Text Messages #6

From Caity, regarding one of California's greatest wonders:

CAN WE GET SOME IN N OUT FRIES AND SHAKE ON OUR WAY BACK?

From Lauren, regarding work:

Ah even residents @ in and out in the middle of the 5. I can never escape!

From Zach, regarding rap:

i just hung out with del! talked to him for about 10 minutes and he gave me his new cd

From Aaron:

I need a cocktail stat

From Caity, regarding HEROES:

Ahh! Heroes! Syler! Bamf!

From Katie, regarding a mysterious RA:

Oh my god! I just saw connie [censored] in duty gear in dykstra!

From Sarah, regarding the opening of Carl's Jr. in Ackerman:

Youre gonna get fat, and go broke, haha. We gotta get lunch there soon!

From Aubrey, regarding the note she left on my car:

it means you FAIL at knowing your place in my HOOD, sucka!

you be messin with my box, and now my parking spot. you betta watch you ass!

From My Sister, regarding food & family:

HAPPY EASTER!! HOPE YOUR HUNGRY!! ;) COME GET BREAKFAST!!! :) :)

From Lauren, regarding Excedrin:

Yes! Its magic

From Ariel, regarding the Housing Master Plan:

These buildings are massive. Take a mental picture, because this is officially the death of the hill. RIP.

From Aaron, regarding traveling & the 2nd Amendment:

im at usc for lsat class tonight. =/ should've brought my 9mm

From Yong, regarding animals:

I'm at a bar called at howl at the moon and i keep thinking of you!

Everything is like wolf themed!

From Lauren, regarding pirating:

Where do u find such magical places that hold the key to my 13 year old heart's happiness? Like, seriously, isn't htat illegal?

From Caity, while driving to her home:

Everytime i make this drive we pass Deeth Star Valley and i can't gelp but get really excited. Hahaha..

From Caity, regarding Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone:

Don't worry, Harry still protects the stone from Quirrell and Voldemort. WHEW.

From Lauren, regarding radios:

Get off that shiz and go to bed too!

From Alex, while at a party:

Lol I'm glad! Caity says you're living vicariously through me tonight. I'll try and make the mad dog proud.

From Aubrey, regarding lunch at Hedrick:

dang youre missing out they put shrimp in the california roll!

From Ariel, regarding procrastination and my blog:

To make myself feel better about my life (and conveniently avoid writing my paper) I just reread your posts with all our texts. We're pretty entertaining... but mostly just weird.

Word. But I love my friends, so it's all good.

Read the rest >>

South Carlsbad State Beach

While I'm not a big beach person, my family has been going to South Carlsbad State beach every summer for YEARS. It's been one very consistent tradition for us. And there's something wonderful about driving along the bluffs toward the campground, and watching the waves crash on the beach below.

I remember the time we went during "red tide", where the ocean was filled with phytoplankton, tinting the water red. Oh, and when the waves would crash on the shore at night, they GLOWED. Pretty sweet.

I remember waking up early as a kid, making a hot chocolate, and looking for dolphins out in the ocean. I also remember seeing them play in the waves not far off shore. And I remember the time I was out in the ocean with my friend Zach, and a whole bunch of dolphins swam by us, maybe 10 yards away.

Oh, and how about that time we took an inflatable boat out into the waves? And spent all day pulling it out, waiting for a huge wave to come, then jumping in the boat and riding it all the way back to shore.

While it isn't my favorite place to appreciate mother nature, it'll always hold a special place in my heart, because of the memories attached to it.

Read the rest >>

Building Words

On Friday, I was in my linguistics discussion, and we were talking about what words are made of (and no, NOT letters).

Basically, there are some words (and structures) that are inherently meaningless. The examples we had in class were 'cat' and '-s'. These two things are meaningless on their own, until somebody lists out WHAT they are (a 'cat' is the animal we all know, and '-s' means that a word is pluralized).

HOWEVER (and this is where most of the class got lost), the word 'cats' is NOT inherently meaningless. If you define 'cat' and '-s', then you DON'T need to define what 'cats' means. You know from the definitions of the parts that 'cats' means 'more than one cat'.

People were struggling with this, because they couldn't get past the fact that 'cat' has no intrinsic meaning, while 'cats' does. And the TA couldn't figure out a way to make it clear.

Of course, all you need to do is just take a page from a math class... Take the following made-up, arbitrary word: "blap".

Now, this is clearly meaningless. BUT, if I give you the word "blap", and then ask you what the word "blaps" means, most people would be able to (correctly) say that "blaps" just means "more than one blap". So it's pretty clear that even though "blap" is inherently meaningless, "blaps" is not - you can derive the meaning from its parts.

And of course, if I just tell you that a "blap" is the same as a "cat", you can then see how the original point makes sense.

Sadly, since my TA (and my classmates) didn't understand how to make this abstraction, they will be stuck struggling. Which is why I think math should be required for all majors at UCLA (and everywhere else, actually). I'll put up a post on that in the near future.

Read the rest >>

Come Back In A Year

If I was stuck on an island, with plenty of food, a companion, and a relatively stress-free life, then I would be living a very content existence. I know I wouldn't want to just "throw it away" and head home as soon as the rescue ship came, but at the same time, that isn't a lifestyle I could live forever. I would want the year to finish up any soul-seeking and life-pondering I had going on, at which point I'd be ready to return home.

Read the rest >>

Close Range!

I love this. The animals are the best.

Read the rest >>