Rosio Pavoris a blog

This is a Livejournal meme, but I don’t use Livejournal, so I’m posting this here.
Premise:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions. Yeah, no.

Anyway. Questions by Taz, who I’m not convinced likes people linking to her Livejournal, so I won’t.

1. Do you have a favourite fruit?

Not particularly. I enjoy bananas and lychees, but I’m generally fine with any fruit except raspberries.
And figs are interesting because of fig wasps, but not so much as food.

2. Why Rosio Pavoris?

Because it sounds clever and I needed a name for my blog. It’s archaic Latin, so the words wouldn’t even be in most school dictionaries, so it’s nice and mysterious. The meaning is completely irrelevant, really, and I’ve forgotten it.
I think “pavoris” means “of fear”.

3. Have you ever read any Shakespeare?

I bought the collected works of Shakespeare four or five years ago but I’ve read less of it than I intended, mostly because most of it is seriously unreadable.
I’ve read Macbeth, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing, but I think that’s it. I couldn’t even read Hamlet until after I’d seen it and had enough of a notion of the story to skip over the boring bits.

Plays aren’t meant to be read, anyway; I do enjoy seeing Shakespeare performed, though all I’ve ever seen live was a crap post-modern molestation of Romeo and Juliet.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is awesome. We watched the 1999 movie adaptation during Latin class when we were translating Ovid’s Pyramus et Thisbe, and that was probably the first time I really paid any attention to Shakespeare. Pity it was considered “too advanced” for our English classes.

4. How many languages do you have some ability in, and what are they?

“Some ability” is pretty relative. I speak English and Dutch fluently, French and Latin adequately, German and Japanese more-or-lessly, and I can generally understand, but not speak, Spanish and Italian. Given some time, I can probably make sense of most texts written in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
But really, four or five. I hesitate to even count Japanese.

I’ve been meaning to learn Yiddish, because I think it’s adorable. Well, what I actually want to do is learn Hebrew, because I don’t know any Semitic languages and Hebrew squiggles are pretty, but Yiddish is probably the most realistic way of building a basic vocabulary which I could then use to slowly edge my way into Hebrew, since Yiddish is a Germanic language and very similar to German anyway.
However, local bookstores suck at carrying Yiddish grammars and dictionaries, and after days of looking all I could find was a modern Hebrew dictionary and a Mishnaic Hebrew grammar, which is less than optimal. So yeah, probably not going to happen.

(In terms of programming languages, I’m fluent in PHP and Java, and know enough C/C++, Scheme, Common Lisp, COBOL, Perl, x86 Assembly, and Bash (which doesn’t count) to write a working application that does more than just print “Hello World”. And SQL, but that’s different.)

5. Do you want to always live in Belgium?

I was planning on moving to Canada at some point, but then that stopped happening.
I’ve considered moving to somewhere in Scandinavia if the political situation in Belgium keeps retardening (specifically, if Flanders secedes, but really also just if Vlaams Belang keeps growing), but I don’t think I have the energy anymore.

You have to love the significant overlap between people who talk too much and outright bigots. I finally got three people who have been getting on my nerves for months (the sort of people who also think I’m kidding when I call them worthless bottom feeders) to stop talking to me entirely, just by pointing out I am, in fact, bisexual.
I didn’t think that even worked in Belgium.

Random meme to fill space. I forgot where I found this. Output of history | awk '{a[$2]++} END {for (i in a) { print a[i] " " i } }' | sort -rn | head:

104 vi
93 ls
76 cd
33 javac
27 apt-get
21 java
15 su
11 less
10 rm
8 tar

(This is essentially a list of the ten commands I use the most in bash. Only from the last two weeks or so, since that’s when I reinstalled Debian, but it wouldn’t be that different if it were a year’s worth.)

Based on three instances of “fucking”, two instances of “suck”, two of “sex”, two of “vagina, and one each of “bastard”, “pain”, “ass”, “torture”, and “kill”. I’m surprised it’s not worse than that. I guess I need to write about religion even more~

(Via people.)

I’m surprised how neatly the Republican candidates are clustered at the bottom. More proof a two-party system stifles political variety, especially if you consider the libertarian candidate is really just a Republican, and the Green candidate is a Democrat with a specific issue she feels more strongly about than the party at large.
I’ve mostly ignored Kucinich because they’re just no chance in hell he’s going to win the primary, so I wasn’t aware how solid he is on most important issues. Kudos to you, Kucinich.

(Via Larry Moran.)

Dude reinvents radix sort, news at 11. How did Slashdot ever get to its current level of popularity?
I still prefer the ID sort.

Anyway, too diseased slash depressed for real content, so here’s memery.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

Edit to add:

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you’re not super cutting edge, you’re high quality. People love your company – and have even been known to get addicted to you.

