Ramblings from the mind of an 80's Child

Well, yesterday and today went pretty well. Instead of opting to go out to a restaurant, I made a home cooked meal for Sean and I, to enjoy. I thought it would be more heart felt, and enjoyable than simply eating out. So, we had lasagna, sauteed spinach [ with finely chopped garlic ] and garlic bread. The whole dinner was a success, as I was hoping it would be. Since.. it was the first time I made lasagna, let alone a Valentine’s Day dinner. [ Although, to be fair, I had my Mother’s help with it, so I can’t take all the credit. ]

We rented two movies, Abduction and The Rum Diary, to watch while we at dinner and spent time together. The former was okay-ish for a stereotypical low budget spy movie, and the latter was.. interesting. To say the least. 

Today, before taking me home, we went to see Chronicle. We had wanted to see it yesterday but didn’t get to. The only showings were rather late and neither of us wanted to do that. So, we saw it today. But, it was a pretty good movie.

tebollar:

I know manymanymany good Icelandic resources! :D (I’m using a screenshot so that other people can reblog and share this, ‘cuz it’s some important shit right here)

Booooooooks
1. Colloquial Icelandic by Daisy L. Neijmann. Now, there are two downsides to this book. The first is that it’s not written by a native speaker; it’s written by someone who has learned Icelandic on her own. Really really well, granted, but sometimes there are some things that don’t really sound natural in Icelandic. The other downside is that its written more in linguistic-/grammar-speak than in plain terms. But if you can get past that, this book is the BEST. If I could only choose one Icelandic-learning book out of all the others, it would be this one. It goes much deeper into grammatical concepts and explains more rules and exceptions than any other book I know of. If you’re looking more for a grasp of Icelandic grammar, GET. THIS. BOOK.

2. Hippocrene Beginner’s: Beginner’s Icelandic by Helga Hilmisdóttir and Jacek Kozlowski. It’s co-written by a native Icelander and someone who learned Icelandic, combining the best of both. UnlikeColloquial Icelandic, Beginner’s Icelandic has more natural-sounding dialogue; more things you’d be likely to hear in an everyday Icelandic conversation. It doesn’t go into nearly the same grammatical detail as Colloquial Icelandic, however; it doesn’t even teach the past tense. So, this book is great for learning “survival” Icelandic, but for more “literary” Icelandic, go with Colloquial.

3. Teach Yourself Icelandic by Hildur Jónsdóttir. This is my second-favourite Icelandic book. It doesn’t teach as much grammar as Colloquial Icelandic, but it teaches a bit more everyday Icelandic than Beginner’s (and significantly more grammar). The biggest strength of this book is that it has a lot of memory clues and, in general, teaches things in the best way. It also contains by far the best pronunciation guide (though, humbly, mine is betterrrr).

Interneeeeeeeet
Though these books are all well and good, I mainly use my internet sources.

1. Íslensk-ensk orðabók (Icelandic-English dictionary). This is an online adaptation of a 1989 Icelandic dictionary, but it also contains more modern words like blogg (that means “blog”). This is my most frequently visited Icelandic resource; whenever I need to know a word, or don’t know a word someone has used, I go here. This blog would not exist if not for this. There are better Icelandic-English/English-Icelandic dictionaries available here, but they aren’t free. You have to pay for a website subscription.

2. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðingum (the Árni Magnússon Institute of Icelandic Studies). This site is brilliant. It contains the complete declensions and conjugations of an unbelievable large number of Icelandic nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives, as well as place names and Old Icelandic words. Not only that, it contains a word database showing the usage and examples of some of the most common Icelandic words. The website is in Icelandic, however—if you want a more English-friendly option, I’d suggest Verbix for verb conjugations and Wiktionary for noun and adjective declensions. The Wiktionary for Icelandic is surprisingly good; I know a lot of people generally distrust Wikipedia and Wikipedia-related sites, but Icelandic’s Wiktionary is actually pretty decent.

