Bring Out Your Yarmulke

It's almost time to celebrate Hanukkah. I feel like that means that Vicky's birthday is soon. But I'm not positive. My memory is rather spotty, after all.

The one unfortunate aspect of Hannukah is the lack of really good music. Other than Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, we're pretty much screwed. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah is trying to stop that. He may be a conservative Mormon from Utah, but he promises, he's Jewish on the inside.

An exact quote from the article: Orrin Hatch of Utah loves Jews, songwriting, and Hanukkah. He also calls Barbara Streisand his idol. I tried to find a link to a song I always hear on PLJ about a jew and a gentile where the Jew says he loves Barbara Streisand.

I have a feeling this reporters personal dislike of Hatch made him/her a wee bit more tongue in cheek than is probably proper.

Fun facts- Hatch worked on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court in a case whose syllabus I read for Government. What a coinkydink!

Also, Hatch tried to create a bill which allowed companies to seize your computer if you were found to possess pirated music or other materials. Very scary.

Anywho, here's Hatch's video, and here's the Adam Sandler Happy Hanukkah song, which I haven't heard yet this season, but really consider a necessity.

Apoptosis

is preprogrammed cell death. It's like suicide, but healthy.

Anyways, there was a post about it on Mad Scientist, Jr. today, and it reminded me of studying apoptosis during neurobiology first semester.

I totally should have written a section in my portfolio about martyrs and soldiers, dying for the greater good of humanity and whatnot, and compared it to apoptosis. However, I think the suicidal implications might have gotten me turned into guidance again, which would have been a pain.

My neurobiology biology professor (although I'm pretty sure he was actually only a postdoc) posted a bunch of apoptosis videos here. The best one I'm embedding below.

In other news, I came up with a nickname for the techie who makes me trip every now and again (although has since stopped): Gordy. The process behind it is that he is the Formerly Attractive Techie, or FAT. I came up with this while I was painting today, and I smiled a little. Then I heard a loud noise and realized that he was drilling right next to me and that my ass was practically in his face. Oops.

The Dodgeball Vendetta

I feel that the best way to start a post about this as-of-yet-unintroduced character is a four word sentence about him: Berk is a jerk.

Well, Berk isn't always a total jerk, but he sure as hell is annoying. We've been playing dodgeball in gym for the past week, and Berk (run in through a translator of the language that Nyx's mom speaks (I think) to English for his last name) has embarked on an extremely personal and rude quest to destroy any of my already meager dodgeballing abilities.

The first day of dodgeball, he did nothing against me, and I contentedly hung out in the back with Kathrya, Chelsea, and Nia. The second day, however, Berk immediately began attacking me, following shouts of "TEAAAAA" with a poorly aimed dodgeball. The situation was made more ridiculous by the fact that I'm fairly certain that he could have thrown a lot harder, he was just enjoying the theatrical effect of making me squirm. Chelsea says that her favorite part of this day was when Nia was standing in front of me (not that she blocks much, considering our height difference) and Berk yelled "Duck! I'm trying to hit Tea!" The numerous attempts continued the next day, which Berk finished by going in for some strange sort of handshake that is understood only by him, involving some sort of hands to elbows to high fives to a whole lot of confused Tea.

Today, we played the juniors, but he politely announced that, even though we were on the same team, he would find some way to hit me. He accomplished this be grabbing my shoulders and ducking behind me, distracting me enough that I got hit with a dodgeball that wasn't even going that fast. This injury, however, was not as bad as the one sustained when Eli dodged out from in front of me and the high velocity ball going after him slammed into my leg, resulting in a strange bullseye pattern that took hours to fade.

In other news, this video is entirely hilarious

Watch Font Conference on CollegeHumor

Anecdotally

Anecdote 1:

On the cab ride home, Sean, Mario, and I were seated in the cab, in that order, with Mario stuck in the middle. Sean was in complete awe of the taxi T.V. (oooh! comercials! on the back of the seat!). He was laughing hysterically at the commercials, I was giggling a bit at how overly entertained he was, and Mario wasn't even breaking a smile.

An ad for Wolverine came on, and the announcer went "He returned to a safer job as a lumberjack," or something to that effect, and Sean, right on cue, started singing the lumberjack song. Mario, being Mario, glanced at him, then resumed his general relaxed expression of staring unemotionally into the distance.

Sean looked at Mario. "Have you never heard that song before?" Mario gave a slight shake of the head. He leaned over Mario and looked at me. "Have you heard that song before?"

"I've heard some of my friends sing it."

He resumed his interrogation of Mario. "You've seriously never heard that before? I cannot believe that you have never heard the Lumberjack Song!"

"No," said Mario.

"Well," said Sean, gearing up for a monologue. "It's this lumberjack singing a song-"

No shit, I thought to myself.

"-and then he starts going on about hanging out in bars and wearing women's clothing and being a transvestite. It's REALLY funny!"

"Oh." Mario had a decidedly nervous expression on his face. Sean started singing again, and Mario just sat there, looking grumpy.

