part 2: WHAT DOES IT MEAN

So some things have changed. I have gone from being Aries (arrogant money-fixated asshole) to Pisces (weepy man-baby). My little sister has gone from Taurus (hedonistic, stubborn?) to Aries (well...). Kurt Cobain was born right on the cusp of the Pisces sign, February 20th. He is now an Aquarian, meaning he should have been a visionary trying to make the world a better place, rather than a tortured whiny artist man-baby like me. Also this kind of ruins that one song, doesn't it?

All I have to say is I AM FLIPPING OUT MAN. How can I trust that the newspaper's advice is real anymore? All those times I was cynical/ wary of new dark strangers in my life...all for naught. It seems I should have been ready not to flip out too much when new dark strangers arrived, despite my tortured psyche and emotional nature.

THINGS YOU MIGHT NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW YOU:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16. You're a goat mate. This means you are kind of a boring person. Sorry.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11. You are a water-bearer. You carry water EVERYWHERE. Also you're good at talking to people.
Pisces: March 11-April 18. You are a whiny man-baby. Shut up, Fish-face.
Aries: April 18-May 13. Blah blah blah horns blah blah blah financial assets. No redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Taurus: May 13-June 21. You're kind of slutty and stubborn. Two traits that are often covariant.
Gemini: June 21-July 20. You have great honkers.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10. You have crabs. And cancer. Also you kind of suck.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16. You're a jerk like Aries but you're more fun. Also if you are a male you spend the majority of your time sleeping and if you are a female you hunt in groups with other females. Your copulations last about thirty seconds but are repeated every half an hour over the course of several days. LUCKY YOU.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30. You will most likely die alone.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23. Everyone likes you and you have no flaws WHOOP DE DOO LIBRA.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29. You are, like, constantly PMSing.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17. Apparently your sign is associated with healing and working well with authority figures. But that's all bunk. Everyone knows you can talk to snakes. Don't fight it. You know you want it.
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20. You are a feisty old woman.

The victor of this battle: my immaturity.

ASTRONOMY VS ASTROLOGY P 1: PUNCHES ARE THROWN

OMG U GAIZ. Something recently happened that shock my ROCK HARD BELIEF in the wonderful and precise science of ASTROLOGY.

So apparently some troublemaker astronomers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society were like "HAY THE ZODIAC SIGNS ARE ALL WRONG CUZ THE EARTH'S ALIGNMENT HAS CHANGED. ALSO THE BABYLONIANS DIDN'T WANT THE SNAKE PEOPLE TO EXIST SO THEY THREW OUT SUPER SECRET PARSELMOUTH ZODIAC OPHIUCUS."

Here's a more detailed/ coherent explanation by the awesomely named Parke Kunkle:

"If you take a toy top and spin it, it spins around an axis and that axis tends to point in different directions. It moves around. That's what we call precession. So in Earth's case, right now, Earth's spin axis points towards Polaris, the North Star. But in 3000 BC, the Earth's axis pointed towards a different star, Thuban. And that majestic motion takes about 26,000 years. so if you went from 3,000 B.C. and waited 26,000 years, you'd have the north star Thuban again."

(I think Parke Kunkle is a wizard, fyi. He kinda talks like one)

How did the astrologers react to this bit of news? They got really mad and said "Oh, fuck off, science! Listen up, we don't actually base the zodiac on the alignment of the STARS, we base it on the EQUINOX. SO TAKE THAT. Your science is PISS."

JEWELS OF GREAT POWER

Ahoy there! I enjoy posting blogs about once every six months, because no one reads them anyway. It is a thing that is fun to do.

So what's new? I recently read a trilogy by David Eddings (and his unacknowledged wife Leigh Eddings). In it the brave champion Sparhawk uses a jewel of power, the Bhelliom, to defeat people who are trying to fuck with the world. That's right. THEY TRYING TO FUCK WITH THE WORLD. And the Bhelliom actually is this immense unfathomable spirit that created the Earth. The fantasy earth of David Eddings and his invisible wife.

This got me thinking about jewels and all those diamond commercials I've been seeing on the TV box lately. I think someone needs to make a diamond commercial that resembles a fantasy movie trailer.

"This winter...an evil gathers to the North. An evil that won't stop until it has plunged the entire world in darkness. Our only hope? A stone of great beauty and power, a stone created from a dragon's tears--- it is the Bringer-of-Death to those whose hearts are not pure. Only the most valiant woman may wield it. That woman is your mate, and you are her champion."

My little sister recently mentioned the jewelry store at BJ's Wholesale Club. I absentmindedly started singing "Every kiss begins with b...j..." then looked around guiltily.

