You JUST Read My Mind

And those who can't dance...

2006-05-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

WATCH

Enjoy :-)

Staying in Neverland

2006-05-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

George Bernard Shaw once said, "Youth is wasted on the young." Something tells me GBS never met this guy...

(Doesn't he look like he could be a lifegaurd on Baywatch?)

A little more pomp, a little less circumstance

2006-04-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

A conversation in the life of a college graduate:

Friend (10:42:23 AM): when are you moving home?
Yours Truly (10:42:32 AM): no se
Yours Truly (10:42:40 AM): im gonna be home this weekend for sure
Friend (10:45:29 AM): and then what
Yours Truly (10:45:42 AM): then...
Yours Truly (10:45:48 AM): well then, the world is mine to conquer
Friend (10:46:19 AM): and conquer it you will

And as for college: Veni Vidi Vici

Losing my train of th...

2006-04-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

2 papers due on Monday...one that's supposed to be 1500 words and another that's supposed to be 1000 words. The fact that there's a word count instead of a page range actually annoys me more than the fact that the papers are for the same class, but anyways...

As usual, I've retreated to the Mac side of the Angell Hall computer lab to try and get my papers done. And as usual, I am doing anything but. I've been here 45 minutes and this is where I stand at the moment:

Number of people's blogs checked: 7
Number of times checked the ESPN NBA scoreboard: 5
Number of times logged into Facebook: 0
Number of familiar faces: 2
Number of Google searches: 1
Number of online conversations: 2
Number of times spun around in chair: 2
Number of minutes people-watching: 23

All things considered, the chances of me getting a paper done before the weekend are looking pretty slim. BUT there's always the dream of getting a paper done before the weekend, and isn't that what it's all about? In the meantime, I will incessantly check my blog, eagerly awaiting your comments and more ways to procrastinate. Much thanks :-)

A taste of bitter herbs

2006-04-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Passover is slowly approaching. This means a number of things: matzah, time with the family, Shmooze's Erasing Stereotypes competition, the celebration of freedom and the coming of spring. More than any of that, Passover means The Ten Commandments on ABC. Every year I anticipate watching Charlton Heston part the Red Sea and every year it's as wonderful as I expect it to be.

So why is this year different from all other years? ABC is not airing my beloved Ten Commandments; instead, they're showing a twenty-first century version of the classic. I know what you're thinking: REMAKE?! I know because I thought the same thing. I'll tell you one thing, this ABC special will not be so special to me.

No Yul Brynner and most certainly no 1950s cheesy special effects this year, all adding up to a Passover less traditional than ever before. For now, I will hope that next year ABC doesn't make the same mistake twice and brings back The Ten Commandments that I know and love. So let it be written, so let it be done.

If you have some time to kill...

2006-04-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Something worth checking out. I laughed, I cried...well, really, just laughed, but you get the picture. Pretty interesting, but I warn you, the girl at the end gets really annoying.

Batter up, batter up

2006-03-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

My roommate Sarah was just baking some brownies. She poured the batter into the pan and stuck it in the oven while the bowl, left with remnants of brownie batter, sat on the table. This was the moment I had been waiting for: I picked up the bowl, told Sarah, "I'll help you clean this" (you know, because I'm that kind of friend) and I licked that bowl clean.

Baking always begs the question (did I just use that phrase properly?): What makes batter so good? So good in fact that some choose to eat whole bowls of batter instead of baking them (yikes!) Though this is a very radical approach, it does illustrate how much people love batter. So tasty. So creamy. And oh, so forbidden.

Sometimes when my older sister bakes she doesn't let me lick the bowl. That's right- DOESN'T LET ME LICK THE BOWL! She's quite the fascist you know. She tells me how dangerous salmonella poisoning is...salmonella poisoning?! How can it be so wrong if it feels so right? To be quite honest, I've never heard of anyone getting salmonella poisoining from eating a little batter. And until you convince me otherwise, I will continue licking bowls, serving kitchens and you nationwide.

It's a blog eat blog world

2006-03-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

This morning was quite the emotional rollercoaster for me, and I'm going to tell you all about it. I was checking out bbc news, and there I saw it. 5 words. 5 words that could change my life. Well, maybe 5.5, depending on how you feel about hyphens...but I digress. As I was saying, there it was, popping out at me from my computer screen: "Blogger up for non-fiction award" My head was spinning! Could this blogger be me?! Little ol' me?! Only a couple weeks with a blog and I've already made it big! Could my limited number of posts, filled with mundane observations and commentary have won the hearts of the masses?! Soon, I would be a celebrity... cafeatnight.blogspot.com would be seen everywhere: t-shirts, newspapers, away messages, wikipedia (not bumper stickers though, those are just tacky). Oh, the places I would go, the people I would meet... The world was calling me and I had no interest in fighting the urge to reply, "Yes world! It is I, your humble blogger, and I will blog 'til I can't blog anymore!" The sparks were flying in my imagination. No, scratch that. The sparks were soaring in my imagination.

