Lost in Translation

I'm taking a class (Chinese Culture and Society) in the newly founded Confucius Institute on campus. All the professors in the Institute are newly arrived from China's Nankai University, so while it's awesome to be taught by such high ranking professors, and while my professor, Dr. Teng, speaks English really well, there are always some interesting misunderstandings.

Like today, while discussing a famous poem by Li Bai- Dr. Teng was trying to explain that the English translation didn't do the poem justice, and that many things were lost in translation. His explanation: "You cannot translate the poem, it is like a beautiful woman, when you translate it, you kill it...." lol.

And he told us that our midterm would be open book (yay!) but that we had to keep it a secret "in case the director or provost finds out." :) Chinese universities are definitely different.

Yesterday...

I just found a quality version of 'Yesterday' by Boyz II Men on youtube! No, it's not 'It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday', although that's a good song by them too... but you have no idea how much scouring of the internet I have been doing for this mp3! Alas, the mp3 ws not to be found... but the vid can just go on my iPod. Great Success!

I love this song. Acapella is so awesome in general, but Boyz II Men makes it that much better.

I totally remember my cousins playing this on their boombox when I was little, and me being amazed when they pointed out that this was done with no instruments. I believe in yesterday!

Legends

Complete Randomness

You know what? Jack White reminds me of Miyavi a lot. Or Miyavi reminds me of Jack White. Something about their voices makes me link them together. And they both have the 'i'm-dark-but-actually-not-really' thing going on. I like that. Except jack white has really let himself go lately...
And they both do the whole 'pushing the limits of genre' type music. There was actually a quote by miyavi on genre that I really liked, but I cant find it right now... :( But yeah, they've both proved that they can excel at a bajillion different genres of music. But maybe Miyavi moreso than Jack? And they both have awesome guitar skills... If I remember correctly, when I was in middle school, Jack White was named one of the best guitar players of all time, right up there with Jimi Hendrix. I don't know if I'd put him up there, mostly because I don't really know enough of the 'top guitar players' to compare, but, well, if the internet says it, it must be true. And Miyavi's slap-style guitar is awesome:

There's a better vid of his guitar style on youtube, but apparently it was a copyright violation.

OOO WAIT! I FOUND IT! Place your thumb over his face/hair and try to appreciate his guitar playing, not his cough'interesting'cough hairstyle. Yes, that is a guy. You know the Japanese.-

I dunno. They just remind me of each other. It's their voices and musical style I guess. I just had to let it out. Actually as soon as I heard 'conquest' it reminded me of 'senor, senora, senorita' and miyavi's 'blew' cover...then i just went crazy from there.

Actually never mind, they're not really that similar. I just like their music.

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I got my first ticket EVER a couple fridays ago. I was doing 62 in a 45- but there was no one around me! I was late for moffitt... but either way, I wasn't able to run my experiment that day, because I ended up having to go to USF's and Moffitt's separate research day exhibitions on my PI's request... which lasted until 5pm. They were actually really interesting, but I felt retarded because I was wearing jeans and Key Club shirt while everyone else was in their business un-casual attire (if only my lab people hadn't told me 5 minutes before they came to get me from the lab...). But whatever, it was a good experience (the research presentations, not the ticket) overall.
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I really like fabric softener. It smells so good. "sehh gooood"

School Stuff

(or me rationalizing my decisions, probably to help fool myself into believing I'm making good choices that I like when I really don't or something like that)

I decided to join USF's 7 year med program. But do it in 8 years. Because I like International Studies too much to give it up, and I don't think I'd be able to get my Bio-Medical Sciences and Intl Studies majors in 3 years. Double majors usually take longer than years, right? So doing it in 4 years is ambitious already, right? No, maybe not so so ambitious, especially with IB. But 3 years is too ambitious. Right? And whats the point of becoming a doctor in 7 years, rather than 8? Congratulations, you've just completed med school in 7 years, instead of 8! And your prize is... an extra year of your life to work! But I also don't want to start practicing medicine when I'm old and don't want to travel and stuff. But a year shouldn't make that much of a difference.

