Metaphysical microscopic topic dropper

Sorry this entry has been delayed, but I wanted to see how the first exam in Chinese would turn out before making any sort of rash generalization about SinoUniversity Education.  Now, for a sweeping generalization based on one occurrence in an atypical setting (so much better, right?):

I dislikes this.  I dislikes it, muchly.

The exam (which literally was just completed) dealt entirely with Hanzi (Chinese characters).  Conversational skills, word order, aural comprehension - none of those aspects of language made an appearance, which means, unfortunately, I probably failed.  Another problem:  when the professor spoke, I could understand everything she said;  and, if given the pinyin for the Hanzi listed on the exam itself, I probably would have been able to make a good showing. 

... But you know what? 

I'm more proud of myself for understanding random people on the street, bus announcers, and various snippets from films than anything else.  There are iPhone apps for character recognition, but not voice-recognition/auto-translation.  Douglas Adams might have been able to envision a Babel fish, and Gene Roddenberry could arrange translation devices for Star Fleet, but the rest of us are going to have to wait till Steve Jobs pops out another brainchild.

Happier notes!

• The lesson for the high school kids last week went very well, in unexpected ways.  I brought the music videos for K-Os's "Love Song" and MGMT's "Kids", along with a short presentation on freaky animals (which turned into an explanation of "noodling", for God knows whatever reason) and a discussion about YouTube and why or why not it's a good resource. 
• The music videos bombed, hardcore.  Was utterly lost as to why (K-Os is so good!  They loved "Clint Eastwood" last week!  And Jon Salmon's video for MGMT is so hipster!), so I asked a few kids after class.  
• "Hipster" apparently equals weird;  painted faces, electronica, and people-who-aren't-blonde don't go over too well.  That was the deal behind K-Os, too;  he's African American, as were all of the actors in the film, and the imagery was Chinese (a Shaolin temple, populated with kids who were learning the art of music). 
• "Clint Eastwood", on the other hand, was vaguely anime (which is popular here, even though it's Japanese), and the main singer was automatically assumed to be white.
• I wonder how they'd feel about Tool?  
•  ... Kids also thought noodling was "DUDE SWEET", which I need to remedy.  I also need to record them saying this, as THEY HAVE LEARNED IT FROM ME!  Starting a new slang trend centered around "sweet action", "dude sweet", "righteous", "groady", and "hard core" would make me so happy.
• Met a really cool guy at Lush's music night on Friday.  We talked a little bit on Sunday during OpenMic about the Second Sino-Japanese war, back in the early/mid 20th century.  Never really heard much about the Japanese occupation of Manchuria or China in high school, but did some internet research later that night and will most likely be having nightmares for the rest of the year :(
• It's awful, guys - puts the Holocaust into perspective, in addition to all those other things that Eddie Izzard mentions in "Dressed to Kill" about Pol Pot and the virtual genocide of Native Americans by European conquerors.  History's written by the winners;  I just never assumed that the winners were more interested in documenting their own failures and atrocities while ignoring the plights of others.
• Am considering doing a class based on this for Saturday - sort of a brief depiction of war crimes throughout history, from different countries, and a discussion afterward about WHY they happened - but need to have an alternative ready in case some kids aren't up to it.  
• If there's anything that begs to be accomplished in this high school teaching program, it's encouraging the "WHY".  At the beginning of each lesson's discussion period, I write "WHY" really big on the board, and underline it any time someone responds to a question with "That's just how it is" or "Because that's how we are told".  I want to know their thoughts on historical events - the answer wrongs are committed is never "because they're monsters" or "because they're mean"; if I learned anything from Psychology courses, it's that.  There's no black and white.  
• Scientific Method, right?  There's always a reason, a deeper root to the problem, and at least a partial explanation. You just have to have evidence supporting your conclusion.
• Anyhow, I'll stop rambling about that.
• ... And start rambling about something else!  Namely math and science.  I miss it, so much.
• Read my Facebook for updates, and if you have any sites to recommend with free textbooks, please let me know.  
• <3
• Guess who got to crash the iWeekend conference at the ChinaGoogle building?
• ME 
• THAT'S RIGHT
• A PAJJ WAS IN THE GOOGLE BUILDING
• BECAUSE PAJJES ARE AMAZING
• ...
• Well, I mean, actually it was because Rich (from Pyro Pizza) needed someone to be cute and dress up in pigtails and bright red coveralls while passing out pizza to the technies.  But I got free food, met some amazing people -
• The concept of iWeekend is to brainstorm ideas for a start-up company, present those ideas concisely and effectively to a large group, and then have that group vote on which start-up sounds most viable.  It's then [hopefully] successfully implemented, and to the victors go the spoils.  Epic!  It's like a Will Wright Sims game, but in real life!
• - and am now contemplating crashing the conference again.  I'd need a heck of a disguise, though;  security's tight, name tags are required at all times, and there are some pretty terrifying-looking bouncers at the front gates.  It'd be worth it, though.  They have Fooz-ball tables all over the place, and free vending machines, and the really impressive technology, especially for China.  I bet their internet connection is fantastic :)

So!  That's enough of that.  Back to procrastinating by reading physics articles.

<3s and stars,
Pajj