Internet Videos

My laptop has served me well over the years but, in the immortal words of Laslo, lately I've come to realize that I have certain materialistic needs...

So I bought a new computer! I've been hemming and hawing ever since the end of October and when my family bought a computer I decided it was time to part with my hard-earned cash and trade it in for some high quality material goods.

The computer is amazing and can do tons of cool things (like have 16 different desktops running at the same time - a huge plus for me considering how I like doing 45 things at once), but (silly as it is) I'm mostly excited to be able to watch videos online.

My laptop just couldn't handle most videos unless they were low resolution and less than 2 minutes. This new computer has catapulted me into the present and now I am excited to say I can watch just about any video I desire. Albeit superficial, I've got to say I'm terribly pleased.

Today I discovered high definition movie trailers. Let me tell you, watching HD movie trailers has given me an unexpected appreciation for current technology... it's kind of amazing to be watching crystal clear full screen streaming video.

Funny Comic

Brittany and I sort of want to be in a band. We should look into this game...

Telephone Poll, Concert

Picture this: You've spent 7 hours on a train without standing up and you're seriously starting to wonder if your derrière has not permanently molded itself into the shape of the seat. You've had nothing but Wheat Thins and Pims all day and you're starting to crave some vegetables. To top it all off, you've thought of every possible thing you can think of to ponder, and you've still got 2 hours left on the train and you think you might go crazy with boredom (I've got a sister, so I suppose I never learned how to entertain myself in my formative years).

Anyhow, to ease my boredom I sent out a mass text message (I love textual communications en masse, what can I say) asking for a random thought or a fact. I got a few thoughts (mostly of food since it was near a meal time) and a lot of random facts/questions to ponder. Did you know that slugs are attracted to beer, or that cats domesticated themselves? I've got such a wealth of random facts now, it was a worthwhile text to have sent, I think.

Yesterday I wandered all over Brooklyn with my sister - we have about a 4 hour walk in the amazingly beautiful weather we were freakishly experiencing here. After all of that walking we were a bit tired, so we had a relaxing evening out at a rock concert! We went to go see 3 bands for $12 which is quite a steal even if you don't like the bands you're listening to. Luckily we LOVE Eric Hutchinson (performer #1) and ended up really like Derek James (performer #2). The last band left something to be desired, so we left and met some crazy cool mathematicians on the subway.

Anyone who can divide 47 by 3 in less than a second is all right with me.

State of Music

The number one song bought on iTunes this year was "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie. I don't want to totally bash this song because I find it somewhat tolerable in small doses, but I am shocked that out of all the songs by all the artists in the whole world, this song came out on top.

Don't even get me started on the fact that Elliott Yamin actually made the top 100...

I was pleased to see "Low" by Flo Rida on the list - I am (not so) secretly in love that song.

Computers, Vacation, Other Random Stuff

My mother spur of the moment decided to buy a computer... a MAC computer, of course. I am really excited for my family, but I am a bit miffed that they bought a new computer before I did. Now I really seriously mean it, I'm going to buy one when I get back to NY!!! Seriously.

(Let me just say that the new iMacs are a thing of beauty! Have I mentioned how I would marry a Mac if it weren't for the fact that computers aren't sentient beings? Yeah.)

Vacation for me is coming to an end. Well, vacation in NH at least. This means I need to pack again! Argh, the process is never ending. (Though I am realizing that packing early may have some advantages... --> )

Also, today I was up at my grandparents house and let slip a curse in their presence which is something that I had avoided my entire life up until now... whoops. I had good reason, though, because I realized that I left my train tickets in NYC. All I need to do is buy another set of tickets on the train tomorrow, so in the end I suppose it could be worse. I'll only lose about $35 (after refunding the tickets I left at home), but it's still a pain.

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar

There is a Facebook group cleverly entitled "I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar" and I've always wanted to join it. I'm not one for Facebook groups that don't have a purpose (even my Apple students group gives me free songs), but this one is just amazingly funny (and sadly sort of true).

However, I am a user of poor grammar, and I have spelling errors galore (read this blog, they're not hard to find). What's more, I enjoy making up words and I really can't be bothered to fix some grammatical things that I know are incorrect because regardless of it's properness, I enjoy the way it sounds. Therefore I would feel a bit silly joining a group that called for grammatical perfection when I myself struggle with it.

I am thinking I would join a Facebook group called, "I Judge You When You Use Bad Grammer" because the nod to imperfection is even funnier than the original group. Also, everyone makes mistakes now and then and the latter group could have a more "We do our best but it doesn't always happen" sort of mentality. Because really, when it comes to grammar, perfection is not important to me. I only care that you try...