Ugh I think one of the things I'm going to hate is that if I do end up making good on this med school contract with USF, then all my friends are going to be one year ahead of me in Med School. Especially my Really Good Friends, because they're planning on doing it in 7 years, with no extra majors or minors. But then again, at the last 7 year med advising sessions (the first one I went to) when the woman asked the crowd of bright eyed and bushy tailed premeds "how many of you are thinking of doing the 4-plus plan?" (which is the 4 years of undergrad option I want to do) a lot of people raised their hands, and she wasn't surprised. Almost like most people opt for the 4 plus plan anyway, by the time they get to the point where they have to make a decision. And the woman did mention that she recommended it.

And I have to keep in mind the original reason why I didn't want to join 7 year med in the first place (before I was enrolled as a freshman), which is that I really wanted to have Intl Studies as a second major, and back then I didn't know that they offered the option to do it in 8 years, instead of 7 (with all the benefits). So I like Intl Studies so much that I didn't join 7 year med. But now that I have the option to do both, it's perfect, right? I just might be behind some of my friends in med school. But who knows, maybe that'll be a blessing. Getting old tests and advice and being involved in the higher ranks of organizations have all come to me by having friends who are further along/older than me in undergrad- whose to say it's not going to be exactly the same in med school?
So, I get to do my Intl Studies major in addition to my Bio-Med major, take 4 years if I want to to do it, just get a 30 (which is average) on my MCAT and do well in 2 interviews, add a sprinkling of volunteer hours in there somewhere, and I'll get a seat in a pretty good med school that has like 112 seats for 4,000 applicants or something. Not a bad deal.

Its like USF hands out Med school spots like candy. Seriously.

Only to USF undergrad students though.

And USF Med is awesome. I know geniuses, like some of my friends and cousins, who couldn't get in. I don't think I'd be 'settling' at all. Plus, if I really get to pursue my ideal career path, then I won't be making very much money. I'm perfectly okay with that, as I'd being doing what I love, but I don't think med school loan sharks would... and USF is pretty cheap, compared to other med schools. and my parents are definitely not rich.

I've asked (much to the happiness of my friends already in 7 year med, who were dying to know but too afraid to ask in case they got kicked out- which, by the way, is how I would feel if I were in their shoes) if I was allowed to apply to other Med schools while in the 7 year program and they said yes. So if I do get into the Johns Hopkins-es or the Harvards, then I'm allowed to break it off with USF med and go. It isn't binding. I'm not selling my soul and future prospects by entering the 7 year program, especially since I'm opting for the more traditional 8 year route, which will give me the opportunity to apply to other med schools while still being at the same level of the other applicants they'd be getting (not a year younger, which I doubt you'd even be allowed to do...). So it's a Good Deal. I'll take it.

As a side note, I think USF made up this 'Bio-Medical Sciences' major. Like, seriously. No other schools have it... but whatever, it covers the pre-reqs for med school. But I think I'll change my major to Biology or something, especially if I plan on applying to Med schools other than USF... just in case. They both cover med school pre-reqs, and are virtually the same anyways. Biology is just more recognized, I think.
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There's a lot of people who ask me (in my family and among my friends) why I'm doing International Studies as a major. Granted, I know a second major will take me more time than only 1 would, but I don't get why people cannot fathom that I'm doing it BECAUSE I LIKE IT. Geez. Is it so hard to understand that some people would opt to take extra classes to learn about something they like? And I hate having to justify it to them. They just cannot understand it. 'Doesn't count for med school? What? Why take it?'
And isn't it interesting that more med schools are looking for applicants with non science majors? I'm actually considering dropping my bio-med major and just do my intl studies major, while taking the pre-reqs for med school and a list of a few courses that an adviser I know (now on the USF med school admissions committee) told me directly correlate to sections on the MCAT (see, even they admit most of the courses you have to take for these science majors aren't even covered on the MCAT).
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So that was my incredibly long and boring post on my rationale behind the choices I'm going to make. Maybe someday I'll be able to look back (when I'm hopefully in Med school) and laugh at how wrong I was, while being thankful that I didn't think of something too crazy (as I will, again, hopefully be in Med school at the time).