I decided to contain myself and proceeded to read past the headline. I froze. Lost all color in my face. Utter shock overcame me. The header read, "An anonymous blog by a young woman in war-torn Iraq has been longlisted for BBC Four's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction." "Well, that doesn't sound right," I thought to myself. A young woman? Sure I am. In war-torn Iraq? Not so much. Could this be a mistake? The oversight of a negligent journalist perhaps? And then it hit me, hit me like rock, like a rock aimed from a slingshot, aimed straight at my face. I was not the blogger this headline spoke of...I never was. I was crushed. My dream stolen from right under me. Visions of exotic travels to Tokyo, Paris, Milan, and Grand Rapids escaped me as quickly as they came. If this were a Shakespeare tragedy, right about now is when King Lear would probably roar, "HOWWWL! HOWWWL!" And howl I did...

Twenty-seven minutes and forty-one seconds later I had a realization, an epiphany if you will (which I like to think of as a mega-realization): I don't need a silly Samuel Johnson Prize. I don't even know who Samuel Johnson is. All I need is a keyboard and you, my loyal readers, all 3 of you...give or take ;-)

Double, Double, Toil and TROUBLE

2006-03-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Q: Who's stirring up trouble this week?

A: My roommate's PC. Need I say more? (and I quote: "I need a new hard drive") HA! And don't get me started on her 30 minute battery life...

But seriously, are we surprised?

THIS HAS BEEN WRITTEN ON A MAC.

And now for some offbeat news...

2006-03-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, as I was going about my day, I came across quite an interesting headline: "Man Aims for New Snake-Kissing Record." Now, call me crazy, but I didn't even know there was an old snake-kissing record. At CNN.com I saw a short clip of the Malaysian snake-charmer doing his thing. What a nutcase. Luckily for the guy, he successfully broke the world record, surpassing the old record by an astounding 21 kisses! Imagine if he didn't win, he would have just been that weirdo in Malaysia who kisses snakes; now, he's that weirdo in Malaysia who kisses snakes and becomes a national hero for it. The venemous King Cobra came out a winner as well with 51 kisses out of the deal, probably 51 more than he'll ever get again. I'm not quite sure whether this calls for congratulations or for a "WHAT THE HELL". I think I'm gonna go for the latter.

Some stories are too good to even be made up...

2006-03-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is one of those stories. Check it out, courtesy of Gold Nugget. While you're at it, take a look at his post on it. Funniness all around! If only there were footage...

Senioritis: a case of early onset

2006-03-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

Homer recently posted a story--though unbelievable, 100% factual--about his experience taking geosci100. For all who don't know, geosci100 is a minicourse entirely based on coral reefs.

I sat in on this ridiculous class for 2 months because I needed 1 more credit of natural science to graduate. I did well on the quiz (20%) of our grade and the day of the final was upon me, all I needed was a D to pass. I studied (errr glanced at my notes) for a total of 20 minutes. As my roommate and I stood outside the classroom before the test, I turned to her and confessed, "I don't even know what a coral reef is!"
Did I go to lectures? Yes.
Did I pay attention? No.
Am I gonna keep talking in answer/question form? Maybe.

Anyways, I spent half the semester whispering to my roommate what our coral reefs class would be called on campuses throughout the world, some of which I will now share with you...
Canada: coral reefs, eh?
Latin America: cuantos coral reefs tienes? (how many coral reefs do you have?)
Italy: viva la coral reef! (long live the coral reef!)
Germany: ich bin coral reef (i am a coral reef)
France: parlez-vois coral reef? (do you speak coral reef?)

I spent the other half of the class trying to convince my roommate that our teacher was a fraud, that he had never even seen a coral reef in his life, and that he didn't even know how to swim. So where did this get me? I wouldn't say I passed the class with flying colors, but I did pass. Jokes on you stupid LSA requirements. My tales from geosci100 don't hold a candle to my brother's but he was always a bigger slacker than I could ever be, and to top him could only mean failing a class I took pass/fail...i think i'll pass :-)

Troublemakers: can't live with 'em

2006-03-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've been a blogger for a week now...pretty, pretty, pretty pretty, pretty good. Two blog posts down, so many more to go! Traditions have to start somewhere, and for me that somewhere is here (ie: blogpost.com) and now (ie: 9:30 am). And so I will commence what I will dub my weekly "Who's Stirring Up Trouble?" Pretty self-explanatory, right?

Well, if you asked me a day or two ago, I would have said Haman. But that holiday has passed, and now we must move on.

