Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.

[trenchkamen]

I have an amazing ability to get hooked on things precisely when I least need it. I had given up on finishing Persona 3 before starting Persona 4 (grinding in Tartarus was getting really fucking repetitive and starting to feel like a chore), and, lo and behold, I am utterly hooked on Persona 4. I knew this was going to happen. More than anything right now I want to Fuck All This, go back to the apartment, and play, but I'm in the lab, and after this I need to go to the gym and study for my Japanese exam. Oh, and finals start in three weeks.

I desperately need to make a Naoto costume. fabula_umbrae, I'm looking in your direction for help. That or I could just get a boy's school uniform off eBay. The only thing that really distinguishes the jackets is the white stitching and embroidered emblem, and I need to make that hat. Would you guys disown me if I considered eBay? And when were we planning on doing the P4 group again?

I'm also considering making a costume for a bishounen version of the Prince of All Cosmos, but that would be easy to make. At least one Goodwill in the valley has to have a pair of obscenely bright purple pants.

I'm getting no effing BLAST or BLAT results for my peptides. That's really helpful.


Ravenclaws represent.


The bronze looks canary yellow in this picture for some reason. The lower picture is a more accurate color scheme.


Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.


I realize that I forgot to mention this to the Internet at Large, but if you have not been following the drama, President Obama is speaking at ASU's graduation ceremony in a month. But, he's not getting an honorary degree. Of course, there has been a huge outcry over this, and most of it ends in the editorial writers insulting ASU (worthless party school, have you forgotten that Playboy voted you the top party school?, various jabs at Greek co-eds, a school known for the low scholastic achievements of its athletes, etc, oh by the way you're a useless party school and a diploma mill).

I do also find it insulting that some have said that a degree from ASU is not even worth the paper it is printed on anyway. Crow and the Board of Directors made their decision for their own reasons--whatever the hell they may be--and most ASU honorary degrees are given to financial benefactors anyway. Yeah, an honorary degree from ASU might not mean jack, but that does not mean that there are no intelligent and dedicated students here who could compete with the best the Ivy League has to offer. Fuck you. We students had nothing to do with this decision. God knows ASU has problems, and many of your jabs are based in half-truth, but fuck you. We're not all racist, ungrateful, vapid, intellectually-crippled yokels and Daddy's money co-eds as some people seem to think we are now. Fuck. You.

For what it's worth, I don't know what the hell Crow was thinking. How could he not know this would result in a PR nightmare? Isn't he trying to enhance ASU's reputation as the Harvard of the Desert? (I'm serious; that is an official tagline.)

Personally, I do not see why this is such a big deal, but everybody else seems to think this is a huge personal slight against President Obama, and that it signifies far more than anybody ever intended it to. A degree is just a social construct. It signifies what we want it to. In this case, it signifies either that you went through ASU's class mill, or that you gave ASU a lot of money. Given those definitions, Obama did neither. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Or maybe I'm just endlessly naive.

What do you guys think about all of this?

Comments

[joeshadows.livejournal.com]

I think the entire concept of Honorary Degrees in and of itself is kind of weird and possibly insulting. "You haven't actually done or studied any of this, but we're going to give you the certificate anyway." Huh?

I mean, there are exceptions. For example, from the early days of personal computing, where some self-taught prodigies basically defined what we now think of as modern Computer Science. If you've left a huge impact on your field while technically being nothing more than a talented amateur, I think its perfectly justifiable to just hand the person a degree- especially if you get them to define a course for that area of study for your school.

But the whole "you gave us a bunch of money" or "you're really famous and you did something to give PR to our school" as a justification to give a person a degree? That just seems... kind of embarrassing, and cheapens the entire concept of these degrees, even if you are very explicit about putting "Honorary" in the title of it.

It makes me think of tin-plated nobility from the Old World, arbitrarily inventing medals and military honors to give to themselves so that even if they never lead or directed a single soldier into battle, they could get a portrait made of themselves with a chest absolutely covered in shiny medals and ornaments.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. The honorary degrees have been cheapened to the point that it is assumed if somebody is not offered one, he or she has not hit the lowest common denominator of the nominee pool.

I don't think they should be given out unless you contribute something of revolutionary caliber.

[sumomonkeyninja.livejournal.com]

Which program are you using to do a BLAST search? Heck, why are you doing a BLAST search?

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

I'm using both UCSC Genome Browser and NCBI BLAST. I am trying to create primers for peptides the mass spec machine found in cancer patient tumors and plasma. I am searching for the mRNA sequence for these peptides. Some of them are at the beginning or end of an exon, and I need to anchor my primers in exons.

The problem is the databases are only for wild type, and that certainly may not be the case in these cancer patients. There may be some alternate splicing or God-knows-what going on that the program cannot detect.

[omegadonut.livejournal.com]

Have you tried smaller subsets of the sequences? If there's alternate splicing involved, just take smaller sections of the sequence and, if you're lucky, it'll be the part that's intact enough to get a hit.

Not that I've tried ever it.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

Yes. Some of the peptides are already too small for the BLAT to run an analysis. We have an alternative splicing database one of our grad students programmed, but the program isn't cooperating right now for some reason.

[hiraku536.livejournal.com]

I'm not understanding this "Honorary Degree". Actually, I don't even know such a thing existed until I read this LJ (Wow, I'm deprived)

I don't know if I would give Obama an honorary degree. I probably won't, even though I do like the guy, so, so much more than McCain, and I'm certain he's charming and charismatic and nice guy and all that, but I probably still won't give him a degree.

