Respect Conventions or SUFFER

There is an enormously in depth discussion I could get into about when it is and is not appropriate to follow social conventions. It's kind of a hot topic right now. I was thinking about it while walking on campus today and I had this thought - if you can't respect certain social conventions, at least respect the fact that I DO.

This was not brought on by some deep and prevalent social issue. I really just want people to walk on the correct side of the sidewalk. Or hall. Or stairs. It's easy, really. Just do it. It's silly to get in EVERYBODY'S way and bug the crap out of people. Seriously. Maybe I am being petty, but grumble grumble grumble......the fact that I was literally stopped on the stairs because there were too many people going the wrong way causing was a traffic jam is not okay. Maybe being stopped for a second, I get that. There are a bajillion people. But when the flow of people is brought to a complete standstill? Someone is doing something silly. And by silly I mean stupid.

Misconceptions about Hawaii - Part: The First

I just barely got back from a 10 day long trip to Hawaii. It was beautiful, fantastic, all the adjectives you can think of that make you disgustingly jealous, and then some. It was like New York City, but in another country. I felt like I was no longer in the United States. I loved it.

One of the most surprising things, to me, was the culture shock. In fact, it was the lack of Hawaiian culture. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty Hawaiian culture to go around. I had just expected to see many more islanders walking around speaking in a language I couldn't understand. Well, sure enough, everyone WAS speaking in a language I couldn't understand, it just wasn't Hawaiian. What surprised me the most about Hawaii was the high number of Asian tourists and residents.

I guess I shouldn't be entirely surprised. Hawaii is a widely publicised tourist destination, and many of the visitors were there to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial, which makes sense....but still.

Anyhow, there were a lot of Asian couples wandering the streets. And lots of little Asian babies. I can't get over how cute Asian babies are!! No offense to all you white babies, I was one too, but there's no beating this:

Seriously, how cute is that? Another thing that just simply made me giggle was the number of matching Asian couples. I know it's a trend (I guess), but I was still shocked at how many of the guys actually went along with it. Everyone I was travelling with agreed that it was disgustingly adorable. Everytime we saw one we all wanted to squeal. And then freak out because we were grossed out by the fact that we thought it was so freaking cute.

But ya, biggest surprise to me was the sheer number of Asian people wandering the streets of Hawaii, getting married on the beach, taking their children to Denny's, etc. Threw me off a bit, but I loved it.

Word of the Day - May 18, 2011

Today's word of the day is brought to you by the letter 4.

"Smeshial"

(smeh-shull)

When special just isn't enough.

Let's Go to Japan vs. Italian Rain

I've been seriously contemplating participating in a Study Abroad program, and after attending a conference to fish out some information at the U, I feel like it might actually be a strong possibility. I would like to go Fall of 2012, assuming I bring my GPA back up to where it should be in the first place....And assuming I can save enough money to get out there.

In all my pondering of Study Abroad throughout my school years, I have always had Japan as the number one place I would like to go; however, after attending that conference at the U, I am starting to feel really good about going to Italy. I would still absolutely love to go to Japan, but the more I think about Italy, the better of a decision it seems. Still, it's been a toss-up for a while. I still haven't completely decided, but learning Italian for my major would probably be better than Japanese, and I have every intention of learning Japanese regardless. Plus, I've already traveled to 2 Asian countries, while I've been to absolutely no European countries. I know it will be a whole different cultural ballpark.

So for now, I'm still on the fence, but I'm definitely leaning toward Italy.

The ultimate decision. Japan or Italy? Japan?......or Italy?..........

Japan?

or Italy?

It's What You Need

10 things that I love about my family are:

1-That they are just as weird as I am.

2-That we are all good at different things and complement each other's personalities.

3-That we all have a good time playing board games for hours on end.

4-That we can go on a vacation and have just as much fun spending time with each other as we could sight-seeing and going out every day.

5-That we are almost all the same age mentally, haha.

6-That I will always have a place to go no matter what happens or what choices I make.

