Weekly update No. II

This week I get to answer the primordial weekly questionable update questions... again...
Question No. 1: What tasks have you accomplished recently? Tasks? Completed? ha! Don't get me started.  Next question.

Question No. 2: What have you learned recently?  Damn, this one I can actually answer. . . Well, why don't I just start off with the worst and work my way up, that's usually fun. . .  To break the ice, I think I fell in love with someone (how fun that usually is), and I think that's all I'm going to say on the subject.  If you hadn't read it already, it's in my last blog (in other words, a story for a different place and a different time [link]).  I've learned what was wrong with my drawing tablet; turns out I just had to reinstall the driver, thank goodness.  I learned I was going to be busy as all hell this weekend (which is why I got this blog done today instead of on Friday, like it was supposed to have been done), and I've learned that I'll be making band/tour shirts/merch. for my own band, a band called A Blood Stained Trail, and a band called I.A.A.I.  That's not exactly the highlight of my week, but I can't recall anything else at the moment, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

Question No. 3: What are you planning on doing next?  Well, that all really depends on what you're referring to.  In the case of my anatomy class, I'll probably be taking it again next semester (lucky me).  In the case of my band and the shirts and whatever, I plan on learning to do silk screening and selling some merch for mah band to earn some freaking cash, man.  Oyea, and I think we may be holding our first official practice this coming weekend; I really want to get this band up and going, hopefully by summer next year.  Which posed the question in my mother's head, "well how the hell are you going to do this all while you're going to collage?"  Well. . . that's not exactly how she expressed it, but you get the jist of it.  Anywhoo, I don't really want to get started on that topic (mostly because I don't want anyone to go blabbing to my mother that I'm gonna say this, but) I honestly don't want to have to go to collage anymore.  I hate the fact that in order to get a good job doing anything, you either have to have a 2-trillion dollar idea **facebook, macintosh, microsoft cough cough**, have to be an Albert Einstein, or have to have a damned collage education, and I absolutely hate that that is what the world is forcing people to have to conform to in order to get a good, well-paying job.  It pisses me off.  I'm going to go ahead and stop myself there before I turn this into more of a rant.  Next question.

Never-mind, there are no more questions.  Hope you enjoyed it, check out my DA account, and support yer local artists!

Update. . . Done. Now go away.

Why hello again.  I was hoping you wouldn't stop by anytime soon. Why? Well that is simple, dearest; because I knew you were going to ask how I was liking the book and, much to your disappointment, I have not been reading it very often.  Now, now, don't be offended.  As Hoobastank says: "I'm not a perfect person."  But that excuse only works so many times.  But getting back to the book, I honestly don't think It's doing much for me.  It's just telling me how people murdered people back in the good 'ole days when you could poison your mother-in-law and make it look like she calmly passed in her sleep, and not like a conniving son/daughter-in-law had slipped something into her drink.  Altogether, I'm fairly bored with the book already, though it looked promising in the start (as all things do).

Though I'm glad the people the book talks about did what they did because if they hadn't, there probably wouldn't be quite so many regulations in criminology or whatever it may qualify as, and my murderer could easily slip into my window in the wee hours of the night whilst peacefully in my bed I lay, and he could slip some potent drug through my lips, or under my skin and watch as it's potency corrupts and curdles my blood; then, slipping out seamlessly the way they came in, they could simply pay off the commissioner to declare my death some sort of natural incident or something.

Weekly Update No. 1

This blog was due Friday, but I haven't been able to get to it until today, and I wouldn't doubt if it doesn't get graded, alas, I shall complete it anyway.  We are now required to answer three questions every Friday.  Simple enough.

1)  What tasks have you completed recently?  I haven't made any really big achievements; in fact, I've really probably been slacking off compared to what I want to do/ should be doing for class(es), and for my own personal things.  I haven't been able to touch a drawing I started for about 3 weeks, or so, I can't figure out why my sewing machine is going whack, and I haven't been reading the book I need to read for Anatomy (because I was reading Crime and Punishment which is way more interesting) and have been trying to figure out what the hell I'm gonna do about band issues.  In short, I've been slacking off.

2)  What have you learned recently?  I'm not sure how close the answer to this question has to be to school related things, so I'm going to try not to delve into the depths of my mind.  But I have learned that Fyodor Dostoevsky is a very intriguing writer, and that I must be doing something wrong on my Deviant Art profile submissions because I hardly get over 15 views per submission, if that.  (In case you were interested...)  All-in-all, I haven't really learned anything. At least, nothing I can think of.