You know, this reminds me of that incident where Oprah got a degree. I think that was a couple years back.

I really think getting a degree should mean that you did something in a particular field, and that by graduating, you would be able to make good use of what you mastered during those 4 (or 3 or 5, depending on your pace. I'm graduating in 5 years b/c I just switched majors) Of course, I'm idealizing the situation. The odds of someone making good use of what was learned in college is another challenge and another story that will take place in the real world, but I digress.

You're right in the sense that a degree is just a social construct. But, remember. We're in an age where if you don't have something solid and tangible, it doesn't exist no matter what you say. (Quantitative science is partly to blame for this mentality in my opinion)

Does that make you naive because you don't think that it is a big deal?

Hm... I don't think your naivete is the issue here.

But, other people's values are equally, if not more, important as yours. You might not have given the degree a meaning like someone else has, and... majority believe that a degree has meaning. Big meaning. And... what sucks is that the majority usually rules, right or not. (And, people wonder why we have mob violence)

Do you get what I'm trying to say? Because I'm rambling, and I think I've stopped making sense 2 paragraphs ago.

Before I close, I just want to say, I also think that the value of the university, all "schools", actually, is determined by the student body in the end. We are what made the schools what they are. I've seen it in my middle school and high school, too. Students do well mostly because they themselves have high ambitions and work hard toward that goal, and the school, in turn, will be recognized for the efforts contributed by the students.

I have no doubt that you work hard, and I think it will be because of you and people like you that your school will be appreciated in the future despite what people say now. Just keep doing what you do.

[hiraku536.livejournal.com]

Almost forgot to say...

Love the scarf. I wish I have a Ravenclaw (Or Slytherin) scarf

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, again, agreed. As I said above, the honorary degrees have been cheapened to the point that it is assumed if somebody is not offered one, he or she has not hit the lowest common denominator of the nominee pool. And yes, I like Obama, but I'm not a fan of giving out honorary degrees just because somebody is cool or smart. But some people are treating this like the highest offense ASU could commit. Some people think it's a racist or McCain-pandering conspiracy. WTF.

And thanks. You can make a scarf--it's not hard, just time-consuming.

[alexielnet.livejournal.com]

The scarf is lovely and I like the way you photographed it. Very clever.

I don't know. There is so much noise going on at the Uni right now, with all the protesters, that I have just tuned most of it out. I've more or less quit reading the paper because most of it just annoys me. I can say, though, that I am working really hard for my degree and I think it is bullshit to paint the entire school with a single brush considering the number of students we have. I'm sure some of them are slackers, but that doesn't mean they dominate the student population.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

I know. I'm getting sick of it. We're not all slackers who got stuck at our safety school.

[pofo.livejournal.com]

Swedish colours! :D

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

FUCK YEAH SWEDEN.

[fabula-umbrae.livejournal.com]

I think you should do her non uniform outfit with the awesome pants and the pretty blue jacket. Especially since you already have pants that are right if I recall correctly.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

I don't, remember? My striped pants are black and white.

And when are we doing the group?

[fabula-umbrae.livejournal.com]

No set date yet. Also, striped? I was thinking the psudo plaid ones that are sort of not really checkered?

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Those. They're black and white. I remember you saying that they would not work.

[fabula-umbrae.livejournal.com]

Damn. I misremembered then. ;_;

I still think you should do that outfit. It's better than the school uniform.

[kitschaster.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Obama already have a college degree, and didn't he already pass the bar? Why, exactly, would he need an honorary degree from a state school, anyway? Why does this matter? I love Obama, but I swear to god there is no middle ground with the man. You either want to drag the man behind your pickup truck for five miles, or snort coke off his erect cock.


That said, I can't wait to actually see your scarf (work comps don't let us see pictures). And I wanna play vidya games now. ;_;

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

I know. I like Obama too, but some of his worshipers are so fucking stupid. So many people are taking such vehement offense at this--it's become almost personal. And I bet Obama doesn't even care.

[kitschaster.livejournal.com]

Obama shouldn't care, I believe. I don't know why his fangirls and bois think he needs another diploma, as if he's some charity case who didn't finish school, or had, you know, a C average back in college *ahem*. But I don't get why he needs it. Just because you are president, and speak at a school, doesn't mean you should have an honorary diploma.

What? So every school he speaks at, means he gets a free diploma? That's fucking retarded. I was his cheerleader back in November, and even I think that's some ol' bullshit.


And I'm sorry people are talking crap about your school. *frowncake*

[nillion.livejournal.com]

I actually sit in the middle-ground, FYI. It gives the weirdest perspective of everything, though, because by-in-large you are correct.

[ladyseiryuu.livejournal.com]

As soon as Carlos and I saw Naoto in Persona 4, we knew you had to cosplay her. When you get the costume together, you definitely need to post pics!!!!! Glad you're enjoying the game, I think my favorite character was Kanji. Gotta love that guy.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

I know~. I've had several different people tell me that. And I was a lot more like her when I was her age--same insecurities.

[nillion.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if this seems really silly, but didn't Crow email-spam the university to say that there is a standing policy of not giving honorary degrees to politically affiliated politicians (redundancy is for added safety).

It seems like a wise thing to do, otherwise they would have to do some awkward balancing act between the two major parties, and/or take flak for being politically biased.