Summer Reading- book reviews and the like. I usually only get a chance to sit down and do pleasure reading during the breaks off from school. (All the other times, I usually feel to guilty, cuz I'm ALWAYS behind on reading for class. So it's like, I can't do pleasure reading with a clear conscience when I ought to be reading a textbook instead. I've always had a hard time delineating work time and play time. =/) So since school wrapped in May, I've finally had a chance to kick back with some good books.

A lot of the reading was comics, or "graphic novels," to use the term en vogue. I FINALLY finished reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I started reading sometime back in late high school, so I guess it's taken me about 5 years to get around to finishing it. The first two volumes or so of exposition were kinda drab before it picked up, but then it got really good. I liked all the tie-ins of mythology, literature, and history and whatnot. Collectively, the whole series was a very amusing read, though probably hard for most comic noobs to get into. The whole thing altogether is probably a couple thousand pages long, but worth the effort.

(Also finally finished watching the BBC production of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Took me about a year to get around to finishing it due to lack of interest. I mean, the premise of the story's cool and all, but the series was just too freaking British for me. You know, like that series with Rowan Atkinson when he's NOT Mr. Bean? I just didn't get it. Ah well, I've been told the book is better anyways.)

Neil Gaiman's Smoke & Mirrors. This series of short stories was pretty hit or miss. My favorite is still Snow, Glass, Apples that I first read several years back.

Naruto manga. After being a loyal fan of the Naruto anime series for years, I've finally reached the breaking point of not being able to stomach those ghastly filler episodes any more. I put up with them for over a year, when most of my friends had broken after a few months, and I was proud of myself... but no more. Enough was enough- someone deserved to be shot for how bad those filler eps were; "curry of life," omg, I almost keeled over from the nauseating badness. So after years of telling myself "I don't wanna ruin the surprise of the anime by reading the manga," I've finally caved and started reading the manga. I caught up in like a day. It's so satisfying when stuff actually HAPPENS in the plot. Still not as gripping and emotional as the anime could be in its heyday though- I remember I nearly cried when Haku died in the anime.

Craig Thompson's Blankets; it's only the third graphic novel I've ever actually bought. I'd been looking for it at bookstores forever, and I finally happened upon it at a Barnes & Noble way down by Northpark Mall. Anyways, the book tells the story of growing up and first love. I thought the denouement of the love story coulda been fleshed out a little more. But what I really enjoyed the read for was how it portrayed the protagonist's relationship with his brother; I felt it really captured the feeling of what having a brother as a kid was all about, with the imaginative games and the love-hate relationship. There was a lot to relate to. But yea, this would probably be the most girl-friendly graphic novel I've read.

Re-read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Turns out I missed a pretty significant plot point the first time around. Still enjoyed the book upon second reading.

Bridget Jones's Diary. Yeah, yeah, girls' book, I know. It's funny, I remember I got peer pressured into buying it in Vietnam cuz we'd seen it in a store and I revealed later (after many drinks), "yea, I'd never admit it if I was sober, but I secretly kinda wanna read Bridget Jones's Diary!" ...after which, they wouldn't let me live it down, haha. But anyways, it was an enjoyable read; the movie captures the general mood/sentiment, but the book wasn't as Pride & Prejudicey as the movie was. I'd say the book's more about the side-effects of a mother in mid-life crisis. Anyways, I came to the conclusion that single people with low self-esteem, regarless of gender, have quite similar thoughts running through their heads.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga. I read this one before watching X3, mainly just cuz I wanted to know how accurate the movie was to Marvel canon. I still had a vague recollection of the plot from the cartoon series (which I believe is decently faithful to the comics). Long story short, the movie's not faithful at all- the wrong people die, the means of death are different, characters are left out, characters are on the wrong side, etc etc. Not bashing on the movie (it was a fun watch), it just wasn't real "accurate." But hell, I guess it'd confused the hell out of most of the audience if they brought in aliens to resolve things like they're supposed to. Anyways, back to the book(s), I guess it was groundbreaking for its time, with the death of Jean Grey, the moral ambivalence of punishing friends, the greater good, and all that. I dunno if I agree with it being rated one of the best comic story arcs of all time though; maybe I'm just not really into like the old school art style.

Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates. The "Ultimate" line is like a complete rewrite of the Marvel universe that utilizes the same general characters, but changes up their histories and whatnot, and just generally modernized the whole storyline. Sometimes it sticks to the Marvel canon, and other times it doesn't. I really like this line though cuz it tackles more modern issues like terrorism and domestic violence in addition to the usual discrimination and pacifism. Also read House of M - I had no idea the Scarlet Witch was so powerful. And also Marvels- interesting art style, but ultimately not that impressive.

Vampire Loves- Kinda aimless graphic novel about the romantic life of a socially inept vampire. I sympathized with the protagonist in several situations, but overall the story really just doesn't go anywhere. Goodbye Chunky Rice- A sad graphic novel about missing departed friends. Liked it. Spiral Bound- Sort of a Scoobydoo-esque mystery with kid detectives kinda graphic novel, except with animal characters. Didn't care much for this one.

Interview With the Vampire. After playing that vampire computer game a couple months back with no real conclusion, I was hankering for more vampire. So picked up this book, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. And considering the fact that I know I tend to like all things vampire, that's a pretty significant statement. But yea, I like the whole existential theme of the book, and I like the idea that vampires have no more idea than ppl do to "why we're here."

*Movies watched recently, in roughly descending order of my liking:
Shinobi, B13, Science of Sleep, Edward Scissorhands, X3, Lucky Number Slevin, Saved!, The Devil Wears Prada, Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, The Lake House, Talladega Nights, Mission: Impossible 3, My Wife Is a Gangster, American Chai, Cars, The Departed, Corpse Bride, Chungking Express, Versus, Nacho Libre, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Walk the Line, The Perfect Score, Voices of a Distant Star, Elephant, Da Vinci Code, House of Fury, Scanner Darkly, Kung Fu Mahjong

**Anime series watched this summer. I finally finished up Initial D 4th Stage- it was pretty meh. It's not amusing to see them winning on blind luck instead of discovering some new racing skill. And the storyline woulda been a lot more fulfilling if Keisuke woulda just hooked up with that chick. Also watched all of Elfen Lied- was pretty good. It's kinda like Chobits, except that the cute female-ish thing that needs taking care of is a vicious killing machine. A lot of R-rated content like blood & guts and nudity. And the whole incest angle makes you kinda root against one of the characters.

So summer came and went, and for a couple months, I thought I was set with two job offers lined up, and everything was gonna work out ok. Then both offers were more or less rescinded, and I'm once again in the position of not knowing what I'm gonna do.

So you'd think life would be pretty carefree with no job to go to and no school either, huh? Well, it's not. You can't really enjoy your free time, cuz you feel guilty about not being productive. Its like, if your mind is too busy worrying about the future, you can't enjoy the present. And that's kinda where I stand right now. There's this prevailing feeling of [uselessness] when you want a job, but just can't seem to get one.

So the few weeks worth of fun this summer have kinda started to dry up as my former college colleagues start their jobs or enter grad/law/med school. I find myself the only one who's not in any of those, and that's a real lonely feeling. Daytimes especially, when everyone's off doing their thing, and there's no one to hang out with anymore.

Man, I need to get a job. =/ Anyways, once recruiting season starts up back at UT, it's back down to Austin for some hardcore interviewing.

The Mad Scientists' Corner (Vol. 7). New ideas are fewer and farther in between these days. Ever since about junior year, there’s been this feeling of slow mental regression. Like mental math is a lot harder for me than it used to be, and probability calculations take me a lot longer. Even my vocabulary ain’t what it used to be. I just feel... dumber these days. =/ Ah well, what can I do?

