So I've been giving it a lot of thought lately. After having a conversation with an unlikely believer at work, watching the trailer for 'The Fourth Kind' and browsing through a psychotherapist's procedure for 'regression therapy' - I asked myself, how likely is it that there are other intelligent species on the planet, outside of our planet and which human organizations are hiding evidence of their existence?

I will pause for everyone to finish their laugh at me.

I have compiled a set of helpful links for anyone whose interest I may have sparked at the end of this entry.

Unworldly:

The issue is, are they unworldly? Do they reside somewhere outside of earth? Did they live on Earth at some point and moved away? Or are they still living on Earth?

Most popular media/fiction goes with the theory that aliens are unworldly. They only touch down on Earth for exploration, domination or extermination purposes. (Ref: All alien invasion movies). One theory I came across was that of the Draconians. These are said to be the original ancestors of reptiles. Very intelligent creatures. Ancient egyptians and mayans depict in their hieroglyphs and scriptures of humans with reptiles heads, of godly attiributes and in some cases, passed down knowledge to Earth's lesser humans. [INSERT PIC]

Draconians Ref: [INSERT]

Found a very funny article commenting on a suggestion made by Toronto councellor Michael Walker on bicycle licensing in the city.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/09/29/time-to-stop-giving-bicylists-a-free-ride.aspx

I like this author's sarcastic take on the issue, which proves how RIDICULOUS the whole thing is.  How can you even compare the carbon footprint of a cyclist with that of what is generated by cars or trucks?  Shows these guys have nothing better to do. 

Note to Michael Walker, when you're ready to use your brain and come up with practical ideas, maybe people will pay attention.

~Tams

Summary of this week:

1.  New drawings will be uploaded to my scrapbook after this post, or perhaps when I get home.  I will be making a conscious effort to draw something other than girls' faces haha.  (But they're so pretty, I can't help but draw them.)  I will also try to use colour as well.

2.  WOW Update!  For those who don't enjoy this nerdy side of me, please skip to No. 3.  Last time I posted, I said I will be leading an Ulduar raid.  I ended up leading it over 2 days (Sat/Sun).  We downed 4 bosses, with multiple wipes but we were real psyched afterwards.  We're going to try again today.  This week we did the smaller scale raids to get everyone involved.  I'm leveling up my hunter in the downtime between raids.  She sucks majorly.  I need to respec the talent build and figure out how to play her.  Finally, I am broke, so I've been on the auction house all week trying to make some gold.  Started herb gathering frequently to make some money and doing more dailies in Icecrown/Storm Peaks.  In addition to this, I recruited a new dk for the guild.  He's got 4K+ dps and is supernice.  I think it's cause he realized there's lots of girls in the guild when he gets on vent, and wanted to join.  :S  Goals for the next week:  Make 2K gold, send pots for the raid tab, get my hunter to 74.  Continue with pvp, onyxia/OS during the week.  And finally, try not to get pissed off by the stupid quebecois people that joined the guild.  Their accent infuriates me.  Goddamn...   :|

3.  Books:  Finally got my order of books from Chapters.  I'm going to pick them up today.  They are:
Herbert Brown - The Green Brain & The Sarotanga Barrier,  and the third is 'Cloud Atlas'  um..I forgot the author.  Really excited to read these.  There will be reviews in the next coming weeks.

4.  UAV's & UFO's:  Did some researching the last few weeks on this stuff.  Will be preparing a piece of them in the near future. 

5.  Work:  Great news!  I'm busting out of shawshank.  As my little bro put it:  'You had to go through 2 miles of shit to finally be free'  And that's kind of how I feel, just like Tim Robbins (?) when he fought his way through the sewer opening and breathed a big gulp of fresh air.  It'll be a couple weeks for the process to get done, but I am totally psyched.

This post was way overdue.  I am posting it on the Monday after. 

Random thought:  Found this crappy mug in the kitchen, but I like what the writing on it says:

'You are a STAR.  To be a star, you must shine your own light, Follow your own Path, and don't worry about the darkness, For that is when stars shine the brightest.'
On the other side of the mug, there is an ad for Quality Inn.  hahaha  It cracks me up that such a shabby establishment would give words of encouragement.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will be sending another post along today with more things.