7-That I will always have people to turn to when I'm upset, even if it's just by phone.

8-That I will forever know that someone out there thinks the same way I do.

9-That I can learn from their mistakes, as well as my own.

10-That I will have these people in my life forever.

Happiness

10 things that make me happy are:

1-Using complicated words incorrectly and seeing people nod as if they know what I'm talking about. I've decided they either don't know any better or they can just read between the lines and know what I mean despite everything.

2-Playing sentimental games from my childhood. Music from Zelda kind of makes me want to cry sometimes.

3-Validation/Hearing someone tell me exactly what I need to hear. Whenever I feel like I'm not doing as good a job as I should, someone invariably comments in such a way that I'm able to figure out where I stand.

4-Laying in bed late at night listening to enya on my ipod. Love. Especially if I just showered. Clean, comfortable, warm, awesome.

5-Finally finding time to do things with friends. It always seems like a hassle and such a time consuming task, but when I actually do it it's so simple and fun that I wonder why I don't do it more often.

6-Getting a lot of really small things crossed off my to-do list that have been nagging at me for weeks.

7-Figuring out what path I need to take. Whether it's with school, work, dealing with a problem, or with friends, it's always a relief to figure something out and feel good about a decision.

8-Feeling prepared for something. I hardly ever am, but when I am it's fantastic.

9-Music. All of it. Love it. Want to eat it, occasionally do. What?

10-Randomly friendly people. While it may be incredibly awkward to have a complete stranger walk up to you and say something that seems totally arbitrary, it almost always makes me smile. People who are confident enough with themselves to interact in a positive way with those they don't know make me incredibly hopeful for mankind.

Tron: Where Love and Escape Do Not Compute

What self-respecting nerd from the 80s does not have this poster hanging in their room? Now I'm not actually speaking from experience as I'm totally a child of the 90s, but come on. This is right up there with Dune. Even Chuck's got one (if you can see it over on the left side).

After seeing the previews for the new Tron movie I was pretty freaking excited. Went with some friends to the midnight showing of it and to be honest, it was a really cool movie. Not epic like I'd hoped, but good nonetheless. What I understand now that I didn't realize before seeing the movie is that it is in large part a sequel. You don't actually have to see the original as they explain all the necessary points, but I would like to see it regardless. The main character from the first movie - Flynn - is in the new movie as the father and is played by the same actor. Quite clever of them if I do say so myself.

I tried to see the original 1982 version before seeing the new one, but apparently Disney has locked it up in the vault. My theory is that they're waiting for everyone to see this new one first because they don't want anyone to be put off by the terrible graphics of the first movie. Well, for the early 80s I'm sure they were revolutionary, but for this decade they're a joke and most people under the age of 15 wouldn't really get it. Personally I'm hoping that they will re-release the old one around the same time the new one comes out on DVD. That way all the fans who want to see the original will be able to without tracking down their nerdy 30 year old friends....

Anywho, here is a preview for Tron and Tron Legacy, this way you can compare them. I would definitely recommend the new Tron movie for anyone debating.

Cowboys & Aliens

Whaaaaaaat is this???

The preview starts and you get super excited thinking 'OH MY GOSH ANOTHER JAMES BOND MOVIE!!' Lies......about 15 seconds later you're like, 'oh, it's a Western.' Also lies......

You see James Bond in a bar being a total bad*** as usual, and some random chick and you're like 'ok, cool, whatever.' Then he's a wanted criminal. Then Harrison Ford rides in on a horse with a gun! Then you're like 'HOLY CRAP THIS MOVIE'S GONNA ROCK!!' Then you find out it has the same director as Iron Man and Steven Spielberg is producing. So it's like, knocking your freaking socks off, right?

Theeeeeeeeen there are aliens. WHAT THE RANDOM?? Their flying saucers zoom in from the horizon, they start blowing things up and abducting people, and then Mr. Bond blows a ship to smithereens with this random metal contraption/laser launcher on his wrist.

So at this point you're probably thinking, 'Well the story line seems a little strange, but it's got a lot of great actors and people who know what they're doing.' Then you see the title...

