my city is over using tornado sirens, again. as usual. every year it’s the same thing.

this time there are no clouds in our skies what so ever. there’s a very small cell to the south west of my town that’s headed this way, and when I say “very small cell” I mean that I could draw it in a bout 3 seconds with a pencil.

but the sirens are blaring away.

why? because some town to the south west of us has a twister.

nevermind the fact that it would take 20 minutes to get here, assuming that the twister even remained on the ground for that long. on the they go, and they’ll run for probably around 30 minutes.

No one here pays attention to them. this city is going to get people killed becuse of this shit.

hell, my father just took the dog for a walk. yep, people are real concerned.

bah.

I don’t want a twister to hit, obviouisly, I just want my city to get their heads out of their asses. this crying wolf crap has to stop. if a twister ever does come through so many people here are going to die because they cry wolf like this year after year, multiple times per year, and we’ve all learned to ignore the sirens. well, as best as one CAN ignore the blaring noise of a tornado siren.

someone to the south west of us is going through a hell of an experience right now though. I sure hope that they’re all okay.

oh, by the way, this marks the third or fourth night in a row that they’ve ran the sirens.

I’ve been back from Korea for about a week now, and I’ve slowly got around to adjust my sleeping schedule. It’s still not quite right yet partially because of the storms that keep coming through and either keep me awake or wake me up at 2 AM. Sheesh.

Honestly though I don’t feel like typing up the long post to describe what we done. I will obviously do that at some point, but the thought of doing so at this time kind of exhausts me.

You can see my pictures as well as some of the photos that were taken by others.

The PSU Group Website - Here is the blog that everyone from the group has access to for posting images and text. It’s currently very underutilized, but I hope that others from the group get around to taking advantage of it.

Korea Flickr Photostream - This is a collection of about 260 photos that were taken while I was in South Korea. The majority of my photos are of landscapes.

Enjoy the views.

Technorati Tags: korean, 한국어, travel, photos, photography, landscapes

Tonight’s the night! Like the subject says, “Today I’m going to South Korea” !! WAHOOO

I hope that this works out okay. I’m still a bit trepidatious about the clothing situation. I think that’s my only remaining major concern.

YAHOOOOOO~~~

Yeah, I’m excited. Best of all is that I will probably get to see 행복 again, who is one of the best people that I’ve met and I already miss.

See you all in two weeks!

… I hope o.O

Technorati Tags: travel, international, international travel, Korea, South Korea, 한국

This is Manchu, the Shar-Pei. We don’t know what he’s mixed with but he’s quite the darling.

In this video we were playing around with his bottle when he heard the workers and new neighbors outside. Several seconds of him standing and staring at the door were removed, as was the sound in the video (to reduce file size).

This dog loves bottles. The noisier the toy the better, and the crunching of the bottle is loud enough to drive you mad.

This video was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix J10 camera, purchased new today.

The following is a test of Flickr’s new video option. It’s an identical video: Read the rest of this entry »

’sup folks, I forgot to fill everyone in on the results of the Korean language final.

There were three parts to the test.

1.) Conversation
2.) Vocabulary
3.) Translation

Each part had a subcategory. The conversation segment was a combination of a typical “Hello, how are you?” casual conversation, as well as questions about what our major is and what job we want after graduation.

Only the translation was not oral, though we did have to read it aloud (of course).

The translation part required us to write a script in English and then translate the script into Korean.

I got a perfect score on both the conversation and vocabulary. It was apparent that the instructor was proud of the results of the test.

The translation went very bad. As much as I would like to be able to say that I got a perfect score on the entire test, I think that I pretty much tanked the translation. We had to find the Korean words on our own and create the sentences with very little references. It was tough, and it took its toll on my test. Using a plethora of unfamiliar words to write a translation was rough, but as I look back on it I kind of feel like I enjoyed the challenge.

He wrote some corrections as I spoke. He didn’t always correct what I had written, but he generally did make the “No, something wrong” sound as I read off my script. lol ;D

So there you have it. I don’t think that doing poorly on one part of the test is going to seriously affect my over all score, so I should have passed the class with a comfortable grade. I hope so, anyway!

They were considering the idea of a level 3 Korean language course next semester. I’ll definitely be enrolling if it’s offered.

Hopefully this summer I will be able to continue studying other languages. I have a subscription to KoreanClass101.com, and I may pick back up my study of Japanese by using that website or MangoLanguages.com if their prices are realistic. I stopped studying Japanese for awhile, so my grasp of the language is now really poor. I only remembered enough to give the occasional surprise to my Korean instructor - hah! Just enough to get myself into trouble, ya know?

Random closing comment: I positively love Sakamoto Maaya’s voice. So soft and gentle!

Oh, I may not post again until I get back from South Korea. I should have a ton of photos to share when I do.

Later folks.

Technorati Tags: korean, korean language, 한국어, foreign language

I received my travel wallet today that I’ll be taking with me on my trip to South Korea. I’ll also be using it as a general replacement for my previous wallet.

In the picture is the wallet attached to my belt via its chain. I have the chain wrapped around my belt and latched onto itself.

If you pulled the links really hard you could probably break or otherwise ruin the chain, but a preliminary examination suggests that it would take a considerable, almost necessarily deliberate force to do so.

In other words, it’s not especially strong but getting it snagged on your pocket or something isn’t likely to break the chain. Just don’t try to lift yourself with it and it should be fine.

The main dollar area of the wallet has two bill compartments. If you’re the type that collects receipts and other papers then this should be quite handy for you.

The top of the billfold zips closed. This prevents items from falling out of either compartment. This is an appreciated feature for a travel wallet!

Here are the card slots.