~Tams

Trini talk:

When I came to this country, I was around ten years old.  Being young, I assimilated quickly into the culture.  I lost my accent around kids at school and for the most part, only switched into it with family and other caribbean people.  My brothers and I laugh when we hear our relatives speak in the broken english and trini slang.  But we joke around with each other using the same accent and terms we consider 'uncivilized'.   We do it on purpose because it's funnier and it also exercises our memory of times back home when we were immersed in that type of trinispeak.

Some examples of typical conversations between the older brother and I:

[Commenting on the messiness of the other's bedroom]

'Eh..wuh yuh doing dere.  Yuh nasty yuh eh clean yuh room'
'Hol yuh tail.  Yuh room nastier.'
*giggling from both ends*
'Wad de ASS.  Hush yuh mouth;  my room cleanah den yours'

[Complaining when one gets the last portion of food]

'Yuh take meh food yuh MODASS'
'ha yuh snooze yuh loose tanty'
*mutual laughter*

[General insults for the hell of it]

'eh battyboy'
'schupes, doh call me dat when yuhself is ah anteman'
*More giggling*
'Allyuh stop using dat language in de house please!'  <--- Interjection by mother

What's interesting as well is that the youngest brother was born here and as he grew older would join in our jokes.  Now he speaks to our parents in an accent at home.  No matter how much we recoil with embarrassment when we hear the dialect from our relatives, it's equally funny and deep down, I love it.  =)

So I found out from someone the other day about 'shingles'.  Didn't know what it was, so I decided to do some reserach and this is what I found:

The most interesting thing about this condition is that everyone has the dormant virus in them.  It's only a matter of it being activated for it to morph into full 'herpes zoster' (shingles).  It's a common disease caused by the Varicella Zoster virus.  If you've had chicken pox, then the virus cells lay unactivated within the nerve fibes like the cranial nerve, dorsal root and autonomic nerve system.   The reactivation is what causes herpes zoster.  There is no concrete explanation about what are the governing factors that allow the virus to activate.  Maybe it has something to do with carrying the gene for its activation? Stress levels, intense physical activity or trauma?  Who knows?

People who get herpes zoster can go for years, or even decades, until it happens.  I attached a little diagram below.   When it does, the virus travels to the skin surface via the nerve fibres, turns into blisters (1), where they fill up with lymph/blood and break open (2), crust over (3) and finally disappear.  They can leave scars though :S

The blisters can be quite painful.  Usually people who come in contact with those infected with herpes zoster get chicken pox, and more rarely, herpes zoster itself. 

(Ref:  Wikipedia)

 

Within healthy individuals or younger people, this disease is very rare.  The occurences increase more with age and loss in cellular immunity.


Anyway, that's enough thinking and big words for me today.  I'm going to shut my mind down for the rest of the day cause it's Friday yayy!  This has been the longest week ever.  When boredom sets in, time stops still.


On a side note:  I'm leading my first raid today!  I've been watching boss videos and figuring out how to place people, so this should be interesting.  Bet we're going to wipe a bunch of times. XD


~Tams

So when I google my name, an interesting thing I found was this link:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/People-of-the-Silence-Gear/9780812515596-86105-Review.html?pticket=z2isyyjz5p0tiv45q4plva55LXDFynmn4WKiVbwSxcRZPoR7nGc%3d

It's a review I did for a book, 10 years ago.  Yes ...10 years ago!!  Man o man..how the internet has evolved.  I remember I was so big on these books.  I wanted to be an anthropologist, or archaeologist specializing in human prehistory.  I used to post on forums and have correspondence with profs on topics like types of foods gathered in the Archaic period, or the many uses of wooly mammoth.  What a nerd I was, wait, still am. :D

"People of the Silence is a brilliant remake of what life was among the Anasazi. With continous action and flowing imagination the Gears have revealed yet even more secrets of the hidden world of the Anasazi. The Gears are an astounding author team and I congratulate them on another well crafted, exciting tale."

hahahaha I sound like a fat 40 year old book critic.  gawd to think I was 13/14 O.o;;

But my comments are all true.  They are very good books.

Check 'em out:  The prehistoric series by Kathleen O'Neal & W. Michael Gear.  (husband/wife team)


~Tams

More pics.  I think I have to rescan these.  You can see the glass underneath.

Found colour pencils at work and made the two orange ones :D

   

That's all for now.  Unless I can sneak in a post today at work.