(Stolen from Terras.)

Stolen from echomikeromeo, because I can~
Put your MP3 player on shuffle, write down the first lines of the first twenty-five songs that come up, and then have people guess which songs they are.
I also went through and made sure there’s only one song per artist, and no songs that aren’t in English, because my music library is odd that way.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am: Kurt Vonnegut For years, this unique creator of absurd and haunting tales denied that he had anything to do with science fiction.

Gah, I say.
(Via this guy.)

In unrelated news, I’m moving my old bookshelves around in my room in an attempt at finding a configuration that doesn’t just make the whole thing look cluttery. Tomorrow, I’ll actually start putting together the new shelves.
I know people were dying for a bookshelves update.

Have some ducklings to wash the Vonnegut away.

Apparently Maia tagged me with memery. It’s been too long since I did a meme anyway.

Rules: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 (5) people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.

1. I’m not nearly as lazy as I pretend, but I maintain the image of laziness so I more easily pretend mediocre work I do is just a result of not trying very hard.
2. Often it still is, but not nearly as often as before. It’s important to me that people don’t know when.
3. I often carry a clipboard with blank paper around, because I don’t trust my memory. This is also probably why my memory is so untrustworthy now.
4. I usually get along well with animals, but only if they’re mammals. Children, too, which is odd, because older people tend to describe me as intimidating.
5. I hate your kids, though. Keep them away from me. If they drool on my stuff, I will make them cry.
6. Probably not, actually. I’m mostly non-confrontational around strangers, because I want to go home. This is also why I hate it when people slow down to look at accidents or try to kill themselves by throwing themselves in front of my train. This has happened twice now.
7. I hate wearing shoes. If I could get away with it, I never would, even outside. This is because I like stretching my toes and picking stuff up with them. For similar reasons, I hate mittens.
8. I like classical music, but if it has lyrics, I will always judge a work by them before caring about the music.
9. I loathe most “classic” works of literature, and I suspect everyone else does too. James Joyce is a terrible writer. If a work has “human condition” in its description, it’s not worth reading.
10. One of these statements was a lie~

Mmhm. Tagging Coren, Skatje, Terru, Codu, and Sparky, because ten is indeed too many. That leaves, like… three other people to tag, I guess.
We need more bloggers. Though probably not if all they’re going to do is memes.

Beginselen van Programmeren exam today. On a fucking Saturday~
Two questions, both Java, first being to debug a simple little script dealing with one-dimensional arrays, second being to write a program processing some type of running competition, capable of dealing with varying numbers of teams, players on each team, and laps run. Pretty open-ended, but even the most complex solution I could find was pretty straightforward. I probably shouldn’t be making a game of trying to confuse my teachers on exams.

Next exam is on Monday. Maatschappelijke en Ethische Vorming.

Also, apparently I’ve been tagged with book meme.

The nearest English-language book to me is… ugh, The Emperor’s New Mind, by Roger Penrose.
Three sentences off of page 123, starting with the fifth sentence:

The computer would systematically run through possible choices of the complex number c, where for each choice of c it would work out the sequence 0, c, c² + c, … and decide, according to some appropriate criterion, whether the sequence is remaining bounded or not. If it is bounded, then the computer would arrange that a black spot appear on the screen at the point corresponding to c. If it is unbounded, then the computer would arrange for a white spot.

Yes, he’s talking about the Mandelbrot set. His digressions are much more interesting than the actual main argument of the book, as I’m sure I’ve said before.

The nearest book to me in any language is Goethe’s Faust, translated into Dutch. It doesn’t actually have 123 pages, I’m afraid.
Second-nearest in any language is Jules Verne’s Voyage au centre de la Terre.

Mes cheveux se hérissèrent. Le sentiment du vide s’empara de mon être. Je sentis le centre de gravité se déplacer en moi et le vertige monter à ma tête comme une ivresse.

Possibly I’m just showing off now.

I would tag Coren, because his taste in literature is bound to suck; Barbara, because she needs to post moar; and Nafan, because I don’t think he can read.

Also, kitties.

I have nothing better to do. I steal Codu‘s tick mark things.

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(✓) Grease
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(✓) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
Total: 2

Read the rest of this entry »

Which is to say, rednwhite was.
Face recognition software which matches you up against various celebrities.

Nafan maked a meme.

Oh baby. Oh baby. Oh baby. I do not have a sexy corncob.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

In unrelated news, I have a new chair. It’s not particularly special, but at least I can lean back without poking myself in the kidneys now. I’d show you a picture, but I can’t find it on their website and I don’t want to take one myself.
The slogan on the box was “Sit Different”, which annoyed me. Why would you rip off someone else’s slogan if it’s grammatically incorrect? Being German is hardly an excuse.