3. Mizenki17. He’s a YouTube user named Brandon, a college student studying Icelandic. He has a series of videos of him speaking Icelandic and trying to teach it to others. His accent isn’t great, and some of the finer details of his videos are wrong, but he’s a great guide for learning the absolute basics of the language, like the alphabet and declension. YouTube channel expertvillage also has a very useful playlist of Icelandic teacher Eva Natalja Róbertssdóttir giving a large number of useful phrases. Rammsteinfreak93, a native Icelander, also has an old series of videos about teaching Icelandic—mainly swearing in Icelandic. :D

4. Icelandic Online. THIS SITE IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST. After you look at Mizenki17’s or someone else’s “Icelandic basics” videos, I’d highly suggest Icelandic Online. I wouldn’t be where I a without it. It’s a course designed for foreigners by Háskóli Íslands, the University of Iceland. It has six levels: bjargir (basics), náttura (nature), menning (culture), IOL 2 (Icelandic Online 2), IOL 3, and IOL 4. It teaches Icelandic in a Rosetta Stone-type way, allowing you to figure things out with context.  If you complete IOL 1 (náttura and menning), you can attend a summer course in Icelandic, hosted by Háskóli Íslands. I’d recommend Icelandic Online for anyone learning Icelandic; I haven’t found anything better for learning the basics and helpful vocabulary.

5. Mímir, the Icelandic Grammar Notebook. I only put this up here tentatively—it has a lot of errors, especially in spelling (a lot of times the site will use ó when it means to use ö). Still, it contains a lot of information which might help to clarify a few things if you’re ever confused about something Icelandic grammar-related.

6. Alphadeath. He’s a Tumblr user by the name of Kristján. As his name suggests, he’s a native Icelander. He’s who I go to when I have an Icelandic question that I can’t find anywhere else. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind having a few extra followers. (There Kristján this was your shameless plug)

Other Various Tumblrblogs 
- Icelanders who I have asked for help/have helped me in the past and will now give a free promotion to: dvergabondi, smilinghooks, draugurinn-is-moshing, aatropos.
- Icelandic-/Iceland-related blogs: fuckyeahislenska, fuckyeahiceland, icelandpictures, everysinglewordinicelandic, icelandwantstobeyourfriend,  icelandiclanguage, learnnordic

Of course, I know of many other sites which I use. For example, I have a “collection” of Icelandic news and humour websites which I try to read every now and then, and I listen to Icelandic radio often. These sorts of things you can find for your own, and determine what works for you in learning. :) 

Thanks so much. <3

This’ll help me greatly. I’ve been wanting to learn this language for so long. and now it seems more in reach for  me. 

Apparently, my brain has decided to give me Reploid ideas whilst I am feeling lethargic from my Period. Great. Just.. great. 

Maybe some motivation will help. 

If anyone would like to see crap doodle of an ’ Elysian Angel ’ or vague design ideas for Reploids that combine both Western/Eastern Zodiacs, then.. um.. reblog or comment. OR SOMETHING. 

xxzulaxx:

The dilation and constriction of the pupils reveals how hard we’re thinking, how excited or disgusted we are and more…
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Our pupils, the black holes which let light into the eyes, don’t just help us see, they also signal what’s going on in our minds.

Here are 10 pieces of psychological research which show how changes in pupil size reveal many aspects of thought.

1. I’m thinking hard

Look into my eyes and ask me to name the cigar-smoking founder of psychoanalysis and you won’t see much change in my pupil size. The name Sigmund Freud comes easily to my lips.

But ask me to explain the laws of cricket and watch my pupils expand.

That’s because research has shown that the harder your brain works, the more your pupils dilate. When Hess and Polt (1964) gave participants more and more difficult tasks to complete, their pupils got bigger and bigger.

2. My brain is overloaded

Keep watching my eyes closely and you’ll spot the point when explaining the laws of cricket gets too much.

Poock (1973) reported that when participants’ minds were loaded to 125% of their capacity, their pupils constricted.

It’ll be trying to explain a googly that will do it. (Don’t ask).

3. I’m brain damaged

The reason doctors and paramedics flash a light in patients’ eyes is to check their brains are working normally (and because it’s such an easy test to do). They use the acronym PERRL: the Pupils should be Equal, Round and Reactive to Light.

If my brain is broken, say, because I’ve had a bump on the noggin, you won’t see PERRL. There may well be other extremely subtle clues, like the blood pouring from my head.