'Cowboys & Aliens'

...........

Really? I'm so conflicted.

Watch the preview and tell me you don't feel the same.

I Don't Wanna Dance

The title is a lie. I always want to dance, but I had to stick with my theme of having most of my titles be song names. MOST of my titles, not all of them. I will permit no snarky comments about how a select few of them are not songs titles. Get over it.

I have been buying music on iTunes like craaazy and I'm very pleased with the investment. Genius is my new best friend. I've discovered a bunch of random artists that I really quite like.

Onto the topic of this post. I have no topic. Today is just ONE OF THOSE DAYS. I've done a few things lately that should've stressed me out quite a bit, but they didn't. Turns out all the stress had just been waiting until everything was over and settled before it reared its ugly head and knocked me into total life exhaustion. BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

I've gotten most of my christmas shopping done and now I just have to wrap everything, so kudos to myself. I've finally started to settle into my job, but I'm hesitant to say that because as soon as I do you know something totally freaky will happen. The group I've been in charge of is singing at the church Christmas party absurdly early tomorrow morning, so if anything is gonna go wrong then it's too late to fix, muahahaha. I've started getting used to my new calling as primary chorister, and the kids are very quickly picking up the new song we've been teaching. So more or less now is the time I should be the least stressed. I play it off as one of those situations where you feel all week like you're gonna get sick, but you don't get sick until the weekend because your brain knows you're too busy to get sick until the weekend. My brain knew I was too busy to be stressed, so now I'm just dealing with the aftermath. Good and bad. Yawn.

Mentors and Dementors

I have so much I want to talk about, but I'll try to go one thing at a time.

First thing's first, I've finally decided on a couple songs I want to try a mash-up of. There won't be any fancy video or anything unless I find someone to help me out, but I plan on recording an audio file and if it's any good I'll post it up here. I'm pretty stoked though. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

I moved back to my home ward and immediately got called to be the primary co-chorister. This calling is a lot of fun and it's better than I anticipated. You'd think getting up in front of a group of kids teaching songs would be relatively simple, and it is. It's getting up in front of the rest of the presidency and the other chorister that's a little intimidating for me. I've been warming into it though and I'm starting to feel more confident. I feel like I've been able to use some great ideas from my mom and I hope to start coming up with some good ideas of my own. I've had enormous help from my mom, who has had this calling about a million times in her life and is in fact the current stake primary chorister. She is prepared for just about anything. I've had a great amount of help in the form of my fellow co-chorister as well. Both of these women have helped me more than I can say and I apprecaiate them so much.

It's kind of an empowering feeling to know that I can stand up in front of a group like the one in primary every week and teach them something. I can understand a little of why people would want to be teachers. I'm not saying I would like to be a teacher, in fact I think it would drive me nuts and the students would be confused beyond reasoning, but it's a good experience for me to practice something like this. It's just one more way to add knowledge to my repertoire and it's been a lot of fun so far. The kids are fantastic and I'm really happy for the opportunity to do something for them that made such a difference in my life growing up. I wouldn't want them to miss out on what I had, so I hope I can live up to my own expectations eventually.

In moving back to my home ward I have also inadvertently put myself on the list of 'people to harass when you need something done.' I was asked to put together a group of people to perform some songs at our ward Christmas party this year. It's been an interesting experience and we're performing this Saturday. Pray that all goes well. I'm pretty sure it will turn out alright as things like this usually come together when it's important, but I'm seriously hoping it will be fantastic. I'm both horrified and glad that I was asked to do this, and even more horrified and glad that I said yes. Knowing the nature of the church I am positive that this is just the first of many, many things I will be asked to be in charge of, so it's good practice for me. I've had great people helping me out and I really appreciate the advice and the input they've given. Being in charge of something like this is terrifying for me because I feel like I am putting myself on the line. I'm sure it will go really well, but I know that it would go better if I had been better prepared in organizing this. I've spent my entire life looking at people in charge and thinking 'if I was in charge I would do it like this.' Now I AM in charge and I hope I can live up to the expectations of those who think the same way I do. I'm not living up to my own expectations, but this is a learning experience and next time I will do better.

