Another Big Day – Ready, Set…, Oh Wait?

March 14th, 2010 Thomasso

Oh wait, I think I might have piled too much on, and I can  feel my head ready to explode with all the things I have/need to do. Having the time sit and blog is a big problem too. I’m only typing this becuase I was actually about to do something else when I clicked on my browser and may web page popped from a previous session I forgot to close. Now that I’m here, I thought, I might as well through something in-so here we are.

Two TV shows that have riveted me to the monitor: Lost, and Caprica. Lost, for its obvious reasons, I have followed all five seasons, and love the plot with all its weird and twisted concepts. Caprica, well, this is the prequel to Battle Star Galactic, and at first I though, “what a dumb idea,” but as it turns out, I think the series is very good. I watch them on-line becuase I do not have time to park myself in front of the TV, so I watch them I’m between classes.

“Spring ahead,” really sucks. It is bad enough that my sleep is all messed up, now I have to deal with the loss of an hour. I hate this “savings time” crap. I’m sorry, but I need every second of time I can get, and the only place that I can take time from in my day to day routine is from my sleep time. Moving to Saskatchewan may have a benefit as it is one of the few areas in North America that does not do this time switch twice a year. We invented window blinds so we can simulate night-time inside our homes, so why do you care if the sun is up at 5:00am? Even when we lose this hour, for most of us, the sun is up before we are anyway–what is the difference? If I were a Vampire, well then moving to Antarctica would be my only solution, and I would have to fly by night too, so day light savings time would not work for me anyway either. Stupid.

Tomorrow is also registration day down at admissions. This will be the second to the last time that I will grace the halls of admissions. Hard to believe that classes will come to an end, and I will have to venture into the big world in search of a job with my piece of paper with the gold sticker on it. Of course finding a job will not be the problem, but rather, choosing where to go will be my dilemma. I have so many options, directions and places with my pool of knowledge, that sitting down to choose will be the challenge. Already one of my best friends from on campus will be leaving, graduating, in May, and she’ll be taking with her the B.A. But she has found her calling, and I am so happy for her. I will miss our time together–all the joking around and study labs together. There are about thirty in our little world, and when you spent so such time under pressure with these people, the sadness of leaving, and splitting up to move on, can be hard. Even the “hard-ass” Criminologists feels emotional too. But we went there for a purpose, so time to move on!

So I will be sad and happy. Sad that my friends are going on, and happy that we all made through the forty to fifty courses, and 300 or so exams and papers, and survived with most of our fur on us. For me, it will be forty-five courses, and a defence hearing for the honers dissertation. Then the choice of Masters, and Doctorate? What path should I take… gulp.

OK, must go. Time to cram for the French exam tomorrow. Yes, more French. Thank goodness there are only four more weeks to go of this.

Posted in Criminology, Events, General, Homework and deadlines | No Comments »

Happy Birthday Mom, and Valentine’s Day

February 14th, 2010 Thomasso

Yes, I know, this is a cheap way of doing it this year. But Mom, I have just being so busy to get out and send you off a proper birthday card. I know you sometimes feel that saying it public, like this, makes you uneasy, but at least this way I know will find it. So happy birthday Mom, and may this one be the best ever.

Also, today is Valentine’s Day, a day when you are supposed to give your “sweetheart” a gift of something that somehow conveys a romantic feeling to it. Because I have no “special” sweetheart in my life at the moment, I will dedicated part of this post to all those sweethearts who do not have that special someone in their life, and send out a blanket, virtual, Valentine’s day card to you all.

Maybe this will put a smile on someone’s face.  À bientôt!

[ADDED] I remember a long time ago when me and my father had a very deep discussion about the symbolism of the Valentine’s heart and the arrow through it, it left me wondering why we give cards to everyone when I was in grade school, and should it be a good idea if it is just a repetitious commercialised act we do today? He came up with some very interesting ideas of what could be alternative meanings to it, but when you start to add critical thinking to these ideas they start to loose their fun very quickly. Of course symbolism is the mainstay of why we use such things as cards and gifts on various days throughout the calendar like Valentine’s Day, but do we really know where they started from?

We know that the arrows come from the Greek myth Cupid, whose arrows strike those who have fallen in love. When the arrow hits you, you become transformed and fall love with whomever is near you, or the first person you see. I suspect that the kiss comes from this too, as the shape of the lips, in particular the top outer lip becuase it is shaped like a ancient bow from which you would draw an arrow from.

The heart shape we see today is where my Dad had came up with the weirdest part of this idea. We know that the human heart is not shaped like a Valentine’s heart, but rather like a potato or pear, and is not perfectly symmetrical like the drawings we see. Instead, what we draw today as the “heart” could very well be a symbolic representation of a woman’s buttock. Oh, it gets weirder yet: the arrow is like a pin, or mark that indicates that the buttock has being taken, or the sender wishes to take it. Tthe arrow could very well be a symbol of the penis, and putting it through the heart could be the romantic act in its purest form.