3) What are you planning on doing next?  This question kind of confused me and made me laugh at first.  But just to remain on topic of school and some of what I've already talked about, I'm planning on NOT having to take anatomy again and finishing the picture I've started.  Otherwise, there's really not much else I can say.

Egil's Bones

A few weeks ago when we started the bone chapter, I realized taking anatomy was probably the worst decision of my life, right next to taking honors chemistry.  I also received a packet (amongst the many others) that was about a viking man's bones; Egil's bones to be specific (in case you hadn't guessed from the title...)  Anyway, This man's bones were overgrown and, through studies of his writings, it's possible to say that it is very likely he had something called "Paget's Disease."  It's this disease where the bones overgrow and aren't able to break themselves down fast enough with the osteoclasts.  With this disease, the victims of these diseases are usually disfigured.

For a quick overview of the story, Egil was described as a man that had a very large forehead, a large jaw, and a very wide nose.  Once he was buried, Iceland converted to Christianity (like everyone else in the dark ages), and his children, if I'm remembering correctly, had a Christian church built on the land they inherited and they had Egil's remains dug up and moved into the church's graveyard.  So many years later, one of his other descendants built another church however many feet away from the other church and had his bones dug up yet again, and buried in THAT graveyard.  Some time after that, another one of his descendant's curious spouses dug up his bones because they had heard the stories of how Egil was a burly man and his bones could take a lot of punishment, and he wanted to know exactly how much.  Sooooo... he dug up the bones... again (I think I'm starting to see a pattern here).  By this point in time, when I retold this story to my band and my mom, my mom made the comment that "I bet he was rolling around in his grave."  I agree. 

Anyway, back to the story.  The last guy to dig up poor 'ole Egil's bones decided he wanted to exactly how thick these bones really were, so he took the blunt side of an axe and hit the skull with it as hard as he could.
Now, common sense would dictate that 150 year old bones, no matter thick, would probably collapse in on impact.  Instead, the axe simply left a white mark where it had hit.  After that, they were buried again, and they've been left alone for the last thousand or so years.  I'm not sure how old the article I read was, but they said they were thinking of digging them back up again for the first time in a long while (remember those thousand years I mentioned?).

link

I thought this was a pretty interesting story altogether, because I don't know much about the Northern-European/Viking history.  And though I think it'd be neat to be able to withstand man slaughtering-blows to the skull and all, in chronic victims of Paget's disease, they suffer vision loss, and uncontrollable dizzy spells.  Here is a link to what I actually read, for anyone who hasn't read it.  Here is a link with more about Paget's disease, for anyone interested.  In case anyone doesn't want to take the time to read those, here's a picture of someone that had this disease.

Book? Aye, the book...

For our anatomy class, we are required to read a book related to science. . . but not just any science!  Yeah, actually, just any science.  However, the book had to relate back to the way that that science was used somehow in history or relates to something somehow-or-other to real life. In other words; it has to be nonfiction.  The book I chose to read for this assignment was The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Bloom.  (Image of the cover.)  Anywhoo, this particular book, as one could absolutely never ever possibly assume from the title, was about a New York commissioner and how he helps clean up the crooked ways of New York's police and medical examiners, helping solve cases that were long believed to be cut cold turkey.  It shows the advancements into modern-like technology, and how murderers who used things like wood alcohol and chloroform to take their victims, and no man thought that finding these things in a body, in any trace, would be possible.  (But it is, so don't go about killing people with these things.  Try something a little more subtle...)  Anyway, for me, it's fairly hard to get into this book, much like the last book I chose to read for my chemistry class.  I just never find nonfiction books all too interesting.  It is interesting the way that the story is put together into a story, but it just doesn't keep my attention for very long.  I often find myself falling half asleep when I do read it, and it's nearly torture in class when we read for "Bell Work."

System Update...Done! (Sep. 19 Nat. Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day)

O, where to begin...
Perhaps to start with the skin!

Joe the Bard says:
"The skin is the outside barrier of all scurvy dogs, land lubbers and ocean sailors all alike.  And aye, there be not one, not two but three layers o' skin, crafted and finely tuned to bear the burden of a thousand crashing and thunderous waves upon ye, perfectly sealed to keep the daemons o' the sea from invadin' yer sour and sea-pickl'd body.  It's outermost layer be crafted genuinely to protect ye from many kinds o damage like the crashin' splinters o' a fallen mast, broke down from yonder Kraken, risen from the sea to steal yer life from ye.  Or to protect ye from the most potent ale in The Loose Goose that'll rot ye through if ye ain't be careful enough.  Aye, and afore I forget, it protects yer innards from the scaldin' burns o' the most wicked sun, and keeps yer crew supplied with the vitamin D."