Korean History Channel

I've been meaning to post these for awhile now, just haven't got around to it.

So there's two Vietnamese guys, impersonating two Korean ajusshis (middle aged/older men). I crack up every time I watch these videos because they are sooo funny (at least to me). They get everything down, from the elongated whiny ending vowels, to the super Japanese hate, to the facial expressions... aaahhhh i love it

Korea is Numba One!

"it happened 1 million years ago... but a still! but a still! I remembers!"
"Korean dinosaur is numba one! Ja-penese dinosaur negative shree!"
"is soo good"

And then they did Korean History Channel part 2: The Inner City problem, dealing with the Rodney King incident, where the white police beat up a black guy and everyone ended up raiding and mobbing the Korean businesses.

For betterment of Korean relation with the chocolate people:

"Whena Ja-penese come to Korea, okay, Korea does not go to Aprika and steal all the coconuts!"
"Chocolates people, we Porgive"

JustKiddingFilms is great.

SPAZZ

zomg I just found out I (more like my abstract) got accepted to NCUR 08!

April 9-12th Maryland. Thats a lot of missed classes ><

I'm so excited!^^

Giuliani- tested. ready. not.

So as expected, I have been reminded why I hate living in Florida. It's been four years, hasn't it?

Ah, but this time my anger has resurfaced a bit earlier than the actual election. Why, you ask? Well, who wouldn't be, if they had Rudolph Giuliani campaigning almost exclusively in their state, 24/7?! This man is so ridiculous! His ads just kill me. Could anyone be more blatantly bigoted?
I saw this gem recently on TV, and I've heard that this beauty has only been shown in Floridian households (I think):

Is it just me or does anyone else see the huge gap in logic here? Isn't this ad counter productive? Let's get past the fear-mongering body of the ad for a second, and skip to the end. A deep voice informs us that Rudy Giuliani is "TESTED. READY. NOW."

Ok, wait. Let's take this step by step.

How exactly is Giuliani connected to terrorists? He was the mayor of New York during September 11th. What did he do? He basically cleaned up after the attacks. So what exactly was he tested in? His ability to prevent attacks? No. His ability to catch terrorists? No. His ability to clean up after an attack? Yes!

So, in this ad, Giuliani is basically saying that he's tested and ready... to fix everything after an attack. Wow, I feel safe. Guiliani'll show those terrorists! America will put itself back together like nobody's business after every one of their brutal attacks, as long as we have Giuliani's mad cleaning up sKillZ! Gee whiz, I think we have a winner. This might even rank up there with the candidate who believes organizing the Olympics is a good argument for allowing him to organize the country.

Another thing that REALLY annoys me in this ad (rather than the onslaught of typical rallying arabs and the KKK resembling reference thrown in for good measure) is the use of Bhutto. Um, first of all, there is strong evidence that U.S. backed Musharraf was behind her death (cough tons of motive cough lying about what can easily be seen in the video cough). Second, I love how everyone is painting her as some pure hearted fairy of good, who came down to bless the Pakistanis with love and good will or something. The fact is, she wasn't. It's widely known that she and her family were corrupted as anything. She killed her brother for goodness sakes (albeit she had her husband do it)! If you look at Pakistani sentiment right now, you'll see that the rest of the world is making a bigger deal about Bhutto's death than pakistanis are. I asked my friend about her family in Pakistan and how they were taking it, and she only confirmed this. She said they said that pakistanis knew Bhutto was corrupt, they know Musharraf is corrupt, and they agree that their government is going to be screwed up until someone else shows up. It's not that I didn't like her- I admit, I was (and am) upset that she died, mostly because I saw her as the lesser of two evils, and the only one willing to be an obstacle for Musharraf- but I think it's weird that everyone is romanticizing her memory, and how Giuliani is exploiting her death.

