Time Gurus

The concept of time is a metaphor. No such thing as “time” in the physical world exists. It is a creation of the human mind, and it regulates our lives. The modern world could not exist without the regulation of “time”.
This is something that you all “instinctively” know and understand. However, you probably didn’t know that there are “Time Keepers” that are manipulating time to “fit” the solar-system’s movements. I find this very amusing. What does a “time keeper” do on a regular basis anyway? How can there even exist such a thing as a “time keeper committee”? Who appoints/pays these people that can affect our lives so much?
The fact is, the existence of such a committee, which can “change time”, underlines the reality that “time” is not a fixed object or concept. It can be altered. And the solar system does not circulate in exactly regular intervals, like clocks.


Extract from an article from Google News:

“There have been 22 leap seconds inserted since the current system of atomic time-keeping began in 1972, but this is the first one for seven years.
The change is controversial, with some experts pushing for the leap second to be abolished because it causes unpredictable and potentially dangerous disruptions in precision software applications used to run mobile phone networks, air traffic control and power grids.
The US delegation to the International Telecommunication Union has proposed that the maximum difference between UTC and solar time be increased from 0.9 seconds to one hour, making a further adjustment unnecessary for hundreds of years. But others insist that “clock time” should closely track “Sun time” as it has done since the days of the sundial.”

Maybe it is just a hoax to skrew up our software and make us buy more software with the "right time"!

"The Monster"

My biggest accomplishment so far this winter break has been to bake bread. Not just any bread: Venezuelan Christmas Bread. It is the best, especially if you love meat. Its official name is Pan de Jamon and it is traditionally cooked during the Christmas holidays. The bread is baked with ham, bacon, olives and raisins in it! I had never made it before, but it IS my favorite Venezuelan bread, and , well, I have to have SOMETHING Venezuelan during the holidays. So I obsessed with making it until I did.

I made two in my house so I could leave some with my dad and give a loaf to my uncle Tommy and Indra. -They we very nice in letting us Brydens take over their home to make a football party. Cal won by the way.- I wanted to make Pan de Jamon for Alan's family since the ones I made at home came out pretty well.

I got up early Christmas morning to knead the doe and let it rise. I had all the ingredients. When it was finished baking I was surprised. It was not a cute little loaf like the ones I had made before. It was A MONSTER Pan de Jamon.
Behold the look on Alan's face upon seeing what I had made in his little oven:

CHRISTMAS = TIME TO PLAY!

To celebrate the birth of Jesus I went and stayed a couple of days at Alan's house. (My dad is the Grinch who hates Christmas) We had a ton of fun!! The 25th was spent in Salinas with his family. There were presents everywhere underneath the big Christmas tree and in the many stocking hanging by the fireplace. There was a big family dinner, and even the neighbors stopped by for some chatting and good-willing. It was so perfect I almost freaked out.
Alan gave me a pocket knife. It was exactly what I wanted. It was in my hand for no more than 45 sec. before I cut my finger trying to pull out all the appliances. The beautiful earrings he also got me are not sharp enough to cut myself with -thank God-.
The day after Christmas Alan and I went ice-skating in a little tented ring, with young boys whizzing past us -only to fall down few swooshes ahead- and little girls, dressed in pink sparkly things, giggling on ice. There were parents and grandparents taking pictures of their little ones from the stands. One little boy, who couldn't be older than 6, was trying very hard to skate. This little boy danced a wobbly dance all across the ring, with his arms flaring about in a frantic way trying to find balance. You had to admire how he kept getting up to try again.
All in all, I think things couldn't have been better. Winter Break is the best!

Off to Italy

Dear Friends and Family: As you all know, soon I will be in a different continent for the holidays. I would love to send you all postcards!!! Please send me by e-mail, or leave as a comment, your current address so that I may send you a little something from abroad. Assume that I don't have your address even if you think I do; I loose addresses like kids loose marbles.

Of Shampoo and Political Correctness

I ran into a dilemma recently: I went to Wallgreens and purchased shampoo. The shampoo that I bought was on some sort of sale, and the bottle had a paper sale-label that covered most of the front. The bottle on sale was right next to that shampoo that I wanted, and it was the same shape, brand and color as the one that I wanted, so I assumed that they were the same –even though I couldn’t read the bottle because of the label-. When I got home and tore off the label, I read the part of the bottle that had been covered: …“shampoo for women of color”.
Needless to say, I was mortified. This was not the shampoo that I wanted. However, I could not go to Walgreens and tell the clerk that I had bought “shampoo for women of color” and OBVIOUSLY that was a mistake. I haven't the guts.
So I used the shampoo, and I have not noticed a big difference in how it treats my hair.
Morals of this story:
- Americans are too sensitive to “race issues” and this has repercussions in our daily lives, especially concerning hair care.
- Shampoo “for women of color” is a hoax.