Epoxy Dry Hairspray. Back in my experimental hair days, I was always trying to come up with or replicate weird hairstyles that I'd seen. (I guess I should mention that I watch a lotta anime, and in those, the hair gets crazy.) Anyways, I remember always having a dilemma as to which styling product to use. The weaker stuff wouldn’t hold the shape I wanted; the stronger stuff was usually too sticky to get the shape and movement that I wanted or dried to slowly to stay. So I got to thinking, couldn’t they make like a two-part hair styling product that works like epoxy (or any other thermosetting polymer?). The first part would be like a regular hair gel-like substance. But the difference is, once you’ve got your hair in the shape you want, you spray it down with the second substance. And they chemically react to instantly cure into a hard solid. I dunno, it doesn’t sound that crazy. If they already make this, someone tell me, cuz it would save me a lotta hair grief.

iPod L/R Balance. When I’m listening to my iPod while walking around the streets, I tend to only put one ear bud in. I guess it’s cuz I don’t like being completely cut-off and unaware of my surroundings- that’s like asking to be mugged or something. The problem is, when you have one headphone in and the other dangling, in quieter places, ppl around you can hear what you’re listening to. And this is sometimes an annoyance to others or an embarrassment to self if you’re listening to an awkward song (e.g. Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”). Not to mention that a lot of songs that use stereo effects get completely butchered when you’re only getting half the sound. So seriously, couldn’t they make an EQualizer setting (well, two, really- Left and Right) that converts the stereo sound into monaural and routs it to only one earpiece? Seriously, I don’t think it’s all that complicated; hell, get me a good look at the firmware/code and I could probably do it myself. Does Apple take suggestions like this? I haven’t cruised their website in awhile.

Car/Key Alarm. You know how a lot of car keys come with that remote thing with an alarm? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve NEVER actually used that thing to scare of baddies (as I think it was meant to); I HAVE however used it on occasion to find my car in a crowded parking lot. Simple, right? You just get within range, press a button on the key (chain), and you find your car. Well, what about when you can’t find your keys? Can’t you turn the situation around and put a button in the car that, when pressed, makes your keys go nuts? Some loud beeping, a flashing light, maybe even vibrate? Cuz seriously, I dunno about y’all, but I think I lose my keys more often than I lose my car.

Pillow Helmet. So I haven’t been sleeping very well recently; I wake up with an aching back or neck a lot of mornings. And I think maybe a lot of it has to do with not being able to find a comfortable position with my pillows- cuz I tend to roll around in my sleep and wake up in a completely different position. And one night, while flopping around, I wrapped a pillow around my face; and to my surprise, it actually was pretty comfortable. So I thought, why can’t you just secure the pillow to your HEAD? Like a pillow helmet, hahaha. That way, any way you turn, you’ve still got a full head’s worth of cushioning. It’d be like one of those Sock’em Boppers... for your head. And you could have add-ons, like a sleep mask, or built in headphones for sleep music and an alarm clock.

Spray Nozzle Disposables. You know how they package a lot of stuff in single-use sized quantities? Like Shout wipes or sun block singles. But what about stuff that you need in like a fine mist? Like Febreze or air freshener. You’d probably need like a special nozzle for that. Well, have you ever opened like a ketchup packet poorly and have it splatter all over the place when you squeeze? Well couldn’t they find some way to harness that? I mean, I’m no splatter scientist, but surely there’s a set of conditions, like fluid viscosity, the velocity of the fluid, and the diameter of the opening, perhaps expressible as some non-dimensionalized number (kinda like Reynolds number? I dunno, I wasn’t that great in fluid mechanics. =P). Maybe it’s as simple as just having a small semi-blocked opening and squeezing really hard, I dunno. Any specialists willing to look into it?