At work I have had a lot of learning experiences, especially since I've become a manager. I cannot express how grateful I am for the help of my manager Ben. His input has been so inredibly invaluable and he imparts his advice so willingly. I know that he wants us all to succeed, and everything he does reflects that. I've had to do some very uncomfortable things recently that I hoped wouldn't happen until I'd gotten more comfortable with the job, but there was nothing to be done when the problems presented themselves. They had to be taken care of and I didn't know what to do/say. Well, I could've handled myself, but I'm not the most tactful person in the world. Ben has had a lot of practice and experience with things similar to what I was facing, and his advice was more useful to me than I can say. I really truly appreciate his help. Laura too. She is so incredibly patient with all the silly things I do and the mistakes I make. Watching the two of them has shown me the importance of being patient and willing to help anybody who asks. I would definitely like to be looked up to one day like I look up to them.

I named this post Mentors and Dementors because I thought it was clever, haha, but also because I wanted to express how grateful I am for the mentors I've had recently that have helped me overcome my 'dementors,' the problems and new experiences that I feel suck the life out of me. Most of these new things involve the transition of me becoming an adult, and that reality is more draining than anything. It's not just having these adult responsibilities, it's being responsible with and for people whom I've always thought of as older and wiser than myself. Having my friend's parents asking me for advice? That's both terrifying and gratifying and it has raised my thought processes to a whole new level.

I hope I can continue broadening my horizons, experiencing new things, and taking the advice of those who know more than me. I hope none of us EVER take the knowledge of the experienced for granted. I know I have before and I hope I never do again.

So What

Woooow......I love my sister and my mom, but sometimes when we're all in the room together I feel like I'm going to scream. We all have the same bad habits when we talk, but I have to admit that I've been working on not interrupting and talking over other people CONSTANTLY. I still do it. I'm not gonna deny it, I do it all the time. But it minorly drives me nuts when there are 3 of us doing it at once. I can't get either of them to SHUSH!! And I tend to make both of them angry because they always misunderstand. I start to say something and they interupt, then some part of their brain registers part of what I said and the whole thing is ridiculously out of context and gets blown out of proportion. So I'd like to take a moment to clear up a few misconceptions we seem to have had.

-No Ashley, I'm not pregnant. Nor will I be pregnant until AFTER I'm married.

-No Ashley, I will not ACTUALLY smother your rabbit. I'm not a crazy psychopath, that was sarcasm thank you very much.

-No Mom, I'm not criticizing you. It was actually a compliment, but thanks for taking it that way. The one sided argument added so much to the beauty of my comment...

-No Mom, I'm not actually talking about you. Yes you did throw a temper tantrum and stomp out of the room, but I got over it. I was talking about something that has absolutely no relation to you, but you yelling 'I CAN HEAR YOU TALKING ABOUT ME' from the other room really made you seem mature.

I'm being a brat, I know, but I'm bothered. Rawr. I'll get over it. I have my fair share of annoying traits and immaturity. It's just so exhausting to be misunderstood all the time and have to participate in so many absurdly loud 'conversations' where everybody gets mad.

The Infamous CatDragon

I have wanted a cat ever since I was old enough to develop my own opinions. Throughout elementary school I was always asked which I preferred more, cats or dogs? Having grown up surrounded by dog lovers I naturally picked dogs as my first choice. My life's goal was to own a dog and I always begged my parents to let me have one.

In retrospect it would have been fun to have a dog, but I'm awfully grateful to my parents for never letting me have one. As the years went by and I made do with my hamsters and fish, I came to realize how much I love cats. I really only just barely put up with dogs. I can't stand them licking me and getting their cold fur all over me. They're always messy. Clean yourself for once Senor Rufus. Don't get me wrong, dogs are fun and I quite enjoy them if they're clean and slober-free, but that rarely happens.