I have no idea what his problem was, and after we got on the train and walked down from the rear car all the way to the front looking for seats, he was in a much better mood. He actually smiled at me after helping with one of the doors (I was confused as to why he smiled, but, eventually, I realized that I had started grinning at how ridiculous it was that we were walking down the entire flipping train). We eventually found seats, with Mario and I on one side and Sean on the other side and a bit to the back. Sean promptly took out his phone and spent the entire ride on it, while Mario and I had our little double seat, which didn't even have a window (most bizarre) to ourselves. Mario seemed quite happy, and remarked, "I knew it would all work out."

I chuckled a bit. "Okay," I said, a bit incredulous.

"It's because I had you guys with me. Good luck charms, and all that."

I looked at him as if he was insane because, clearly, he was. "Whatever you say, Mario."

After we had been seated for a while, we had the following conversation related to U.S., which I think Vicky will appreciate.

Me: there's actually a corner in Harlem where Malcolm X boulevard meets Martin Luther King boulevard.

Mario: No, there isn't.

Me: Yes there is. I saw it when I was sitting in the cab by myself last week with nothing better to do than watch street signs.

Mario: That's ironic.

Me: I'm not sure if ironic is quite the right term, but it's certainly something. I can't really think of anything to call it better than ironic, though.

Mario: Yeah.

Me: It sounds like something we'd talk about in US.

Mario, quickly: I call it.

Me: No way! I thought of it first!

Mario: But I said it was ironic, and I thought we should bring it up in class.

Me: But if I hadn't told you, you wouldn't have anything.

Mario, frowning: When do you have social studies?

Me: Period 1. I win.

Mario: Fine, but you have to mention me. Like, say 'Mario and I just happened to be talking about this' or something.

Me: Sure. But, well, I've mentioned it in my quarter group before, so Opmin didn't hear, but it might be weird to bring it up again, and I might forget anyways, so you bring it up too, and mention my name.

Mario: okay.

When I brought it up in class, Opmin said that it definitely wasn't ironic, and proceeded to inform us that she hated the Alanis Morisette song "Ironic" with a fiery passion, and that every street named MLK was incredibly seedy and dangerous. Whatever you say, Mrs. Opmin. When I mentioned it at lunch, Julie's ears opened right up, and while she briefly referred to Mario as Voldy, I don't think she noticed that I noticed, so it's all good. I think.

A Little More Fun

On a more lighthearted note,

I just though that was rather funny. Also, on the beginning of "Love is..." which my friend posted on facebook, which is how I found "New Math" I think he looks a little like Mario. Do you agree?

There's gonna be snow tomorrow, and I, for one, am psyched. 8-14" should definitely be enough for a snowday, no?

Well, I'm blowing off my US history homework, so it'd better be. If it's not, I'll take it up with the management in the morning.

In other news, I wanted to comment on a product (red) commercial I saw the other day on American Idol (go Adam!, btw).

Usually, I love product red. They picked a shade of red that is one of my all-time favorite colors, and I love the fact that my penchant for consumerism is helping to shape a better world. However, I found this add incredibly aggravating. Basically, this guy carries around a red laptop, and everyone thinks that he's so amazing that they spank/kiss/mob him. Now, personally, if a weird police officer type guy slapped my ass, I would immediately freak out over the horrific state of authority figures these days.

I think this may primarily be a difference in the male vs. female perspective of things. Guys don't think of that sort of thing as rape or sexual harassment, so they should be happy with the attention. Sounds like a boatload of shit to me, considering I'm fairly certain that the male gender is often in possession of a personal space bubble.

On the bright side, though, when I pointed out to my sisters how weird it would be if that was a girl instead of a guy, the 13-year-old sister, who I will cleverly refer to as Genovia, said "wow, that's really sexist" and I was like "yes it is" and it just made me happy to think I was opening another person's eyes to sexism in advertising.

In conclusion, here's the commercial:

Peace out, y'allsies.

Today

Coming of Age is a very strange process. I can tell that I'm growing up, thinking more like an adult, feeling more polite, detached from some of the rudeness of my peers, and just kind of beyond it all, and I've noticed that inner war between holding on to my youth and trying to be an adult. It's a bit like reading an extremely detailed young adult novel, only more confusing, and without the simple story arc.

I think I'm glad that I only have to grow up once.

In other news, this clip is hilarious. It's a couple of high school aged guys attempting to demonstrate to their principal what, exactly, qualifies as dirty dancing. Notable lines include such noteworthy phrases as "I'm touching his butt," and when the pair are slow dancing around in a circle I was pretty much cracking up.

Most of the postings about it have noted pedophilish urges towards the boys. Well, I'm about their age, so it wouldn't be pedophilia for me, but I didn't find them sexy at all. I thought they were funny, but I didn't particularly want to see them get into each other's pants. It could be all the washed out blondness that isn't generally my thing, or it could be that if they actually went to my school I'd think they were douchebags, but considering how generally keyed up I've been for the past few days, it was kind of surprising.

Regardless, it's a hilarious video. Watch it.