4. You’re holding my interest

The size of my pupils can also signal whether I’m interested in what you’re saying.

White and Maltzman (1977) had participants listening to excerpts from three books: one was erotic, another involved mutilation while a third was neutral.

Their pupils widened at first for all three. But they only remained wide for the passages that were erotic or involved mutilation.

I’m likely to be interested in anything new, so my pupils will dilate a bit at first, but they’ll only stay dilated if I continue to be interested.

5. You’re turning me on

If things take a sexual turn then our eyes are also involved. Both men and women’s pupils expand when they are sexually aroused (e.g. Bernick et al., 1971).

However, not everyone agrees big pupils are a signal of sexual arousal. It tends to get tested by showing nude pictures to people and some argue that we’re just really interested in the nude form.

6. You disgust me

Just as my pupils increase in size when I’m interested or turned on, so they constrict when I’m disgusted.

Hess (1972) showed people pictures of injured children. First people’s pupils dilated because of the shock and then they constricted to try and avoid the troubling images.

7. Whether I’m liberal or conservative

Should you happen to be carrying around pictures of politicians you might be able to work out whether I’m a liberal or a conservative just from my pupil size.

Barlow (1969) showed people pictures of Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The liberals’ pupils dilated when they saw fellow liberals Johnson and King but constricted when they saw conservative Wallace. Conservatives showed the opposite pattern.

8. I’m in pain

If you’ve had enough of this article now and want to cause me some pain in return, then why not stab me with a pencil? If you’re watching closely you’ll see my pupils dilate.

Chapman et al. (1999) fired small electric shocks into people’s fingertips and measured how much their pupils dilated. At maximum intensity the pupils dilated by about 0.2mm.

But that was only to a relatively tame current. Imagine what you could do to my pupils if you plugged me into the mains.

9. I’m on drugs

…and you can narrow down the type by looking at my pupils.

Some drugs, like alcohol and opioids cause the pupils to constrict. Others, like amphetamine, cocaine, LSD and mescaline cause them to dilate.

Police officers know this and some use it as one way of checking if someone is off their face. They generally look for pupils constricted to either less than 3mm or dilated to more than 6.5mm (Richman et al. 2004).

10. My personality

This one is not strictly related to pupil dilation, but it’s too good to leave out.

If you look closely at the coloured part of my eye, the iris, you might even get some clues as to my personality (Larsson et al., 2007).

Look closely for ‘crypts’ in my eyes (lines going away from the iris, labelled 1 above) and this suggests I’m a warm, tender-minded person. If you see furrows (labelled 3 above), then, watch out, I’m impulsive.

It seems that the same gene, Pax6, which affects part of the brain associated with approach-related behaviours (the left anterior cingulate cortex, if you really want to know) also induces tissue deficiencies in the iris.

Too small to see?

As you’ll have noticed, the same pupil response can mean different things, although generally when the pupils dilate it sends a positive message and when they constrict it’s a negative one. But exactly what it means depends on the situation (and whether someone has turned on a light).

This is all good fun to know, but can we really detect these tiny changes in people’s pupil size?

According to an fMRI imaging study, change in pupil size may be difficult for us to notice consciously, but we do seem to pick up on these very small changes unconsciously (Demos et al., 2008).

So changes in pupil size may be experienced, along with other verbal and nonverbal signals, as a gut instinct to either approach someone or run like hell.

Whether or not the eyes are windows to the soul, the pupils are certainly windows to the mind.

Image credits: maryaben & Larsson et al. (2007)

(Source)

samusmmx:

autobot-cruiser:

kigurou-snow:

karekore17:

spookybear:

calamitas:

cutiescream:

cerebrobullet:

the-cheesiest-ninjy:

xenotechnophile:

blasterpop:

I’m OCD about my desktop 

Depressed brooklyn WELP

I photoshopped that Robin picture I adore lol

Herp derp ponies. No-one is surprised.

same as ever

Yes its Mario Kart, Shut up :b its a damn good game series.

Sorry, I have to do this. :B But here it is. xB

You people should’ve seen this coming. Bastion. Go play it. Now.

(Source: talldarkandmoe)