~Tams

So I went out to Best Buy and got myself a scanner.  The one at work is crap.  See below:

     

So those pics below didn't scan as well as I thought.  I think I shouldn't rely on work scanners. 

That's all for today...until tomorrow morning when I'm bored out of my face.

~Tams

Finished my sketch !
at 4:22pm! :D

Monday afternoon:  Here is a sketch I did after lunch, in my notebook.

Monday September 14th.
Location: My cube at work
Mood: Antsy

Current books that I'm reading:

1. Wicked ..you know that one that tells the story from the point of view of the Wicked Witch. It's been a pain to read through and my progress is slow. It's alot of character and story development. Maybe too much.

I actually don't like the world the author has created in the story. meh..I'll still finish it.

2. Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policeman's Union
This is a real awesome mystery book. I'm only in Ch. 2 and it's definitely drawing me in! Simple language but the story is good. Looking forward to see what else unfolds in the upcoming chapters.

Movies which I watched in the last month:

Well I was at TIFF this past weekend so I've got a bunch to talk about.

1. Antichrist - Lars Von Trier: Horror film. Not boo MONSTER! horror, but psychological disturbing horror. The film has two characters (husband & wife) and the slow breakdown and progress of the story becomes more and more eerie, disturbing and cringing. I enjoyed the story very much. There are some scenes which are grotesque and grossed out the audience. Overall, excellent performance by both actors; visually stunning scenes that were freakishly beautiful. I think the film is a work of art.

2. Daybreakers: Sad excuse for a horror film. First of all, there was little effort or intention of tying the major storylines and ideas together. There was little character development. I think these brothers made it big with 'Undead' and got carried away with this film. Sam Neil, Ethan Hawke and Wilem Dafoe were in it. Alot of potential for this film but it was not seen. Secondly, I didn't like that method of storytelling was spoonfeeding the audience. Yes, I understand the North American audience is slower than other audiences around the world. Movies over here tell you every single answer and detail. What ever happened to watching a film, mulling over it afterwards and then figuring it out yourself? Anyway, I was offended that all the answers were spelled out for me. Don't rent it, don't watch it. It's bad.

It's so bad, when the introduction came on and the directors, Sam Neil and Wilem Dafoe were on stage, the mic was passed to Neil to say something and he declined; only to exit the stage shortly afterwards. It says something when one of the main actors don't even want to comment on it. Also, one of the directors even said 'Guys I'm real drunk right now, that's the best way to watch the film!' Little did we know, he actually was speaking the truth. Quite a shame.

3. At the end of daybreak: Malaysian family/crime drama. Never watched other films from this director. I enjoyed it throughoutly. He made a sad story with selfish characters whose fates ended badly. The scenery and location reminded me alot of Trinidad and made me want to go back to live there. I really liked the mother's character and story. She was a strong point for the film. It is a must watch. I'm not going to give any details away.

4. District 9: Saw that a couple weeks ago. Great movie. I was half asleep during the previews and didn't think I would be able to stay awake for the duration of the film. But the movie kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Excellent story, memorable characters and action packed! Definitely a must watch!

That's about it for the movies I've watched in the last month. I'm looking forward to watching '9' this week. Love Tim Burton.

Other stuff going on:

1. Comic story development: In the slow process of planning a new story. Still trying to figure out a main storyline and then fill in the details. I have been working on some sketches of what I would like the characters to look like. Overall, these are the very beginning phases for the overall product.

2. WOW Update: Roguing it this week. Trying to get some new gear for my pos rogue. She's been in Naxx 10/25 pieces forever and it's about time I move on up. In addition, trying to get better at pvp with this toon. It's kind of hard when rogues are so squishy and blizz has nerfed rogues so much. We'll see how it goes.

The hunter is now 72. Trying to level her up through PVP. It's alot of fun, I must say, but not alot of xp is gained with each game.

Also I'm trying to take a more active role in the guild with creating events, keeping track of everyone's progress and trying to do regular activities for the ones who are online.

3. Work Update: Nothing on this front. The group has been stagnant for ages. So I am waiting on a response from another company. (Fingers crossed!)



Okay I think I've typed enough and my keyboard will break anytime soon. Will try to be on this blog more regular since I've got nothing to do at work these days.

Thank you for reading!

~Tams