[2004.03.22 0149h]

   [cgame] master of orion 3
   [movie] god of cookery
   [music] final fantasy crystal chronicles ost \\ kazenone
   [tlvsn] the o.c.

i cut my hair yesterday.  i suppose, for most people, this isn't a big
enough deal to write about in one's diary, but as since this is only the
second time i've cut my hair in nearly seven years, i thought i might make
some mention of it.

before i cut my hair yesterday, i was pretty apprehensive about doing it,
as many people are when they are about to cut away long lengths of their
hair.  however, while i was cutting my hair, i stumbled onto a hairstyle
that i didn't plan for and quickly grew to like.  obviously, it's not work
that's up to par with that of many hairstylists out there, but i'm very
happy with it as since it is my own work.

i first learned how to whistle when i was 18.  i also learned how to
swallow pills that same year, so i suppose that was the year i finally
figured out how to do things that people half my age already knew how to
do.  i also learned how to ride a bike without using my hands that year,
although i don't know if people typically learn this skill at some point,
as since it is not a particularly useful task for most people.

anyhow, when i first learned how to whistle, i quickly learned how to
whistle both by blowing air outward and by sucking air inward.  i also
figured out how to control my pitch somewhat when i was using either of
the two techniques.  however, i couldn't transition from one technique to
the other easily without losing control of my pitch.  recently, i figured
out how to do so, so i had quite a bit of fun whistling without pausing
for either taking a breath or releasing it.  however, it made my mouth dry
rather quickly, so it's not exactly the greatest pastime ever.

i also recently discovered that i could hum and whistle different notes at
the same time.  i don't think it's a very unusual ability, although i
would assume that it's not something many people think to try.  however, i
did find the task to be somewhat difficult, much more so than the oft
mentioned act of simultaneously rubbing one's stomach and patting one's
head.  in addition, i'm not very good at controlling the pitch of either
my humming or my whistling when i'm simultaneously doing both of these
acts.  in fact, what comes out of my mouth when i'm trying this often
sounds like a figurative train wreck.  perhaps someone else with better
musical abilities than mine can produce musical intervals by humming and
whistling simultaneously.

there are some companies that spam people.  there are also some companies
that provide methods to cope with the spam that the companies that spam
people send.  ironically, some companies belong in both these categories.
i wonder if any client of any of these companies have to deal with the
spam sent by the same company that they are paying to cope with the spam.

i don't understand the utility of a leaf blower.  it seems like all a leaf
blower does is blow leaves around while polluting the air with noise and
fumes.  apparently, stanford hires people to use these ludicrous machines
around the residential areas here, and every time they come around, even
though i can stand the noise, the fumes give me a pretty bad headache.

about a week ago, i was around the middle of campus early in the morning
when i saw someone with a leaf blower walking along and blowing down one
or two leaves alongside.  i don't know if it's just me, but i would think
that it would be so much easier to simply pick up the stray leaf and place
it in the nearest trash can or something.  in fact, i don't mind at all if
the leaf was just left there.  i mean, by the end of the day, there will
be numerous other leaves on the ground anyway, so i don't see why anyone
should bother with blowing along one little leaf.

when i grew up, the front yard of the house i lived in had a small front
yard, around the order of 10 square meters, and so did the front yard of
the house next door.  however, for some reason, our neighbours decided to
hire someone to use a leaf blower to blow the leaves off of their front
yard every so often.  aside from the fact that i found it completely
absurd to hire someone to do a job that would have been much more easily
completed with a rake and maybe a minute of one's time, the leaf blower
would repeatedly blow the leaves onto our yard, which was completely
ridiculous and inconsiderate.  to me, this act seems comparable to someone
taking a dump in someone else's yard, although i must admit that the act
of taking a dump would neither sound as loud nor smell as bad.

i recently had a dream in which i was able to read text in both chinese
and english.  in my dream, the text i read was written on the ground, and
the english text was supposed to be a translation of the chinese text.  i
can no longer remember if the translation was accurate, but i believe it
was, for the most part.

in the chinese text, there was one character that i didn't understand, so
i had to rely on the english translation to decipher that character.  
after i woke up, though, i tried recalling the unfamiliar character, and i
realized that the character i didn't understand didn't actually look like
a valid chinese character anyway, even though, superficially, it had some
resemblance to chinese characters in general.

at some level, this seems to make sense, since my brain, as it creates the
environment of my dream, can only draw from my limited knowledge and
experience.  so if my brain wants to stick a chinese character that i am
unfamiliar with into my dream, chances are that the character that shows
up in my dream won't be a valid one.

it might be worthy to note that i believe i read the chinese and english
text written on the ground in my dream at least twice, and i don't recall
the text being different in any subsequent readings.  as a result, this
dream serves as another counterexample of the proposed method of
determining whether or not one is dreaming while one is reading that i
mentioned in the entry dated 2003.10.04 2154h.

one would think that most people who consider english their first language
would have learned how to spell the word "weird" at a very early age.
however, i keep on seeing instances of people much older than me spelling
the word as "wierd".  it's, well, weird.

i believe this widespread misspelling phenomenon is a result of a
misapplication of the popular rule "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'".  
for those of you who are unfamiliar with this rule, i should probably
mention that the rule is commonly used to help one remember the spelling
of certain english words, such as "believe", "retrieve", and "receive".  
however, the word "weird" doesn't follow the rule because it's, well,
weird.  also, apparently, "protein" is weird too.