Cats, on the other hand, bathe themselves all the time. They shed, of course, but they don't smell like poo and dirt and they don't slobber all over my face. They are sassy and mean and lazy and I love it. My Aunt and Uncle have a cat that I have often suspected of watching me for signs of fellow demonic behavior. Seriously, that cat is creepy sometimes. I love it. I can go a whole day at their house babysitting without seeing it once, then when the kids are in bed I'll turn around and find it sitting in the doorway watching me. That cat has infinitely more patience than I do. It will sit upright and stare at me for hours. It was disturbing at first, but after a while it was just plain impressive. It ignored me unless I got close, which caused hissing and biting. That is, until I accidentally stepped on it. Now it loves me.

Cats are backwards. The worse you treat them and the more you ignore them, the more they love you. I think that's kind of fun. It's a pet that uses its owner for convenience only and makes for a good mini lap warmer. I want.

I have decided over the course of the last few years that one day I will own 2 cats. One will be black and will be named Sega. I've had this name picked out for a while now and I'm very happy with it.









The other cat will be orange and will be named CatDragon. He will be fed sheep from Logan and be hidden from the general population, as his awesomeness would be too overwhelming for the common man.

I am conflicted, however, because I really like black cats with white stomachs. I just think that pure black cats are so pretty. It's a tough decision.

King of Anything

I wish that I had recording equipment. I've been watching some videos by this guy and wishing that I could edit videos like that. I would LOVE to make videos like this, and I actually have quite a few great mash-up ideas for some popular songs, but I just don't have the means to do something like this. Perhaps I'll start :P Also, I absolutely love this song.

Learn to Live

There are many things I would love to learn to do before I go back to school next fall. I saw a post today on Yes and Yes, my favorite blog to stalk when I'm bored. The post said 'Learn to make yourself happy.' Now I've never particularly thought of myself as an unhappy person, but heaven knows everybody could certainly use a boost to make them even happier. So along this vein, I've thought of a few new things to learn in order to make myself a merrier me.

1-Learn to speak a new language. I've had my eye on this one for YEARS, but I've just never gotten around to it. It's time for me to suck it up and actually put some effort into it. I want to get RosettaStone, but it's just so pickin' expensive. That aside, I'm also having a hard time deciding what language to learn first. I know Spanish would probably be the most useful, but I think I would like to learn Latin or Italian first. I would definitely love to do Japanese or Mandarin Chinese, but I don't think I should try for a language with such a different writing system. At least at first. One day I'm gonna be pro and speak all of them. I'm a Linguist. It's what I do.

2-Learn to be more impulsive. I am not a very impulsive person. Because of this, I have missed a lot of great opportunities to have fun. It's something I've always worked on and truth be told, I've improved drastically. However, I still have a hard time acting on my own impulses. If I'm sitting at home one night and I want to go to a movie, I should just go. Should I be bothered that no one can come with me? Maybe. Should I let it stop me? NO!

3-Learn to be comfortable with dating. This will be hard....but worth it!

4-Learn to take a stand....LOUDLY. If I really disagree with something that is directly affecting me, I will always say as much. However, if I disagree with something that is far away, I have a hard time not pulling out the usual excuses. 'It's not my problem.' 'Someone else with more resources will take care of it.' Things like that. I have strong opinions but I hate listening to people who can't agree to disagree. I am more than happy to talk to someone with different life views than me if they're willing to respect my own. But if I meet a person who is defensive and close-minded about what they believe, I pretty much just ignore that part of them. I shouldn't though. I'm not saying I should run around proclaiming myself, but I shouldn't stay silent either. If someone asks my opinion, I should give it (tactfully, of course) and not just shrug it off. Also, if there is something I don't like about my life/the world, I should try to fix it instead of waiting for later. I have the common mindset 'I will fix it later when I have the means.' Wrong. I will start now so that when I have the means I will know what to do with them.

5-Learn to be patient. I have no patience with stupid people. I should work on that.