Better Late Than Never

Before I came home my family (aka my father) went out and bought a Christmas tree for our home because my sister was adamant about making our house holiday-ish and filled with cheer (and in case you didn't know, the amount of cheer in a househould around the holidays is tied exponentially with the number of lights blazing on your tree).

When I came home I expected to see a fully decorated tree, but in fact what greeted me was a tree with a wimpy strand of blue lights around the middle of it, and one itty bitty ornament on the back side. Ho hum.

You've got to hand it to my sister, though. She is a procrastinator (a family trait we all share), but she really accomplishes a lot when it get's down to the wire. So today she is decorating that tree like a fiend! It looks great so far, and it will look nice for about 48 hours before it comes down.

Yes, 48 hours is the projected lifespan for this poor tree. See, the caveat of my parents agreeing to get a tree was that my sister had to promise to take it down before she left NH. Since we are going back to NYC on the 27th, the tree must come down on the 26th.

It hardly seems worth it to me, though I've got to hand it to my sister - she's got tenacity that is absolutely unwavering, this is for sure.

I Hate Packing!!!

If you've been keeping tabs on this blog you might already be aware of the fact that I hate packing... either that, or the title of this entry might have tipped you off.

Here it is, the eve before I am supposed to go home and visit my family, and I've not even removed my suitcase from underneath my bed. In fact, I've done everything possible today to avoid packing: I watched internet videos, typed on tumblr, chatted with Brittany, called my family, ate some cheese, listened to music, updated things on facebook, sorted my photos, drank cup after cup of tea, tried on some pants... I even went so far as to watch Brittany pack in an effort to avoid my own packing. Right now I have the option of watering the Christmas tree or packing, and I think I'm going to water the tree (no big shocker there).

The first time I ever pulled an all nighter was my sophomore year in high school, the day before I needed to arrive at school. I had to stay up all night because I was moving into the dorm the next day and started packing for the year at around 11 pm (this became my ritual for all school packing, both at the beginning of the year and at the end, straight through the end of college).

The day before I left for France for the year I decided it might be good to put some things in my suitcase.

I was slightly more successful when I moved to NYC, but only slightly... I think I completed the biggest packing job of my life in about 3 days (during which I was also working a full time job).

You don't really need to know all of this information, but the longer I type here the longer I can avoid packing! Ugh.

The Weather Forecast

What's the difference between "mostly cloudy" and "partly sunny"? As far as I can tell, none. They both have the same icon on the weather web site...

Wool Over My Eyes

First things first: my sister showed me the final for one of her classes. It's a website, and for a first ever attempt with HTML it's pretty awesome! You should check it out.

Secondly, this week at school has been crazy! As vacation nears I have had more and more students absent in my classes, however the students that are left are more rambunctious than ever. I blame it on all the other teachers in the school giving them sugar before they come to my class.

In related news, on Tuesday I had two kids knock on my classroom door and say that the head of the grade needed to see a student in my class. It seemed legit at the time so I let him go, but then someone who is more knowledgeable regarding the wily ways of teenage boys made me realize that probably the two boys were just trying to get their friend out of class early. As soon as it was mentioned to me, the light went off in my head. But of course! What was I thinking...

Normally I'd care a little more but truth be told I didn't really feel like being in that class that afternoon either, so my student and I both got a break. However, you live and you learn, and that certainly won't be happening again! I hope he enjoyed his 15 minutes of freedom.

Rejected "For Dummies" Topics

Brittany and I came up with this list:

Faking the Death of a Stripper for Dummies (Inspired by Arrested Development)
Ultimate Cage Fighting for Dummies
Sword Fighting for Dummies
Sword Swallowing for Dummies
Atom Splitting for Dummies
Telephone Wire Repair for Dummies
David Blaine Magic Tricks for Dummies
Hippo Breeding for Dummies
Running With Bulls for Dummies
Cliff and Base Jumping for Dummies
Making it to Third Base for Dummies
Zamboni Driving for Dummies
Drunk Driving for Dummies
Drunk Zamboni Driving for Dummies
Advanced Voodoo Dolls for Dummies
Quantum Physics for Dummies
Harboring a Fugitive for Dummies
Artificial Insemination for Dummies
Firework Manufacturing for Dummies

Second Life? No, thanks.

Over the past few months I've been reading a lot of articles about a virtual reality (love the oxymoron) called Second Life. If you're not familiar, basically this program is a 3D "world" where people can create an alter ego and live out a "second life" complete with a second home, a second family and second jobs.

I am really intrigued with this program, partly because it's programming genius but mostly because the technology makes me quite nervous - the idea of people spending more time living a virtual life than a real one shocks/scares/saddens me.

Today I read this article which discusses the effect that escapism to online games and virtual realities could have on those people living real lives in real societies. The article is short and sweet so I recommend you have a look rather than me trying to sum it up here, but I did want to mention the end of the article in which Dr. Castranova describes the kinds of people for whom it would be socially acceptable/understandable if they were to escape into a virtual reality:

"A father of two spending 90 hours a week in a virtual world because he doesn't like his wife - I would say that's escapism, and it isn't anything you would say is good.

