actually kind of good, but I think that the cheese would've been sufficient to do that.

Thoughts?

oh yeah!

As part of a New Year "Resolution", I've gone veggie.

It's not for any moral reasons, so I will eat meat if necessary, but only for particularly special occasions.

The Psychology Debate and Boredom

Resolve: The scientific study of psychology can be called a "science".

Affirmative: As long as you are using the scientific method, you are conducting science. Therefore, the SCIENTIFIC study of psychology is a science. Just like in the other sciences, empirical psychologists can conduct BAD science. That doesn't make it not science.

Negative: Science is only science as defined by the matter you're studying. In the physical sciences there is a stable "truth" being sought- something that will always be stable and that can be discovered. In psychology, you are studying a "moving target". Therefore, there is no stable truth which can be sought. Therefore, not a science.

Affirmative: However, you are looking for a stable truth within each context (temporal, cultural, spatial, etc...), within each experiment. A good empirical psychologist will be careful to only suggest that their results imply "truth" about as much of a population and context as they can. It's stable "truth", just on a smaller scale.

Negative: Because the matter examined is different and results contextual, that should be reflected in what it's called. Therefore, a name other than "science" should be used.

Who won? Thoughts? Opinions?

Also, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the next 11 days all by myself in New Haven. Here are some things I plan to do:

1. File my taxes.
2. Post my break pictures on facebook.
3. Read. A lot.
4. Work out. A lot.
5. Watch lots of Law and Order.
6. Start some new data analysis for my project.

Any other suggestions for what to do when you're alone and w/o a car in New Haven?

New Year's, back in The Have

Yesterday/the night previous, Laura, Tamar, Christina, and I had a suitees reunion in New Haven for New Year's Eve. It was so wonderful to see them again! I've never been terribly close to girls- particularly a group of girls- but I am so comfortable with these women. It made me so happy to see them :)

New Haven is, btw, simultaneously very lovely and slightly sketchy when no one is around. And there was NO ONE around on New Year's Eve when we were wandering around the city looking for ice cream. We went to Bar for dinner- had lovely pizza and shared a 1/2 pt. of beer between the four of us (we didn't finish it)- then we went to Walgreen's (the only place open at 9 p.m.) and got snacks. Then we watched lots of SVU and some House, M.D. and discussed important issues like who our freshman year suitemate had hooked up with.

Christina is leaving today, sadly, and I'm back at work. I put Christmas ornaments on the little tree in my lab, though, and I am stubbornly planning on leaving it up till the end of January. It's practically family tradition! My family used to leave up Christmas lights until the summer, if they could get away with it.

Now I have to put up with almost 2 weeks of being in New Haven all alone. Uck. I'll update on what things I create to entertain myself.