Today I played a game with Maddy. It was called "chase these snowballs I kick for you so that you don't have to rip Bailey's face off. It's really okay to have fun without killing other animals." The title might need to be shortened a bit.

THAT IS ALL FOR NOW I HOPE YOU ENJOY HOT COCOAS. MADE BY NESTLE. THAT IS A FREE AD I JUST DID FOR YOU NESTLE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT NESTLE FOODS.

Silly Buggers!

Wow! What a year and a half this has been. Mortgages, children, the wife...JUST KIDDING! But I have grown up quite a bit, in ways that are quite unacceptable to my parents.

Have you all heard of the Brown Dog Affair? There's many issues at stake here. I tend to side with the medical profession on this one. If Bayliss and Starling hadn't gone about vivisecting dogs, we might never have discovered hormones! And we certainly wouldn't be calling them "hormones." We wouldn't know the first thing about gastric function, and imagine how far behind medical science would be!

I also feel like those Swedish bitches exploited the unhappiness of the British worker in order to push their own political agenda. They chose Battersea because it was a sea of roiling discontent (and batter). They willfully lied about the dog not being anesthetized. How could you possibly open up a dog and show people delicate anatomical features while it was still awake? It would writhe around so much that you'd end up tearing out its insides.

I'm not happy with the fact that we often treat animals like they are convenient blocks of meat that we can use for our own convenience. But I really dislike it when people act more concerned about the plight of other animals, particularly animals we keep as pets, than they do about humans. I also really dislike dishonesty and spin.

In other news: my mom's on Facebook, and I am not anymore! Hurraaaah!

Is Love Worth It?

I have a friend who recently told me of her concerns about attempting to go to grad school with her boyfriend. Both of them want to attend school in the DC area; I am given to understand that this is a bit of a sacrifice for her because she was considering the Boston area, for which she has a slight preference. Another issue is that her parents are not exactly approving of the relationship and might be hurt that their daughter chooses to move far away from them for a man.

So there are two questions that intrigue me here. How can you tell if a relationship is good enough that it is worth it to make sacrifices? One of my cousins said "it is stupid to go to a school just for someone." I can agree with this viewpoint to a certain extent. Many relationships are not stable enough to last the stresses of adult life and end; it would just add insult to injury if one had uprooted one's life for a significant other who proves himself or herself unworthy of one's love. On the other hand, one's professional and intellectual life should be balanced with his or her personal life; most of us need personal relationships to sustain us. It seems a bit extreme to suggest that one should never structure one's schooling or work around family life or romantic relationships.

The other thing that concerns me is whether one should bring one's parents into consideration when planning one's life. As an Indian, I understand the pressure to stay close to one's family and support one's parents. While mine are young and active, the time when they might need me to take care of them is not that far off. From this point of view, I can see why parents want their children not to move far away from them. What's more, I know that parents hate to see their children make mistakes. However, there's some point at which one's offspring are competent to make their own decisions; after all, if they don't get the practice at an early point in their lives, what will they do when the parents are no longer there to guide them? Furthermore, it's impossible to foresee the results of our actions in any way or to ensure one's future will be pleasant. If things go wrong, it is probably because shit happens and not because an unwise decision was made.

In the end, I advised my friend not to feel bad about her decision, because I am fairly sure she is resolved to spend her life with this boy. I just hope he is worthy.

Tufts Medical School

If I get accepted here, I will have to do a serious think to figure out where I want to go more. If I get into UMass all other choices will die a quick and painless death, of course, but otherwise...I will have to have a think. Maaaan why can't choices be easy?

Why can't I just go back to fun times and jollity?!

Things I want to do

So over this break, I've realized that I've got to start acting less like an entitled child. Ironically, I was nothing but a child with a sense of entitlement; I didn't do a damn thing and I got a lot of stuff from my parents. But from now on it's my responsibility to stay healthy, live frugally, and find some way to finance my medical education. So really I'm being forced into some semblance of adulthood, though the whole medical school thing will curtail that process a bit. But it is a professional school, so I'm expected to be a professional. A professional who pays $50,000 a year to do her job.

So here are things I want to take care of over the next semester:

-finances, obviously. That's the big one.
-start studying a bit more like a medical student would. That is, keep up with lectures, do a bit each day, etc.
-exercise, eat less junk.
-only one mug of coffee a day. My mug holds about sixteen ounces. That is a lot of caffeine.
-that's about it. I can only take so much self-discipline and denial, because I am a weak fleshly stupidface.