Celebrate we will ...

And so does Congress!

Why am I more attracted to Puppies and Kittens rather than Human Babies? How is this evolutionarily optimal?


On another note, spending hours studying Automata Theory for an office hour that nobody comes to, likely because they're procrastinating until the last minute, is a bit defeating.

An ee cummings poem appropriate for today.
---

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

The best song about ALF (you know, 80s Alien Life Form ALF) ... ever. It's an LDR love song between ALF and his love Rhonda who is back on the planet Melmac. Matt knew this song from his wacky-but-amazing childhood. Warning - it's entirely in German. :)

Before her dealings with the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice was a tenured Political Science Professor and Provost at Stanford. Since all that remains of the Bush era is the world-wide mess, she is planning to take up university duties once again.

And what do the students think of this? These are the welcoming signs that will greet her upon her return to Stanford.

In White Plaza:



Posted all over campus:

This video was on the *main page* of CNN.com's headlines.

And here is CNN's description of the video:
"It's a photo that's been in newspapers, blogs, cable news, magazines, and even in prime time! Now meet the man who took it AND the horse herself!"

Ok, CNN, I'm through with you and and your games. You've subjected me to so much meaningless information in the past and I just took it mutely, consoling myself that things would be better in tomorrow's headlines. But I've been strung along for too long. Thanks to you I know the name of Paris Hilton's Chihuahua and the number of hot dogs that can be consumed by a small Asian woman in a single sitting. And all of this news-drivel is likely replacing my little remaining knowledge of that former Biochemistry major (Gluconeo-what?). That's it, CNN, You've now been permanently replaced with Al Jazeera English and Le Monde.fr.

This was one of my favorite poems as a child. I just found a site that has tons of translations and voice recordings of the poem in different languages, from Afrikaans to Hungarian to Klingon. It's wonderful. :)

The Owl and the Pussy-cat
By Edward Lear

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”

II

Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Though I do enjoy poking fun at my current academic institution, there are some really great things about Stanford. For example, right now I'm attending a seminar course about European Entrepreneurship, which is pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

I just came back from a panel of Finnish Entrepreneurs who shared their take on Business culture in Europe and how it compares with the Valley. Among them was Mårten Mickos, the former CEO of MySQL before it was sold to SUN Microsystems in a billion-dollar aquisition and now a senior Vice-President at SUN (whatever that means ...).

For me the most intriguing topic from the Biz Finns was on the hurdles that entrepreneurs and innovators face in the Old-World European culture. Mårten summed it up as the following:

"In Europe you can't make money. You can win it and you can inherit it. To make money is almost criminal. It is met with envy and suspicion."

Also pretty awesome is the Stanford Engineering Everywhere program. The program offers all the materials of genunine Stanford Engineering courses - taped lectures, homework assignments, exams and solutions - to anyone in the world free of charge. For example, my Machine Learning course from last quarter is right up there with the same Professor who taught it.

Now that I think about it, this means I could have done all the self-education I wanted from the comfort of my home without the continuous work and numerous nights lost to deadlines and due-dates. Well, crap.

Someday this will be my car. <3



Personally, I love the original Fiat Panda.

I need to go back to Korea. Even if only to eat fresh kimchi, watch telenovelas, ride French trains for quarter-price, and buy matching couple tees.

Ah, couple shirts. I doubt there is anything that could lure a woman into spending so impulsively than Relationship-affirming-fashion. :)

Happy New Year, everyone! Who knows what 2009 has in store, but I'm optimistic. :)

What better way to kick off the new year than to hear the latest and greatest of Eurotrash? Personally, I enjoy the winner of Eurovision 2008, Russia's "Believe." The song itself is fairly terrible but comical levels of drama are reached at 2:00 minutes when the Russian boy begins singing barefoot on a slab of ice in the middle of a stage with both a violinist and a male figure skater twirling around him.

And while we're talking about trashy power ballads, I just saw the original video to Bonny Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and was reminded of why I love the 80s and all of its melodrama. By far the best line: "Every now again I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears." Wow.

Happy 2009!

For some perverse reason, I really want this shirt!

http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/index.php?mode=DETAIL&parent=DETAIL&pid=5007

I know that this dates me eons behind the current web era, but in case you missed this like me, here is Christian the Lion. I admit that despite the cheesy, Kenny-G music and somewhat annoying text display, I teared up when I saw this! :)



And snopes verifies that it's true!