Who's stirring up trouble this week? I'll tell you who. Acton H. Gorton, that's who. As everyone knows there's been cartoon craziness going on for a while now, and for whatever reason, I find this to be one of the most fascinating current events to talk about these days. Acton, editor of the Daily Illini, was fired after republishing the much talked about cartoons in the college newspaper. I'm not saying they shouldn't have been published. What I am saying is this: I suspect Acton republished them just to incite a little controversy. And THAT is annoying. So Acton, you may have gotten fired for your bold moves, but I'll tell you where else they landed you: winner of the first ever weekly "Who's Stirring Up Trouble" ohhhhhh snap!

Feeling competitive?

2006-03-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

A windy afternoon here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While the wind is dismanteling the screen on the bedroom window of my college apartment, Oprah is on in the background. I never turn on Oprah, I really don't, believe me. It just so happens she has the 4-5 slot immediately following the 3-4 slot of my beloved General Hospital and I'm always too lazy to pick up the remote and turn it off. In case you were interested, right now Venus and Serena Williams are reassuring a teenage girl that she has "beautiful cheekbones" and the crowd is loving it. One thing I have to admit is that Oprah probably has the best audience ever. Probably the most predictable, reliable group of people out there, loyal as a yellow labrador retriever. She could stare blankly at the camera, not say a word, and that crowd would cheer her on with all its might.

Times like these my mind naturally starts to wander... and with Venus and Serena on my trustworthy television screen, my brain has led me to that age-old question that has plagued mankind for centuries: which sibling is better?

Let us take a look...

Venus vs. Serena: An easy win for Venus. The more down-to-earth of the tennis-duo. Sure, she's a pro athlete but unlike Serena, she knows she's a woman and therefore sucks at sports. Soon, she will dutifully return to the kitchen where she knows women hold spatulas, not rackets.

Mary-Kate vs. Ashley: Ashley takes home the cake. Quite frankly, I don't like that Mary-Kate has two names. Either you're Mary or you're Kate, you can't be both. I imagine it must be a pain to sign her name, always needing to stop in the middle to add in the little dash. Or does she add the dash at the end? Maybe she doesn't hyphenate at all. Maybe she only uses one name in her signature. Maybe she just hires someone to sign her name for her so she doesn't have to think about it. Something tells me I'll never know the answer to this question.

Barbara vs. Jenna Bush: Jenna wins. Barbara went to Yale. Jenna went to the University of Texas. Need I say more? But since both have had run-ins with the police, I'm considering just handing the medal to good ol' Chelsea.

Joaquin vs. River Phoenix: River wins just because I had to imdb Joaquin to make sure I spelled his name right and the fact that he stabbed Russell Crowe in Gladiatior doesn't help. Also, River was in "Stand By Me", which we all know is one good movie.

Emilio Estevez vs. Charlie Sheen: Both weird me out. Disqualified.

Mario vs. Luigi: This was a tough one, but in the end, it's gotta go to Luigi--the underdog. Doesn't he have as much gusto as Mario? Isn't he as handy a plumber? Isn't he as qualified to rescue the princess? Aren't those green overalls becoming? Mario stole the spotlight years ago, today Luigi reclaims it.

When I was younger, I used to try and get my parents to admit that I was their favorite. My less than convincing tactics included, "C'mon, you can tell me, they're not around, they'll never have to know." They would always answer, as every parent should, "We don't have favorites; we love you all equally." For so many years they maintained that you don't compare siblings: how wrong they were...

Like a butterfly emerges from the cocoon...

2006-03-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

I've officially entered the world of blogs! I have heard people throw around the term "blog-o-sphere", but I'm not gonna go there.

Between this and creating a gmail account, I've actually been semi-productive this morning. My one issue (and it's a big one) with gmail is that you need to be invited by a gmail account-holder in order to create an account. I frown upon such elitist and exclusive regulations, but to my luck, Tami has had a gmail account since it first came out and she's been trying to get me to join.

I don't quite know what would make an appropriate first blog. I doubt I need to introduce myself since the only people reading this know me (right???)

This blog has actually left me with a lot of decisions to make, starting with what to call it. I told Stefanie I was thinking of calling it "you just read my mind!" and she laughed and said I should do it. I don't know if people are gonna get the joke, but Stefanie liked it, as of right now she's my only audience, and I aim to please. Cafe At Night is the name of the Van Gogh painting/poster that sits above my desk that I look at as I type to you, my loyal reader. I had to choose a template and I just clicked on the first one. And the font was chosen through the wonderful process of elimination (needless to say, webdings got cut first.) Now that I've explained the not-so-creative process of my blog, it should be smooth sailing from here on out!

I hear that anything goes with blogs, so I hope that went--let me know what you think. I hope you will enjoy this journey of blogging with me as much as I hope to!