Cold-Weave Clothes. Cuz this summer’s been exceptionally hot, I had been thinking about ways to keep cool. And I thought, if clothes can keep you warm, shouldn’t they be able to keep you cool as well? Ok, so normal clothes, like say, a sweater, work like this: they trap little pockets of air around your body. And so your body dissipates (heat) energy into the trapped air instead of directly to your surroundings. So I guess you could think of the trapped air as like some kinda heat barrier or something. Now admittedly, I didn’t pay a whole lotta attention in heat transfer class =P, but if you can do this with heat, why can’t you do something similar with cold? (Cuz in the true scientific sense, there’s no such thing as “cold,” only the absence of heat… which I think is just silly, cuz, well, a rose by any other name, right?) Anyways, so what if you surround yourself with something that’s notoriously hard to warm up (i.e. something with uber-low thermal conductivity)? Like, say, that ceramic that they make the space shuttle heat shield tiles out of? Couldn’t you spin that ceramic into threads and weave it into clothes? Or hell, Styrofoam clothes might work too. So it’d work like this: you stick this cold-suit in the refrigerator and put it on when you’re ready to go out. That way, your body is constantly dumping energy into warming up the suit, and it keeps doing this cuz, like I already said, it’s notoriously hard to warm up. But wait a minute, then couldn’t you do the exact same thing with normal clothes?? I’ll have to try that: stick a sweater in the freezer, then wear it out in the hot Texas sun. Hah, why do I get the feeling this is a recipe for disaster?

Less Thought-Out Ideas. 1) Sometimes I like sleeping with my head down into a pillow, but that makes it hard to breathe. Other than like one of those massage tables with a face hole, is there any simple solution to this? Maybe a pillow snorkel? Possibly to be combined with aforementioned pillow helmet? 2) You know how sometimes it’s nice having a study buddy so you feel like you have some moral support? Well, how about like a study mannequin? For when no actual human is willing to sit with you. Or maybe a blow-up doll? You could tack on extra features like, pull a string and it’ll play recorded inspirational messages like “hang in there kid,” “don’t worry, you’re not stupid,” “that professor’s a DICK!” 3) I know Dr. Scholl’s makes like billion different pads and inserts for the soles of your feet, but a lot of times, it’s the tops of my feet that hurt. Maybe they could make foot-top cushions too?

Previous Edition>>

Hi, My Name Is Daniel, and I’m a Packrat. I dunno, I suppose I do it for the same reason any packrat does- to remember… or at least in the desperate attempt not to forget. I guess I’ve always been one for sentimentality and nostalgia. These ticket stubs and scraps of otherwise useless paper have to me a certain special value. They remind me of times when I was happy and things I accomplished, saw, and did. And while it’s true, that if half my things got thrown out, I probably wouldn’t know; I can’t bring myself to toss these things into the trashcan just yet… not yet, not by my hand- I’m not ready to willingly forget yet.

I guess for similar reasons, my AIM buddy list always rides close to the allowable limit. Not cuz I’m cool or popular (HAH! Not by any stretch of imagination!); in fact, quite the opposite. I don’t have a lot of close friends or ppl I feel like I can really talk to. So by default, everyone’s sort of a friend. True, I don’t talk to 90% of my buddy list, yet I’d feel bad deleting anybody. It’d be like an outright admission that no, we’re not really close anymore; perhaps we were friends once, but now we’ve receded back into just acquaintancedom, probably never to cross my waking thoughts again.

And perhaps that IS the reality of things, but in my safety bubble that is the buddy list, that’s not the case. They say that when you physically die, you’re not truly “dead” until everyone who knew you is dead or has forgotten. In the same vein, maybe by some crazy logic, a friendship isn’t truly dead so long as the buddy list remembers? Maybe? It seems so arbitrary- a click of a mouse and a press of a button whisks away the last tiny strand by which a friendship hangs on. And you might say, “they’re just symbols and representations, not the actual thing.” But really, isn’t that all we’ve got? How do you quantify or substantiate these abstract concepts like friendship, and memory, and worth?

“525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?”
~RENT – Seasons of Love

Hi, My Name Is Daniel, I’m a Pachyderm, and an Elephant Never Forgets.