(Also, not going to be on IRC for a bit. People have finals and I distract, apparently.)

Filler desu~

What is your middle name? I have none.
How big is your bed? Big enough for me, probably too small for two.
What are you listening to right now? Ievan Polkka~
What was the last thing you ate? Some type of brownie, I’m pretty sure.
Last person who drove you somewhere? My mom drove me to the train station last Thursday, I think.
How is the weather right now? I have no idea.
Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Skatje. For a given value of “talked”.
The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Nothing in specific. People don’t interest me~
Favorite type of food? Probably Italian. I’ve answered this question before.
Do you want children? One or two.
Ever get so drunk you don’t remember the entire night? No. My memory is winar.
Hair color? Dark brown. Possibly black. Also going gray.
Eye color? Braun.
Braces? Nei.
Favorite holiday? Armistice Dae~
Favorite Season? Winter. I dislike insects and heat.
Have you ever cried over a girl/boy? Hah.
Last movie you watched? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. ;.;
What books are you reading? Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Penrose’s The Emperor’s New Mind, Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival.
Piercing? Overrated. I have none.
Favorite movie? None in particular. I like most of Miyazaki’s stuff.
Favorite college football team? Yeah, we don’t do that.
What were you doing before this? Fappin’. Uh, I mean, “reading”.
Any pets? No.
AIM? I dislike AIM, though I do use it. I’m not sure what the question is.
Favorite Flower? Pansies, probably. I’ve answered this before as well.
Have you ever loved someone? Hah.
Who would you like to see right now? Come on~
Last time you cried? Earlier today.
Do you like to travel by plane? My ears make it nearly impossible, though I imagine the destination would be much more interesting than usual.
Right-handed or Left-handed? Left.
If you could go to any place right now where would you go? Right here~
Are you missing someone? Hah.
Do you have a tattoo? Nei.
Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? Saturday has a morning? :O
Are you hiding something from someone? Presumably.
What is the wallpaper on your cellphone? Something flowery. Was the default.
Did you get enough sleep last night? I haven’t gotten enough sleep in months.
First thing you thought about this morning? Hah.
What do you have handy at your bedside? Alarm clock, bottle of water, Gameboy. Tetris desu~
Grilled or fried? Mostly fried, but in a decent way.
When’s the last time you saw your best friend(s)? Never have~
Are you afraid of the dark? No.
Ten people you can’t live without? Hah.
First thing you will buy if you’re given 50 thousand dollars? Cup of coffee.
Favourite song? Ievan Polkka~
Are you a giver or a taker? Yes.
What do people call you for short? People don’t tend to call me anything. Misanthropy and monosyllabic names FTW.
Stuck on a deserted island and can only bring four things? Bear, matches, bunch of pencils, lots and lots of paper. Counts as one item, dammit.
Favourite TV commercial? It’s been ages since I watched TV, and much longer than that since I saw a decent commercial.
Who’s your cell phone provider? I… don’t actually know.
Favorite color? Black. Subtractive color desu~
What are the things you always bring with you? Phone (to tell time), wallet (for monies), key (for door), MP3 player (for great justice).
What did you want to be when you were a kid? Repetition desu. Park ranger.
The color of your bedsheets? Black.
Who do you want to meet? Hah.
What do you think about before you go to bed? Hah.

I’ll do another Sinterklaas thing tomorrow. Nobody cares anyway.

How evil are you?

Sinterklaas was two days ago. I didn’t get anything because apparently 21 is too old for presents, but I complained so my mom went out and bought some left-over chocolate. I’m eating that now.

There are Christmas lights all over the house, and my mom is going around lighting candles. My dad is following her around putting them out, because fire safety. I think they may be at it for quite a while.
Our Christmas tree is smelly. It’s plastic but not actually more kitschy than you’d expect a Christmas tree to be.
I don’t like Christmas.

My mom’s birthday is the 14th. She expects me to get her some DVD but I’ve already forgotten the title. Something Flemish.
She turns 46, though she denies it.

I’ve spent the past few days watching almost every DVD in the house. Love Actually isn’t a very good movie. Over the Hedge has surprisingly good animation and a really odd cast. Our copy of The Sound of Music includes sing-along type subtitles, but I didn’t sing along. And so on.

I’m going to stop doing the college thing because I don’t see the point anymore.

Possibly I want a kitten for Christmas.

Also, meme.

Apparently I also Drink Republican Kool-Aid 0% of the time, and I’m 0% Go the pajamas, 68% Christian, 90% horny, 39% perfect as a girlfriend, and a cat.
Oh, and apparently I’m paranoid.

I need a hobby.

Also, I find this unlikely:

Also, I like marzipan.