But of course, the bigger tragedy Giuliani is shamelessly exploiting is September 11th. Giuliani is basically making himself out to be some sort of hero, even going as far as to say that he had been at ground zero “as often, if not more” than the actual rescue workers (The New York Times). Um, sure. And as expected, the firefighters and rescue workers are not taking this well
The firefighters in particular have taken a stand against Giuliani, releasing a video on how inadequate Giuliani was as a pre and post 9-11 mayor, and have throughly denounced him for trying to make himself out to be one of them:


In the end, Rudy Giuliani's whole campaign is pretty much 9/11. He has nothing else in his campaign. Joe Biden was right when he said:

“There’s only three things he [Rudy Giuliani] mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else! There’s nothing else! And I mean this sincerely. He’s genuinely not qualified to be president.”

If Giuliani manages to win Florida I swear I'll leave.

And it sucks that in the back of my mind, I know I should be packing.

How to Create Ringtones Using iTunes

iTunes makes it pretty easy to make ringtones with any mp3 file, that can easily be sent to any phone that can connect via a cable to a computer or has bluetooth or some other way that I don't know about. The best part about making your own ringtones is that you can include only your favorite part of the song/recitation/speech/whatever, instead of ordering a ringtone from your provider that ends up not being the part of the song you want. (For example, I really wanted Three 6 Mafia's 'Stay Fly' as my ringtone, but only the "purple and urple and urple" part- that part repeated over and over would make a genius ringtone- but I knew that if I ordered it from tmobile, I'd get the chorus...).

If you want to make a ringtone from a file you've purchased from the iTunes store, you should just highlight the song in your library, open the 'Store' menu, then click 'Create Ringtone'. For those 'other' files, including CD tracks and those obtained by not-so-legal means (hey, iTunes' foreign selection is virtually nonexistent!) try the following:

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HOW TO MAKE RINGTONES USING iTUNES

This guide DOES NOT make you download the program Audacity.

What you'll need:
-A cable to connect your phone to your computer
OR a bluetooth enabled phone and computer
OR some other means of transferring files
-iTunes (if you don't have it, here's a free download)
-a track you like

1) Figure out what you want your ringtone to be.
Listen to your file in iTunes. Select the portion of the track you want to be your ringtone. Note the starting and ending points of selection (min:sec). Most ringtones can be anywhere up to 15 to 25 seconds, but I've heard some that are longer. It all depends on your phone, so try out a few sizes to see how long of a clip your phone will play.
Be sure to note the start and end times of your selection using the number on the left (the positive time). See below:

In this pic, I would note the time 1:50, not the -2.25).

2) Split/trim the file.
Highlight the track and right click it (Mac users: you will need to enable the right click function on your computer, if you haven't already. Look it up on the Apple website). Click 'Get Info', then select the 'Options' tab. Alternatively, you can go to the 'File' menu, then select 'Get Info':

In the 'Start Time' field, enter the starting time of your selection, in minutes:seconds. In the 'Stop Time' field, enter the stop time you previously noted. To get the clip juuuust riiiight, you can even enter in fractions of a second, by putting a period and the fraction.

minutes:seconds.fraction of second

This ringtone will start at 1:50 and stop at 2:12.6

Your menu my look slightly different if you different version of iTunes.

get info>options>start/stop>ok

Press 'ok' when finished. Now play the song in iTunes to hear what your ringtone will sound like. The song should start and end at the points you specified. If it's not exactly right (and you're a bit of a perfectionist) now is the time to go back to the get info>options menu and fix it.

3) Convert to mp3.
Go to the 'iTunes' menu, then select 'Preferences':

In preferences, select the Advanced' tab. Now select 'importing'. In the 'Import Using:' drop down menu, select 'MP3 encoder'. This may already be set.

Your menus may look different, but the content should be the same.

Press 'ok', and you return to your library. Now select the 'Advanced' menu, then 'Convert Selection to mp3'. A file should appear bearing the same name as the original track, but the duration should be much shorter. This is your ringtone, and you may want to rename it as such, in the get info>info menu.

iTunes>preferences>advanced>import using: mp3 encoder>ok

Advanced>convert selection to mp3

Now all you have left is locating the file on your computer (for macs: right click the track in your library, then select show in finder') and sending it to your phone via bluetooth or a cable or something else.