6-Learn to speak better. I have pretty decent speaking skills, but that's not good enough for me. I will get better with practice, but that's assuming I actually bother to practice. I have great things to say and I usually think them out first, but once I start speaking I tend to skip over important parts. I say enough that the meaning is still clear, but the power of the things I say is diminished.

7-Learn to put forth the effort first. I have great friends and great opportunities, but I usually sit around and wait for them to come to me. It's my turn to start planning things, to start putting myself out there and getting in contact with that certain teacher at the university or the leader of a group I want to join. I need to do the work, because if I leave it to someone else it will never get done.

8-Learn to be a ninja. Duh.

Life in Technicolor

I have always associated things with colors, but surprisingly enough to me, those color associations are changing. It's kind of weirding me out. It makes me feel like my personality is changing. I mean, I like who I am, but it's weird to think of something like that. Like someone's tastes changing as they get older, liking spicy food as a young adult but starting to hate it at age 43. Like being obsessed with a certain song and one day realizing that song drives you slightly mad. Like starting to realize that you actually loathe someone you thought you loved or love someone you thought you loathed. Perspectives change and I'm fully aware of this, but it's freaky when it actually starts to happen.

The most interesting thing is that I hate the color red, but many of the most important things in my life are associated with that color (And the color brown. I hate brown). Why is that I wonder? Ah well. Most things that I want to do, like writing a book, I associate with the colors green and blue. My favorite colors. Does this mean that I'm getting tired of my life as it is, or just that I'm getting comfortable with it? It's a little upsetting.

I've been trying to move myself towards better colors as time progresses, but thinking like that just makes me feel like a new-age hippy. Ah well. Rock on Dudes! :P

Don't Quit! Not Quite!

So I can't decide if I take things too seriously or if I don't take things seriously enough. I think my problem is both. I only go to extremes.

Things I take too seriously:

-Clayton

Not that I see this as bad or anything. My experiences with Clayton have totally been worth the work I put into them. In fact, I would have missed many opportunities had I not taken it as seriously as I do. However, because of how much I care, when things go poorly or not quite as I expect I get much more upset than I feel I should. Of course, no one but my mom hears me get upset, haha, but it does happen on rare occasions.

-Work

This is a totally acceptable thing. I just put it here because I feel like I have no life outside of work. It's all I have to talk about and that fact annoys me. I enjoy working where I do.

-Relationships

I've never been in one. This is because I feel like I can't get into a casual or fun relationship with someone I'm not serious about. And I'm not serious about anybody. In fact, I have a hard time going past the 2nd date. Ouch. I've had opportunities that I told myself to take a chance on, but I've only ended up offending people and feeling guilty. I've never felt lovesick in the traditional sense. I've felt sick thinking about love, but in a bad way. I care too much about the other person (not feelings for them, but a courteous caring, like a friend) and it terrifies me when they care at all. I've never been a romantic person, but I never realized how true that was until a couple weeks ago. I need a relationship with a friend. Someone who I can have a casual and fun relationship with without feeling too serious about it. If that makes sense....But I take relationships MUCH too seriously. The end. Bleh.

-Caring about people understanding what I'm saying

This problem mostly surfaces when I'm talking to my sister and my mom. My sister has a hard time hearing the correct meaning behind what people say (sorry Ash :P) and tends to think quite the opposite. After I figured that out it's actually been quite entertaining, though sometimes I can't figure out how to make her understand what I actually mean. Frustrating, but I feel the communication failure is on my end at least half of the time at this point. My mother on the other hand is getting worse by the day. She's always been very opinionated with quite a lot to say, but she forgets to wait her turn. We all interrupt people and we're all interrupted by people. Big deal. Well it IS a big deal when the interrupting leads to anger and arguing. The problem with talking to my mom is that I'll start a sentence which, taken out of context, sounds really bad. I start my sentence and she interrupts halfway through without hearing the rest of what I say, which is essential to understanding the meaning. Especially if I'm being sarcastic or cracking a joke. For instance, I never do my dishes. I leave them sitting around everywhere. This drives her nuts and I know it, so I've been working on it. But bad habits aren't fixed overnight. This doesn't stop her from getting increasingly frustrated, which I understand. Anyways, she'll tell me to clean up, which I already did but she didn't see. So I say as much. 'No, I uhmmm......' Then she interrupts before I can say 'I actually already finished them.' Nope, none of this. It turns into 'Did you just say NO? I do your dishes all the time and you said NO this ONE time I blah di blah di blah.' Sure, that's totally justified if I HAD actually said NO. Grrr..... this is just an example, but you can understand my frustration, riiiight? That's an instance that I feel totally justified getting angry about, but this happens with most anything I say and honestly I need to stop letting it bother me so much. I take it much too seriously.