Although this conversation took place over twenty years ago, it still makes me wonder if it has any validity to it. I know that all societies have buried in their cultures dual meanings to their beliefs that we see today. All religions have their origins from older forms of cultural symbolisms that have evolved into what we see today. I never bothered to go out and research this, but perhaps I should? I would be interested in what other ideas there are that have laid claim to this symbol of love?

Posted in Birthday, Events, General, Photographs | No Comments »

I Admit it, I’m a Lost Fan Too! People Hate Me for it.

February 13th, 2010 Thomasso

For Ten long agonizing months I waited while rerun after rerun played before the launch of season six kicked in on the boob-tube, or flat-screen this month. As of two weeks ago, season six of the television show Lost finally started, and life seems to be back to normal, although normal is such a loose word these days. I have being capturing the last two episodes on my home-made PVR so I can watch it during the times I have to myself. Many I know love the show. I love the show becuase it has a cool narrative and a plot that would make a prime-time soup-opera look like a skit on kid’s TV.

The nice thing about the whole plot are the never ending twists that each character takes. I mean you really need to take notes on some of these details that go on. I also enjoy finding mistakes, especially the continuity of one scene to another, or editing mistakes where make-up changes dramatically–a cut, or gun shot location on a actor’s piece of clothing. There are some really good websites too that have hundreds of them listed.

I also love it when people poke fun at the show. The Onion News Network is probably one of the best American parity shows on the web that I have seen. There are many spoofs of the show Lost on the web, but this one has a lot of truth to it–you either love it, or hate it to death.

We will see what the final season of Lost brings, 17 episodes of suspense, drama and gut wrenching plot. Hopefully they (the writers and producers) can really make everyone heads spin with weirdness as the plot goes where no plot has gone before. I can’t wait!

Posted in Events, General, Humour, Video | No Comments »

Woo-Hoo, First Post for 2010 & Drawing Cherries With InkScape!

January 1st, 2010 Thomasso

Now, …what should I type? Awh, later.

OK, I am back. Today I am going to talk about InkScape, becuase I am getting a lot of emails from my friends about some of the images I have being posting on my blog. First of all, if you are the unfortunate who is running Window$, and  feel for you, you are still in luck becuase InkScape does run on it, but I have noticed that it is not completely stable in my experiences on the OS. With that out of the way, Vector image programs are completely different from those programs that manipulate images. InkScape does work with photographs, but not in the same way that programs like the GIMP do.

Think of Vector images as drawing with Math, in other words, every shape or element of the image you create is just a bunch of numbers that represents what you are seeing. This means two things. First, you can increase, or decrease the size of the image without compromising any loss of detail. Second, you must render the finished product into a image so that your audience can see your lovely creation.

I have created these cherries.

Each cherry has six elements, or components in it. The two basic shapes, or primitives, are a circle and a rectangle. The stems are made of two rectangles, twisted to curve into the shape and each shape also is shaded with a different colour, darker colour on the bottom, and the lighter on the top layer. The cherry is just one big circle with red colour fill, and three smaller circles, with different sizes, each with lighter colours, with the effects of transparency and blur added to give the reflective look from the light in the virtual room the cherries are in.

If you want to see the SVG file for yourself, click here, “Cherries01.svg” to down load it, and then run it with InkScape. Also note that this was created on  version 0.47 at the time of this writing. Enjoy the file.

Posted in Art, Events, General, Humour, Linux, Photographs, Software | 2 Comments »

Happy New Year! Another Has Come and Gone!

December 31st, 2009 Thomasso

Well, I can’t really say that 2009 was one my best years. In fact, I would put this year close to the lower end of the average scale. I am however, looking forward to this new year for a couple of reasons. One, I will graduate with my BA, and hopefully an honours degree attached to it. Two, I may relocate and find a more permanent home, but still in the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley. Three, more income.

I hate looking back over the last twelve months during new years becuase it doesn’t make sense to me to do that. I mean why? What is so different from this month to the next, or this year to the next becuase looking back like this sort of puts a faults sense of preceptive on it. I like to look at things by the season. For example, I like to compare summers and winters to each other. I also like it when I can say that last winter was brutal compared to the one before it. It is ridiculous to say that the last major snowstorm last year, but really it was the year before becuase winter started in 2008, December 21, but we think the storm was in 2009–wrong!

But who am I to kid around. It is a really good excuse to have a long weekend! I love long weekends. Who doesn’t love them?

So here we are, another long weekend, another year end, and tomorrow when I wake up, another year to remeber everytime when I write the date on my invoives.

