"Change comes from within," to quote a hot dog salesman.
(Or, less cryptically:) God is something you have to come to or pull away from on your own. As fish tick / sfred / nunia /et. al. have noted, there's little point in arguing faith with reason.
Seconding ladyknight's comment -- I've been (lurking) here since I was a junior in high school as well, and this kind of thread would have been ridiculously interesting to my paranoid-afraid self the summer before college.
The only things I can toss off are:
(1) spend a lot of time with your advisors and counselors in the department you want to concentrate in. They hold the keys to your future.
(2) Pretty much no-one knows who you've been through most of your life. you're *free.*
(3) (as many other people have said) talk to your professors! anyone worth their salt is going to be like meredithea, and happy to help.
"At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.
The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry -- the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?
Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks."
--Domination of Black, by Wallace Stevens. Not quite eastern, but utterly beautiful.
Not sure if this is what you're after -- nextgenstats is what I use to see which of my friends in various states/countries are reading my weblog -- it's free, and turns the pretty IP numbers into domains.
Here's what a page looks like. Hope this helps.
When in doubt: find a better phrase. Try replacing the objects in question with colors/things that are similar to the objects, or toying with a thesaurus (though do this carefully -- while the worst poetry to go through is the Strong Sad-esque emopoetry, the second-worst poetry is the obscenely pretentious, "look at my AMAZINGLY LARGE vocabulary!" poetry.)
Or try shifting meanings -- often, in description, I tend to grab a cliche *thought*, which tends to poison all of the prose that comes from that point on.
Or, if it looks good, go with it. Either/or.
"Change comes from within," to quote a hot dog salesman. (Or, less cryptically:) God is something you have to come to or pull away from on your own. As fish tick / sfred / nunia /et. al. have noted, there's little point in arguing faith with reason.
posted by Chionophilia 17 years ago
In "Curious George the Frosh."
Seconding ladyknight's comment -- I've been (lurking) here since I was a junior in high school as well, and this kind of thread would have been ridiculously interesting to my paranoid-afraid self the summer before college. The only things I can toss off are: (1) spend a lot of time with your advisors and counselors in the department you want to concentrate in. They hold the keys to your future. (2) Pretty much no-one knows who you've been through most of your life. you're *free.* (3) (as many other people have said) talk to your professors! anyone worth their salt is going to be like meredithea, and happy to help.
posted by Chionophilia 17 years ago
In "Curious Poetical George: Night Poetry"
"At night, by the fire, The colors of the bushes And of the fallen leaves, Repeating themselves, Turned in the room, Like the leaves themselves Turning in the wind. Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks Came striding. And I remembered the cry of the peacocks. The colors of their tails Were like the leaves themselves Turning in the wind, In the twilight wind. They swept over the room, Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks Down to the ground. I heard them cry -- the peacocks. Was it a cry against the twilight Or against the leaves themselves Turning in the wind, Turning as the flames Turned in the fire, Turning as the tails of the peacocks Turned in the loud fire, Loud as the hemlocks Full of the cry of the peacocks? Or was it a cry against the hemlocks? Out of the window, I saw how the planets gathered Like the leaves themselves Turning in the wind. I saw how the night came, Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks I felt afraid. And I remembered the cry of the peacocks." --Domination of Black, by Wallace Stevens. Not quite eastern, but utterly beautiful.
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "Curious, George: UNLURK!"
*stares at shoes awkwardly for a few moments* *relurks*
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "Curious George: Log file analyzer."
Not sure if this is what you're after -- nextgenstats is what I use to see which of my friends in various states/countries are reading my weblog -- it's free, and turns the pretty IP numbers into domains. Here's what a page looks like. Hope this helps.
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "Mundane SF"
Seconding Wolof's comment -- the Culture is one of the coolest systems I've ran into in a sci-fi universe so far.
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "CuriousGeorge/Clichés?"
When in doubt: find a better phrase. Try replacing the objects in question with colors/things that are similar to the objects, or toying with a thesaurus (though do this carefully -- while the worst poetry to go through is the Strong Sad-esque emopoetry, the second-worst poetry is the obscenely pretentious, "look at my AMAZINGLY LARGE vocabulary!" poetry.) Or try shifting meanings -- often, in description, I tend to grab a cliche *thought*, which tends to poison all of the prose that comes from that point on. Or, if it looks good, go with it. Either/or.
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "Most Obvious New Kids Exercise Yet..."
Yes! Enter a rational nation / impersonal network: gesellschaft!
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
In "Cornell researchers build a robot that can reproduce"
"9.) Eaten by von Neumann machines You will need: a single von Neumann machine" Thinking of this, perhaps?
posted by Chionophilia 18 years ago
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