A gem by the awesome Steven Strogatz, author of my Nonlinear Dynamics text in Undergrad.

For the Romantic Mathematician. :)

While perusing the ridiculously cheesy Christmas E-Card selections, I spotted this poem in the comments section and it struck me as poignant.

"Picture this: A nice summer day, you and I lok for a place to lay. So we walk up to tis hill top. While all the time Im thinking of your G-spot. Now just lay back,and get ready to play. And we are going to do like its our last day.(on earth that is). Hold up I just got ch-o-let in your car-a-mail. Oh well the time is right to do this one night. And remember take it slow. but this you already know. so just a few words for my Jill. Because im jack just a simple man, leting you know that sometimes we don't understand. But it is what it is. Merry Christmas. (Jck)"

Merry Christmas ...?

Within the last few years, I've been slowly becoming more public with my feminine side. Granted, I am and always have been very "female-minded" in my thinking and priorities, but it hadn't translated to my clothing. I was a rough-and-tumble little girl (with simultaneous loves of Star Wars and My Little Pony) and my parents often encouraged me to be a Tom Boy, especially when it came to appearances. My father loved it when I wore overalls and pretended to be an Iowan farm girl.

In recent years, I've been slowly changing this image I've built up for myself - ditching the boots and wearing softer colors. Having gone through a pretty intense quarter with school that left me little time for any frivolities, I've been really running with my girl urges recently - taking every opportunity I can to try on dresses, paint my nails, and put pretty things in my hair.

But there are some things that I just have nill woman experience with - like makeup and cosmetics. (There was that phase between 12-14 where I layered on enough blue eyeshadow to look like a French Lady of the Night, but I abandoned the makeup trend instead of actually improving my technique. As an added bonus, my family made sure to thoroughly document that time in life so I've come to realize I will never live down those photos.).

All of this led me up to today's episode. In a mall for the first time in months, I walked into my first Sephora, a popular makeup store, where I was looking for a present for my Sister-in-law. I'm well aware of my makeup ignorance so I tried to ask for a Saleswoman's help. The conversation went something like this:

K: "Hi! I'm looking for a present for my Sister-in-law. Can you tell me where I can find eye makeup?"

Saleswoman: "Ummm, well, we have eye makeup all over the store. Is there something specific that you're looking for?"

K: "Oh, OK, how about eye shadow? Can you show me your eye shadows?"

Saleswoman: "Well, we have a lot of eye shadow here. Are you looking for something in particular?"

K: "Oh, OK, how about an eye shadow package with a variety of different colors to try?"

Saleswoman: "That is basically the definition of our store. You're going to have to be more specific than that."

I thought it was a reasonable question ... I guess not? At that point, I realized I was beyond help and would just have to find my own way through Sephora.

*sigh* Total Girly Failure.

This is brilliant. Thanks to one N. Hymes for showing it to me.

Watch the History Channel's enlightening 60 min special entitled The Universe: Sex in Space.

Previews available here.

Summer '09 is taking shape! The travel won't be quite as extensive compared with the previous two years, but it will stave off my wander lust until the following year. It will also be marked with qualifying exam preparation as well as general future arranging, so not (nearly) the total escape of '07 or '08. Still, travel!

Destinations (in no particular order)


• Norway: Biking up Norway to the Nordkapp, the northernmost point in Europe, with Matt. This is likely to be an arduous (though incredible) multi-week affair.
  
• British Isles: My Mom has been dreaming of exploring England, Scotland and Wales since her first (and only) trip to Europe when she was in her mid 20s. I'm going to realize this with her this summer.
  
• Ireland: We'll also be doing the mother-daughter invasion of Ireland.
  
• Micellaneous Europe Ideas:
  • Biking the Romantic Road across Germany with Matt.
    
  • Make the long awaited trip to the Faroe Islands off the coast of Denmark.
    
  • Visit Sicily and Puglia in Southern Italy with our mutual friends.
    
  • Go exploring more in Hungary. Perhaps Eger, Balaton, Pecs, Szeged ...
    
  • Lastly (and most likely) fill in whatever time I have left from Norway and travels with Maman by following Matt on whatever bike misadventures he cooks up.