-Spiders

Who doesn't? However, I feel like they stalk me or I create them from my imagination. This is a topic for a different post though. I have much to say on the matter.

Things I don't take seriously enough:

-Everything else

I'm cool........

My biggest problem is that there is no middle ground. I'm like an OCD person that has to have everything perfect in one room, but the next room can be a total pig-sty and it doesn't bother me at all. My brain is mysterious.

Send Me A Song

I went to see Pirates of Penzance today at Hale Center Theatre. It was amazing. I love that musical so much, but seeing it done live was fantastic. The music was/is incredible and I love the lyrics! I mean, I've seen Pirates done multiple times, and even did a snippet of it in 9th grade for choir, but actually seeing the whole thing done WELL just made my day.

Music is ridiculous. In a good way. Sometimes it makes me need to scream I'm so excited. I'm weird, sure, but don't tell me that you've never felt incredible listening to a certain song. Super motivated, super excited, super HUMAN.

Music rocks. It'll change your life.

Intertainment and Mythical Beasts

Over the past few months I have discovered the joy of watching well-made vlogs. I have found a couple different people that I really enjoy watching. And we all know the best ones have music videos. I will now share a few choice videos with you. The videos don't quite fit and I don't know how to fix that, so if you'd like to see them for real, please go to the vlog sites.

The first I discovered is Julian Smith. I saw a video on Facebook, which you may have seen as well. 25 Things I Hate About Facebook. Enjoy.

Those were a few of my personal favorites. Another vlogger, or vlogger duo I should say, that I really enjoy watching can be found at RhettandLink.com. I found them when they did a video in conjunction with Julian Smith. Their videos are more music videos, and I think they're histerical. Please enjoy these next few videos.

Don't these just bring you happiness? I would strongly suggest popping on over to the RhettandLinKommunity and becoming a Mythical Beast yourself. There are hours and hours of video up on their vlog and most of it is pretty darn enjoyable.

Truth of My Youth

Let's reminisce, shall we? Remember those shows you watched as a child? One of my personal favorites was Arthur. "And I say Hey! (HEY!) What a wonderful kind of day, where we can learn to work and play, and get along with each other."

I'll admit that I totally still watch this one when it's on tv. I would totally watch the others if I had those stations or if they were still on air. Who doesn't love this show? And the dynamic friendship between Arthur and Buster - Who could top that?

Aren't you just feeling great right about now? How about another of my favorites? How could anyone ever forget good old Bill Nye the science guy?

He's a childhood classic! Watching episodes of this man was not only awesome but educational! I remember us always begging the teachers to let us watch Bill Nye for science in elementary school. And at an average of $30 an episode, it's obvious that I'm not the only one with a thing for the science guy. He's histerical, funny looking (but in a good way), and super smart. Could you ask for more? I submit you could not. I saw an episode of Stargate Atlantis with Bill Nye in it, playing himself. It was odd, but I enjoyed seeing him in something other than the usual Nye episodes.

Does everyone remember your favorite dog Wishbone? What a great way to teach kids about folk tales and old stories that they've stopped teaching in school. I learned much more about mythology from Wishbone than I ever did through the edumacation system. My personal favorites? The Arabian Nights episodes. The ones about the story telling spider. The Sleepy Hollow episode. And how about Robin Hood!