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Humour, Photographs | No Comments »

All Through The House, It’s So Cold

December 24th, 2009 Thomasso

Yikes, could it snow tomorrow?

This is great, two long weekends in a row! Nice.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Posted in Events, General, Holiday, Photographs | 2 Comments »

This is the Day of Renewal: The Winter Solstice.

December 21st, 2009 Thomasso

It occurred around 9:45am this morning local time, and the darkness was very noticeable, but as the drizzle coated everything wet, spirits were high becuase this is the day of renewal: the winter Solstice. I pay special attention to this day because of its significance as a turning point in the year. I should also point out that I am not a religious person, but a person of reality who looks beyond fiction to see what is really there – and I see the magic of the universe in physics. The Earth has a tilt of 23.5 degrees on a elliptical orbit, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.017, which means that we get four extra days of summer compared to the Southern hemisphere, and our winters are equally shorter. Because of this tilling effect along the celestial equator, we get the seasons.

The significance of today is that from here on in the days will gradually get longer. For us who live in the Northern climates, this is a good thing becuase knowing that the cold and drizzly weather will be gone in about three months makes the hope and happiness of a new beginning something tangible to hold onto while it pours buckets outside, or a dump of snow occurs.

I remember asking my father why, if winter started on December 21, how come winter didn’t start when the days actually started getting shorter instead of now when the cycle was half over? He was unable to actuality answer this question, but he gave it a shot.  He said, “Bureaucracy – when they were hashing out the calendar and fitting in all the days and months, trying to make everyone happy, other countries were getting cold weather later than the countries closer to the equator, so they compromised.” he said. For a very long time I bought that story. I was corrected in my beliefs during a high school science lesson on time and the seasons, when the teacher used a fancy model of the Solar System with a light bulb for the Sun that showed physically what was going on. Seeing the process in a model made the difference in fully understanding what was going on and how it all worked.

Of course, the reason for winter starting on the solstice is something called seasonal drag. Two things happen when the Earth tilts away from the Sun. First, the rays from the Sun slowly start to cover more surface area of the Earth, and as a result the energy is spread out wider on the ground. Second, it takes time for the atmosphere and surface temperatures to cool down as the heat is retained and releases slowly. So the really cold days do not start until the days start getting longer. The great news is, March is not that far away!

Happy Solstice! The days are getting longer!

Posted in Astronomy, Events, General | No Comments »

Overcoming Fear and Seeing the True Universe for the Very the First Time.

December 18th, 2009 Thomasso

It was sixteen weeks ago that I took up the challenge of doing a hard-based third year science course, the last of my science requirement in my degree program, and back then I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I embarked on Astro Physics. The fourteen week long course took me on some very wild rides as I fumbled with my scientific calculator, and gawked at the streams of formulas with enough Greek letters to make a bowl of soup with, and it made me ponder the true extent of our universe.

Last night I wrote my final for that class. At the end of the 3 hour exam, which I managed to complete before the required time period was up, I got my list of overall marks from the professor. I was elated with joy when she said that my final mark may hinged between a B or an A, depending on the outcome of my final exam. (I was happy that it was not the difference between a C or a B.) I remembered how hard the mid-term was. I squeaked in a borderline B+/A- in the mid-term, after putting a lot of hours repetitiously memorising the 150 pages of texts for that exam. The big blow to the chest was that the final exam was accumulative, meaning that it covered everything from day one till the final moment of the last class. I had to work harder for it!

I remember sitting in the class, dumbfounded, when we were given our Math labs. Physics has a dual whammy with it, in that it deals with theory and Math all in one, and they are inter twined. You can not happily wonder through the course with just the theory and not take in any of the Math components–you would never be able to answer any of the questions, or get full marks for them. So seeing numbers, huge numbers, written in scientific notation like this, scared the pants off me. But once I figured out to enter them into the calculator, and properly understand them, then the wheels started to turn for me.

I was hard on myself. I only saw the people in the class that were getting all of the questions. I did not see that the class mean was only 67 percent, or that a quarter of the class was very close to fail mark of 60 percent, depending on what benchmark you use from what degree program you are in. I made sure that I allowed myself several hours per week going over the notes, textbook and labs.  Disappointment came from the labs becuase of the level of Math that was involved. One lab, I got 7 out of 30 marks becuase of not moving the decimal point far enough to the right when converting measurements when calculating Mass into Solar Units. In another lab I was given only fifty percent becuase my line on the graph was “sketched in” as opposed to a nice thin line drawn in. My graph making skills lacked in the Physics department. On top of that, I saw one student hand in a computer generated graph, and the prof accepted it–”hey I could have done that!”