The left and center each have 3 slots for cards. The third slot (the one in the back) is larger than the first two slots and can swallow a credit card, length-wise. Less than an inch of the credit card sticks out when you insert it this way. In other words, it’s about the length of both other card slots combined.

The cards slide out kind of easily, except for the card in the back which seems to snag on something. This snagging would be annoying to encounter each time that you wish to remove your credit or debit card, so I recommend that you put the least used card in the back.

The wallet itself fastens closed with a velcro strip. This is another feature that I appreciate in a travel wallet.

Of course, there’s the obligatory driver’s license "window" on the far right. These amuse me because cops always ask you to remove it anyway, but I digress…

The back of the wallet.

At the bottom on the right is where the chain attaches to the wallet. The metal loop is designed like a key chain, and can be removed from the wallet completely after a moment of deliberate work.

On the side opposite of the chain ring is another, empty loop where you can attach something else to the wallet. The packaging advertised this as a spare key ring loop, but you’re free to use it for whatever you wish.

Between the two loops is a somewhat wide band. The band stretches a little, but it does not fit particularly tight against the wallet. You could easily clip something to this, or just use your imagination.

The center square of the wallet is a pouch. It closes with a zipper and could easily be used for change or other items that you want to keep on you, but may not access regularly.

Technorati Tags: Walletsafe, pacsafe, pac-safe, pac-safe.com, wallet, secure wallet, travel wallet

In two days I will have my Korean language final.

It is all spoken; there is no written part of the final. We’re all insane because us students chose this.

This little photo was snapped using my camera phone. Right now I am supposed to be translating some English into Korean for our test, but I’m trying real hard to not think about it so that I don’t freak out.

Oh, on a somewhat related note I now have a confirmed ride to Kansas City. I am hitching a ride with one of the professors.

Well, time to try to focus some more..

(the picture is not part of the above mentioned translation)

The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, “whether it be .mil, .gov, .com–whichever network you’re talking about.”

Bold emphasis in the above quote was added by me.

Sounds delicious, doesn’t it? You can read more about it here: FBI wants widespread monitoring of ‘illegal’ Internet activity

What exactly is “illegal”?

Maybe you’re simply venting to a friend in chat when you say, “The president should go choke on a pretzel, and maybe next time someone should help the pretzel!” Uh oh, you went and threatened the life of the president! You poor sod. That’s a secret service visit for you. Never mind the fact that you were merely venting in an instant message conversation with a friend when you said it.

I wonder when people are going to realize what’s happening? Or, rather, I seriously question if they give a damn at all. Maybe they just think, “It’s not MY problem, so I won’t worry about it!” Maybe they just think that their personal emails are so boring that the FBI or NSA simply wouldn’t care to begin with.

What nonsense. Do you really want random strangers reading your IMs, emails, and watching the sites that you visit? So that stuff’s no big deal then… unless the funny picture that you just viewed is showing something that’s technically illegal in your state. That’ll be a $500 fine, thank you very much!

Yeah that’s stretching it thin, but seriously. There comes a point when I say, “You know what? They’re getting what they deserve”. If people just want to sit around on their butts and do nothing about what’s happening, then they’ve worked very hard indeed at earning the loss of their privacy. Cynical? Yeah, you bet’cha I’m getting that way.

You want my philosophy about it? The more that they push, the more that we should push back. You don’t have to be a criminal to demand respect and your basic rights.

• Get a VPN and have all of your traffic encrypted, not just your web browsing. There’s a lot more to cover than just the fact that you hit your favorite website every day.
VPN services cost a yearly or monthly subscription. I use WiTopia.net because it’s wonderfully inexpensive and really fast, but there are probably better (and more expensive) services that you should peruse first.
• Another area of privacy concern should be your IM chats. Do you really think that a group as intrusive as the FBI wouldn’t be monitoring your chats?
Unfortunately a proxy or even a VPN won’t completely secure your conversations. Get OTR encryption for Pidgin & Adium, or at least have SecureIM enabled in Trillian.

Technorati Tags: security, privacy, rights, human rights, anonymous

This is the most awesomenest thing that I’ve ever done.

That said, I’m not going to put my entire schedule up here. At least not yet. I can say that I’m finally starting to get excited about this trip.

We’re not going to be in one hotel. We’re actually changing hotels three or four times (I don’t remember off hand).

We’re going to a major city in the East of South Korea as well as in the South, then going back to Seoul. We’ll be staying at a hotel in each of those cities.

We’re going to visit a few different universities. This is actually turning out to be a slightly bigger deal than I previously thought, because we’ll be meeting the deans of those universities. One fella who’s going on the trip with us will be bringing a suit because it’s apparently that big of a deal. I have no suit, so they’re just going to have to accept my slacker ass as is lol

::ahem::

More updates later. I don’t feel like typing anymore atm. byyyyeee~

I was browsing through my feeds this morning, seeing as I’m sick and didn’t go to class, and I came across a link to an incredibly fascinating article. At first I was very disappointed because it was from the Daily Mail, but a Google search found articles that back up the story. Apparently The Daily Mail’s headline was the most sensationalist part of the article.

Being that I’m a psychology major it should be no surprise that I was absolutely fascinated with this article about Multiple Personality Disorder. Meet My 17 Personalities .. is a well written article that is worth the read. Another online source, The Chicago Mag, has an interview with the psychotherapist who has written a book about the whole experience. The 17 Faces of Karen is the title of that article.

Lastly, a general Google link that brings up a number of additional sources is available. The Google search for Karen Overhill should help those who are after more online sources.

All in all, it’s a crushing tale.

Technorati Tags: multiple personality disorder, MPD, dissociative identity disorder, DID, psychology