- Never buy something without reading what it says first.

- I, apparently, am a woman of "non-color"---?????---

Ding Dong, Exams are Dead... Let the World Know the Wickedness is Dead

Yay! Finals are officially over for me. After the last final yesterday I went shopping in San Francisco. Then, I went to a terrific SLUgS party. It was great.

While shopping in SF I coined a new word: TWANTS. Twants are pants that cost twenty dollars. I bought a pare of twants that are really comfortable. I think we should all start using this word in every-day conversations… eventually it will become an entry in the dictionary.

I slept in today. I ate and slept. I went grocery shopping and ate a big plate of homemade food. It was wonderful.

BEING A STUDENT IS MAR-VE-LOUS!!!

Time: 9:12pm
Mood: SUPER GRAUCHY

I ran out of rockstar. I haven't had a decent meal all day. My back hurts from being crunched over my computer making lists of all that I should study. IT NEVER ENDS. To top things off, my printer suddendy decided to have "error #41" and will not print.
I'm so hungry. There is NOTHING to eat in my house. I literally only have three grains of rice, and the ten cans of chicken broth that dad got at the dollar store today are not going to cut it. But I'm desperate, so I go to my kitchen and find some really old turkey meat in the fridge. Gross, but It will do the trick. I also find a stale tortilla that has somehow remained ignored for the past couple of weeks on the top of my fridge, and I have the best idea I've had all day: Improvise Burrito. Eat.

I am not proud of myself. I think I'm going to cry.

Today is Friday?

Holly Christ-Cringle. I have literally only left my room in the past couple of days to eat (in my kitchen) and go to review sessions at school. I have spent the last days concentrating solely on the Turkish paper... and apparently today is Friday!?!
I have lost all concept of time and space. This is very alarming.
Today being Friday afternoon means that I only have 2 1/2 days to study for three of the hardest exams I will probably ever take in my life, covering basically all that I have learned -and hopelessly not learned- for the past six months.

This is the equation that will get me through this week. It is not something I learned in a classroom; this I learned on my own through experience:

Panic x 3 = MM + ( infinit x Rockstar)

Keep the Rockstar coming. Just keep it coming.

Reasons why I love Turkish:

Before I begin, I would like to make a public acknowledgement of Fey, my Turkish consultant, for being so patient and willing to help me out; even if that meant spending hours of her time -even when she was sick- to help me pronounce and transcribe her language. Thank you Fey :)

- It has palatal plosives, something which English lacks.
- It has vowel harmony. Vowel Harmony ROCKS!!!
- The language displays symmetry: all the plosives, fricatives and affricates have voiced and voiceless sets.
- It sounds beautiful, because of all the aspiration on voiceless plosives.
- The Ottoman Empire spread it all over the place. How cool is that!
- My paper is done.

I like Spectograms

Even though my final paper for ling. 110 (phonetics and phonology) has brought me a world of rage, deception, confusion and sorrow, I must admit that I like spectograms. This paper requires analyzing many, many spectograms of spoken Turkish, and I'm OK with that. In fact, without realizing it, I have just spent the last 5 hours of my life discovering the distribution of /k/!
Anyway, I just wanted to share.

The Campanile is Awesome

Thursday night Laurel invited J and me to go up to the Campanile. She is a musician and plays the bells that sound throughout the campus three times a day. It was AWESOME!! (Merci Laurel) I forgot to bring my camera that day, so I couldn't take pictures. To make up for this faut pas I made a rudementary drawing of me in the tower.

Did you know that it has 61 bells, and that it was constructed in 1917? I felt soo lucky to be inside the Campanile, up high, looking over the bay area with all the twinkling lights. It was beautiful, and also very windy.

Remember When School Was Fun??

Remember when school was fun?
When learning was cool?
When tomorrow was just another day (not death in the form of a computerized mid-term)?
Remember when the most pressing issue in your mind was dinner?
When you actually had time to eat?
When life was more than what was in the books?
I forgot when the line was crossed
Between reading books to learn about life
And letting life become books.