Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Common fucking sense with HFG :D



My favorite thing to do in Physiology when I didn't read the chapter is dissociate and start thinking about another class... or the simpsons. I was reminded about something my communications teacher brought up, as we are currently studying body language. A lot of websites (especially if it has to do with anything in management/human resources, or worst of all pickup artists) love throwing out this bullshit statistic that 93% of communication is nonverbal, you've probably heard it somewhere. But seriously, that would mean that comprehension of a foreign language would be tremendously easy, if you "got" the nonverbal communication. I can pull up the studies but the history lesson is that the idiots that inflated this statistic took it from a couple of microstudies in the 1970s where groups of men and women communicated in unrealistically simplistic terms. In some cases, only a single word like "thanks" or "maybe" in positive, negative and neutral tones. But still, a lot of people still find this statistic plausible because of the "importance of nonverbal cues." Although there is some truth to that, it couldn't possibly make up for that high of a percentage.

Educate your friends....or troll them

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Skillet

First time i saw this I was shrooming at a buddy's house so hard. Relevant to my interests as I used to drum a lot, also because stoner shows are the best. Totally lost my shit at 2:23


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Since I don't really talk about the vidya game much...



So this is the first weekend I've legitimately had off in a couple months. No waking up at 8am for weight training, no being at school to brush up on bio or chem.... feels good, man.

Not having touched my 360 or PS2 in months I decided to revisit an old flame with one of my friends, the Silent Hill series. I've heard the phrase thrown around a lot "A system is only as good as it's games." Well, I'm willing to take that one step further and claim that a game is as only as good as it's music. I think it's a really overlooked aspect of games (save music games, which I still adore even though I've sort of retired for right now.) The composer/sound producer for the Silent Hill series Akira Yamaoka produced some of the most chilling sounds I've ever heard in a video game or otherwise. He is like a master of eerie synths and generally creepy industrial noise. It definitely helped paint the picture for all of the disturbing encounters that occur, including everyone's favorite monster rapist, Pyramid Head. To this day Silent Hill 2 and 3 are the only games I've played that have given me nightmares growing up. 

I really wish I had a good link for the PC version of SH2 so everyone could try it out, but the best I can do is send you the soundtrack. Seriously Akira Yamaoka is an instrumental genius and if you like this check out the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack as well.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?btfqx2hl9mt7mll


 Other scary honorable mentions I'd say would be Fatal Frame, the Resident Evil 1 remake, and Dead Space (also great sound production.) 

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Simpler days

Man, I remember when you could get away with this kind of innuendo in a cartoon.
Sorry I'm just high and miss good cartoons, and taking a break from physio exam cramming.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hey dubheads, put this in your pipe and smoke it



If you aren't familiar, Current Value is basically a god in the darker side of DnB and more recently he's been screwing around with his own blend of dubstep. I think its pretty damn good. Dean Rodell (a.k.a machine code and a few other aliases) is an awesome bro as well and I highly recommend anything they've done if you like Drum & Bass or this kind of dubstep.

Here's the EP. Pretty much everything they've put out on the Subtrakt label is fucking golden.

  SMOKE WEED ERRYDAY

On action potential, and how to not fail at academics

Unless your professor is a huge dick, you should never have to answer more than what is directed of you in an exam question. I hear TAs complain when they have to grade papers, and people completely misinterpret the question being asked of them. So instead they go for a frantic shotgun approach of random information about the subject.

Lemme give you an example question with how I would answer it, and a bunch of fuckwaddery you are at liberty to skip if you want to.

QUESTION: Describe the permeability changes and movements of ions that occur during an action potential.

(when I read the word DESCRIBE, I see, "briefly explain what happens and how," not a bunch of hypothetical what if, theoretical BS.)

MY ANSWER: Starting with an electrical signal, the sodium ion gates open from the outside of the cell, causing Na+ (sodium) ions to flow into the cell, down their concentration gradient. As this occurs, the cell becomes progressively less polar (depolarization) and ultimately action potential occurs upon reaching threshold. Afterwards, the sodium ion gates close and the potassium ion gates in the membrane open and draw K+ (potassium) out of the cell in what is called repolarization. Finally, there is a temporary period of hyperpolarization, and this is due to an additional outflow of a few K+ ions while the K+ gates close.

(I asked if this answer was fine and the TA said yes, you'd get full credit. Did I miss some information? Yeah, but it wasn't relevant to what was being asked so I omitted it. Good enough, right?)

other people's questions: What if all the K+ leaves the cell? Why does X happen? Where does the electrical signal originate?

The answer to all 3 as far as the test question is concerned is IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER, got it?

The only reason I'm really bugged by these questions is when people don't realize that they're not the only student who needs assistance, and eat up my time and other student's time with stuff that's better saved for the professor's office hours.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Back from my academic coma

The sciences are treating me well, but they take up a lot of time (hopefully it'll pay off as of tuesday after exams.) Probably gonna rant a bit on that tomorrow, though. I will say this: When you take human physio and microbio, it REALLY makes you appreciate your body, everything works in perfect sync.... or you're more or less screwed. More on biology rants tomorrow, maybe I'll upload an EP.


Goodnight everyone!

- HFG