***Note: when you go back to play your original track, you'll notice that it will only play the portion you selected. To fix this, in the get info>options menu, uncheck 'start time' and 'stop time', then click 'ok'. Your track should play normally now.

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And don't limit yourself with your ringtones! Try making a voice recording or something into a ringtone... be creative! Forbes actually just cited 'making reality ringtones' as one of the top 20 global trends of today (Check out the other 19, they're pretty interesting. Be sure to see them 'in pictures'). Gotta love that 'porque no te callas' from the King of Spain as a ringtone.

Phones and Football

So a lot has happened in the last few weeks.

It was my birthday on the 29th, so the fam went out to at, which was nice. I had to leave the restaurant early though, because I had to go run the girl scout meeting (the two other leaders were out of town, so I HAD to go). I didn't mind though, I really like the girl scouts in my troop, they're really smart and crack me up all the time. And they're well-behaved, which rocks. I'd be hard pressed to name another volunteer activity I've done that's been as much fun as being a girl scout troop leader.

Anyways, so I got to get a new phone, which is what I really wanted, since my old phone is super crappy. It was a samsung t-309, I think? Anyways, it was ugly and was starting to mess up (like saying 'emergency calls only' when I had 5 bars of signal! what is that?!). Sooo... I went to the t mobile store yesterday and got the Samsung Blast. I was thinking about getting another phone, like the shadow or the sidekick, but then I realized that I never use the internet on my phone, EVER. And those phones are centered around being used for the internet. The only reason I can ever think of using the internet on my phone for would be to check my email, which the BLAST allows you to do (by sending you your emails as text messages or im's) without needing a data plan. Which is cool, because then my parents won't have to pay for something I'd virtually never use, I'll still get email, and I don't feel guilty about wasting their money.

The blast is pretty cool, the only things I really wanted in a phone was a qwerty keypad and a slider if possible, and the blast has both. The only slightly depressing part of the phone is that there's no hole for straps/charms. I know it sounds dorky that I'd even want to put on charms, but I don't care! I like them!

The Samsung SGH-T729/Blast

Anyways, its pretty thin for a slider, its light, the red is nice, and the keypad buttons are raised (feedback!). The raised buttons rock, that's the one thing I hate about razrs/krazrs/rizrs/sizrs/fhdsazrs- the totally flat buttons. Overall its a nice phone. I'd recommend it.

I was still pretty new to bluetooth when I got this phone, and when I asked the tmobile guy if I needed a cord to attach my phone to my comp to put music/ringtones on it, the guy said yes. Chyeah NO. I connected wirelessly to my mac when I got home. Good thing I didn't buy the cable.

So my birthday was good, but the bowl games were not. USF and Hawaii both lost, pretty badly. Ugh, USF's loss was so embarrassing. Now all I can hope for is Ohio State, which isn't likely. I want LSU to lose sooo bad!

Last night my cousin...errr second cousin... errr my cousin's son...errr american relationships are so weird- my nephew (indian style is way better) came over and we figured out how to make ringtones on itunes pretty easily, not using itunes store songs. I know there's some websites where you can tell them how long you want the ringtone and they'll send it to you (after a cerain time period), like mobile17.com , but when I tried the site it said I'd have to wait like an hour (if I wanted it free) and the file wouldn't upload. So I like itunes better, its instant. You basically split the file, convert to mp3, then send it though bluetooth. I think I'll make a tutorial spelling it out though, for beginners (like I was...). There might be easier ways, but this is the way I did it, and I'd like to share. I use so many online tutorials, so its kinda cool that I'll be able to help people too with my own tutorial.

So next up: How to Make Ringtones Using iTunes (for free).

...

I just found out that Bhutto was assassinated.


Bush says it was does by extremists against Pakistan's democracy.




Yeah, like MUSHARRAF.


First Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, now his daughter.