I loved the episodes about Odysseus and greek mythologies. Wishbone is such a fantastic show. I recently saw an episode and got so excited that they were still playing! I'm sure they stopped filming years ago, but this is a show I would love to own. For myself.

Now my next childhood show here is a legend. My first crush. Well, my first two crushes I guess. Two brilliantly attractive zoologists who spend their time educataining people (educate + entertain. Brilliant, no?). What I'm talking about is none other than the show Kratt's Creatures. The Kratt brothers are the freaking BOMB!

And let's not forget their later show, Zoboomafoo! This show spawned my lifelong love of lemurs. They're just awesome. The Kratt brothers Chris and Martin, Zoboomafoo, lemurs, animals, learning. I can't even handle it.

I loved the Kratt brothers. In fact, I'm feeling the need to start buying their shows on DVD. Immediately. My children WILL be watching these shows. All of them. That is non-negotiable. Well, they would be watching Bill Nye as well were it not so darn expensive!

There are so many other fantastic shows that I haven't mentioned. The above are the ones that I remember best from my childhood. We never had cable, so most the shows I watched were under the PBS umbrella, but here are some other great shows of note that I watched occassionally:

-Hey Arnold

-Doug (That's for you, Josh)

-Pepper Ann

-Sabrina the Teenage Witch (The cartoon version AND the real life version)

I've missed many that I will remember later and be upset over, but for now I will bring this to a close and run the risk. There is one show that I didn't mention that I feel deserves to be noted. This is a show that I didn't necessarily watch as a child, it was more around my junior high/early high school time. Many people haven't heard of this show, but it's bloody brilliant. I present, The TICK!

Everything from his outfit, to his awesome sidekick moth-friend Arthur, to his warcry SPOOOOOOOON! is just fantastic. I pity all those who have not experienced the greatness that is the Tick. I have two episode which are my personal favorites. The first is 'Mustache Feeling,' where the Tick wakes to find he has an awesome new mustache. Soon he discovers, however, that it has a mind of its own. Never fear though! The Tick will save the day. Eventually.

My other favorite episode is the 'Filth' episode. The mantra of the Filth has stuck with me for years. "We're filth! We're filth! We come from filth, we're going to filth! We're filth!"

It's fantastic. I challenge anyone to not love the Tick in some way. It's just......the Tick. There's no more to say.

And on that note I will conclude this voyage to the past. I hope you enjoyed! Do you feel that I missed any shows that are extremely worthy of note? Let me know!

Obsession Nocturne

I never realized before how much I really like owls. It's something that's never really come up before. I mean, owls aren't really a common thing around here, so I've never given them much thought. I see them at zoos and we've had one on our porch maybe two or three times, but that's the extent of my contact with them.

When I went to the Philippines, for some reason they had a lot of things having to do with owls. There were owl woodcarvings and jewelry with owls that I found especially interesting. For some reason, as soon as I saw these owls I immediately fell in love. Maybe I was reminiscing on my first real contact with owls?

Remember the owl from Zelda? Ya, I think he was my first love. I mean, how histerical is an old, wise, talking owl? How much cooler could it get??

Anyways, I found it interesting that I was so attracted to the owl paraphernalia they had. Apparently I really, really like owls. Who knew? I bought a couple carvings there and I kind of wish I'd gotten more of them, but whatever. I also got a pair of earings and two necklaces that have owls made out of some kind of shell I think. I love them! They are awfully fun. This is a new found interest that I will be using in my decorating in the future. Owls are pretty darn cool. And everything they represent makes you feel smart. They represent wisdom, intelligence, and focus for me. I mean, the staring eyes just make you feel like they're paying such good attention to everything, haha. And I love the way their heads turn around.

It is one of my non-negotiable life goals to have a library of some sort, and I would really enjoy some owl bookends. I think I will make an effort to find some that I like, but I would never get a stuffed owl. I've seen stuffed owls as decorations before, including in a library and I find it to be kind of terrifying. I don't want something dead watching me walk around. Eek.

But anyhow, owls are just plain cool. That is all.