Oh, I guess I should explain what the four numbers mean eh? Well, the first two are part of the world of Physics known as Physical Constants, the first is the speed of light measured in metres per second, and the next one is the mass, in kilograms, of a electron. The next two are are Astronomical Constants, AU, or Astronomical Unit which equals the distance form the Earth to the Sun in kilometres, and last one is the mass of the Earth in kilograms.

Posted in Astronomy, Criminology, Events, Homework and deadlines, Photographs, University classes | No Comments »

The World is One Big Blob of Light

November 15th, 2009 Thomasso

Back on Friday I completed the second half of my eye exam. This was the part of the examination where the Optometrist puts a couple of eye drops in my eyes that causes the pupils to dilate and then seeing becomes much more difficult, especially from object that emit light. My pupils looked like the size of loonies, they looked all black – a very freakish look I might add. They do this to your eyes so they can look at the back, inside of the eye, at the retina, to look for damage or irregularities. Fortunately my eyes checked out good for that part of the exam.

The weird thing was, when my vision start to change, it made me realizes what would happen if all of a sudden my eyes gave out. Even with the reduced vision my eyes stung when I went out side, and was even with the sunglasses on; light was going to hurt, the kind eye doctor warned me about before she applied the drops. She wasn’t kidding either. As I waited until later that night when it was dark out to take a walk, even the streets light hurt. Yes, I was wearing my sunglasses at night too when I went into the shopping market!

The whole eye thing is making me depressed. Mainly it is the huge cost of the glasses themselves. I have never used glasses before so the whole notion of getting tested and buying your first pair was never something I had to deal with before. The first thing that got me was the price, or cost of the lenses and frames. When I went in for the second test, I had asked several friends to tell me what I should do. They all said that I should seriously shop around for glasses at other shops and do price comparisons. The lady that spoke to me after I completed the eye exam, while I was half blind, started showing me the different brand names that they carry in the store. The break down of prices for what they recommended was $223.00 for the frames, and $242.00 for the lenses (including anti-glare and scratch treatment) which works out to a total of  $465.00 with a $100.00 “cash back.”

However I did see, pardon the pun, something that was remarkable while I was sitting and experiencing my eyes going through the pupil dilation phase. I witnessed a young girl who also had just got her first pair of glasses, and she could see for the time objects far away. It was sad, and yet funny at the same time because she did not want to wear them, but was amazed, even shocked, when she had them on. The doctor took her outside in the parking-lot where she could see up at the buildings and the tops of the trees, things that she could not see before. But it was wearing them that really bugged her. I laughed when the doctor said that they really made her look beautiful. I think the little girl was then convinced that she should wear them after that endorsement.

When will I buy my first pair? I don’t yet. Time and cost are my deciding factors. I have to pay for next semester’s course, and already I four assignment due for next week. I may have to wait a few more weeks before I can release my hard earned money out. I will shop around though—that is for sure!

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Remembering, and Those Issues out of Context

November 11th, 2009 Thomasso

Today I walked by the cemetery along Glover Road where the Remembrance ceremonies were held to honour those who fought for our county and our allies and enemies alike. The turnout was impressive. It hit me that in my old age I can understand that during the time of the two great wars, and subsequent wars to follow, the sky was always blue, the leaves were always green and the birds always sang. Ninety years ago till now nothing has really changed, but only our technology. We are still the same bipedal hairy apes that need to eat, drink and sleep. Perhaps our knowledge has, but only if we have the Will to stop all of this nonsense so that we do not have to have a national holiday to remember those who fought and died for their country. Is it ignorance that we keep repeating history, or is it human nature that we keep on fighting?

The world of work has changed course yet again. Last week I was bombarded with so much chaos that I threw in the towel. Acting on news that I was going to be laid-off, I decided to do the most honourable thing that an employee can do which was quit as a matter of protest. There are some today (mostly employers) who still believe that it is law that all employees must give notice, at a minimum two weeks, or there are consequences. Apparently, news hit like a shock-wave throughout the company. The wave was enough to have the owner call me during the weekend and set up a meeting to find a solution. The three hour meeting yielded many fruits of opportunity and may pave a new path in my relationship with the company.  Already so much has changed as a result of this.

My article that I wrote for the student paper called The Runner is now in print. It is weird seeing your own name printed in a news paper. When they get their web site up and running I will definitely link it here. See full article here.

I have just submitted my courses for next semester. (Actually that was on Monday.) This upcoming semester will be one of the most ambitious ones yet in my quest for completion of the B.A.. My Achilles heal (thanks Diane) is language, in particular French, so guess what I’m talking next semester? Also, quantitative “advanced” data analysis, or what is lovingly referred to as statistics, will be the other major course in my curriculum. Like the little lemming that is about to jump off the cliff, waiting for it causes more anxiety than the moment that you actually reach the bottom. I just want to get it done.

Posted in Bitching about work, Criminology, Events, General, University classes | 1 Comment »