"But if it's a heavy-set girl from a small town who gets victimised just because her body isn't the 'right' kind of body, and she goes online to make friends because she can't get a fair shake in the real world, then I would say the virtual world is more of a refuge."

While I understand the point Castranova is trying to make here between escapism and retreating to a better place (to be extreme, a man with responsibilities is more of a loss in our world than a girl nobody notices as existing in the first place), I have to say I completely disagree with his assessment of the acceptability of one retreat versus the other.

In both cases the people in question are unhappy with their lives. To argue that it is unacceptable for the man to retreat to a virtual life and appropriate for the girl to find solace in the same is crazy. Sure, the grown man has more obvious responsibility than the girl - his family, his job, etc. - but that's not to say that an unhappy teenager doesn't have responsibilities to attend to such as schoolwork, family obligations and so on. Why is it acceptable to teach a young person that retreating to a refuge is ok? One day she'll find herself in the same position as the older man with responsibilities to a family and a company, and how will she deal with her hardships then if she has turned to escapism in the past? Or, to paint a possibly more tragic scenario, what if she never has a life because she has only fostered relationships in virtual situations? That's a tragedy.

Don't both the man and the girl deserve the opportunity to be happy in their real lives? I think it's sad that more and more people these days turn to virtual realities when they are not satisfied with the lives they've created for themselves. Rather than paying programmers the big bucks to create alternate worlds perhaps we should be investigating what we as a society can do to be more inclusive and more accepting so people don't feel the need to escape in the first place.

Movie of the Year

Ok, so maybe you won't think it's the movie of the year, but I loved it and would recommend going to see it.

Ice Water

One great thing about winter is the tap water is always cooler.

Svalbard Love

I was briefly obsessed with a place called Spitsbergen in college. Oh, who am I kidding? I still am obsessed with it. Anyhow, Spitsbergen is quite near/might possibly be part of Svalbard, so when I saw this article about an ancient polar bear jaw (found in Svalbard), I immediately read it.

Not because I cared about the bear jaw or anything. Duh.

Electric Blankets and Brittany's Family Awesomeness

The other day when I got home from work there was a huge microwave box sitting outside the door to our apartment. At first I wondered why Brittany bought another microwave, but then I realized it was sent from her family in TX (and I wondered why they would send us another microwave).

Well, it turns out the microwave box was just a cover up for the amazing cold weather survival kit inside! They had sent us a whole slew of various things to entertain ourselves during the cold winter months, but by far the best part of the package was the two fleece electric blankets.

A friend of mine said that electric blankets provoked thoughts of the late 80's... for me it provokes memories of sleeping in the guest bedrooms at my grandmother's house. As silly or outdated as they may seem, they are seriously the best things EVER. Our couch is right by the window, and being able to cuddle up underneath a heated blanket has seriously changed my couch sitting experience (not to mention my bed-entry experience - 15 minutes with the electric blanket, and my bed feels roasty toasty like I've been sleeping in it all night).

So thank you, Brittany's family. You've made my winter season!

Telephone Etiquette

When I was growing up, my parents always said that you should never call anybody after 9 pm. However, it's free for me to call people after 9 pm. This creates an interesting dilemma whenever I think of calling anyone in the evening.

I think the 9 pm rule might be shifting to 10 pm if you are calling from one cell phone to another... but when calling Grandma (and other devoted land-linders), the 9 pm rule still applies!

What's so bad about Muhammad anyway?

I was reading this article this morning about a woman who was jailed for letting the children in her class name a teddy bear 'Muhammad'. To quote a little bit:

Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain told BBC News 24 that the whole saga had been very damaging for the image of the Muslim faith.

"Each time we have stories like these, that distort what Islam stands for or misrepresents what the compassion of Muslim law stands for, then we have repercussions and people begin to feel that Islam has no place in modern society...

"I have not come across one single Muslim in our country who has supported what has happened."

The thing I found particularly frustrating about this article and, in particular, about the above quote, is that Mogra states that people often don't understand what Muslim law stands for. This article could have been a perfect opportunity to explain a little about the laws so we ignoramuses would henceforth be enlightened.

Unfortunately, however, the article does not even explain why naming a teddy bear "Muhammad" would be a punishable offense, and I am still wondering exactly why it was such a big deal. I know I'm a dolt when it comes to worldly affairs (so maybe this is common knowledge that everyone (sauf moi) already knows and was therefore not mentioned in the article) but it seems to me that this article is a perfect example of how ignorance is perpetuated regarding Muslim law. If nobody explains it, how are we to know?

If you have any insights, please clue me in.