[insert appropriate zoolander quote here]

too tired to write anything significant, but in my up-past-my-bedtime haze I was scrolling through ^k^'s blog and thought this looked interesting, and I haven't actually read through any of the content but I must commend the author on his (her?) supreme knowledge of the joy that is zoolander. well done, whoever you are. the prime minister of propecia would be proud.

-- e, off to sleep

cha-ching adsense

So, Reuters is reporting that Brangelina had their new baby girl, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund! Isn't that where we were in Namibia? How were we to know then, almost exactly four years ago, that such an auspicious event as the arrival of Brad and Angelina's child would occur in that quiet little town? Crazy!

I also seem to remember buying a lot of cheap long-sleeved clothing at some kind of Namibian Wal-Mart-esque store. Oh, and sand-dune-boarding. But that's all I remember of Namibia, besides the fantabulous U-Nam Choir.

nice...

...cow tongue in the links section.

Moo, indeed.

OK

I know that blogthings is so several days ago, but this was so off-base I just had to share it:

You Are Likely A Forth Born

At your darkest moments, you feel angry. At work and school, you do best when your analyzing. When you love someone, you tend to be very giving. In friendship, you don't take the initiative in reaching out. Your ideal jobs are: factory jobs, comedy, and dentistry. You will leave your mark on the world with your own personal philosophy.

The Birth Order Predictor

Two things

1) A prize to whomever can find the random reference to an early 90's one-hit wonder ensconced in the comments to this blog post.

2) Also on the subject of Jennifer Garner -- NOT THAT I AM IN ANY WAY OBSESSED WITH HER AND/OR CAMPED OUTSIDE HER HOUSE RIGHT NOW AND WRITING THIS POST BY USING HER WIRELESS CONNECTION WHICH IS SECURED BUT WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED USING THE EASILY-GUESSED WEP KEY "GARFLECK4EVER," AND THAT BY THE WAY IS TOTAL CRAP, I GIVE THEM 3 MORE MONTHS AT THE MOST AND THEN SHE IS MINE ALL MINE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA -- apparently she wants you to join the CIA.

It's a good year to go to CEDARPOINT OMG!!!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/05/29/theme.park.pricing.ap/index.html

Whaddaya know... the one time in months that I actually read the news out of sheer boredom, there's something relevant in there for us!

More TV themes that are going in my phone include:

(This is a followup to this comment on the initial TV theme post)

Get Smart (I know at least Kat has my back on this one)

Hawaii Five-O (thank you, Dad, for imprinting me with this)

Hill Street Blues (I never watched this show, but I could play the theme like a champ on my Casio keyboard... that, and "Greensleeves")

The full opening Jeopardy! theme

Knight Rider (I never watched this show, but good theme song)

Police Squad!

Wings (actually a beautiful piano sonata by, I believe, Schubert in its own right)

Here's one for Dani

All of these, by the way, were courtesy of this site.

Oooh! And here are some that might work better in MIDI form:

American Bandstand

Batman

The Flintstones

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (aka THE BEST SHOW EVER)

(and those would be courtesy of this site)

Icky Helena Bonham Carter cont'd

So I just googled "icky helena bonham carter" and would you know that on January 9, 2005 someone posted a blog with that exact term in it? Hello! I totally thought of it first! And do you know what her ickiness was in reference to? Sleeping with icky Kenneth Branagh and cheating on lovely Emma Thompson! This must be someone I know!

BTW, I think this might be my favorite HBC picture to date. Truly flattering, no?
SocialTrinity

tv theme songs, anyone?

check it.

This seems appropriate

Bet you all wish you were me! I took the test and look how I came out!

But I did have a second favorite which said I was spiritual and very bookish. Seems about right.


Your Personality Profile
You are sexy, powerful, and bold.You're full of passion and energy...Sometimes this passion has a dark side.You feel most alive when you're seducing someone.You never fail to get someone's attention.Quick minded, you're also quick to lose your temper!

And here's my linguistic profile...also seems about right!


Your Linguistic Profile:
45% General American English
35% Yankee
15% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

ICKY HELENA BONHAM CARTER!

Yuck! Icky Helena Bonham Carter!

For the record, I do not think it is appropriate for people who have had affairs with sleezy men married to perfectly charming and fantastic women to become idols of little children. This is why society is going down the sewage pipes. Did I spell sewage right? Thank goodness she is at least playing a mean character. I bet she will look spooky with the blonde hair. And is Bellatrix good or evil? Or is she like one of those intriguing unclear types? I vote evil! Bellatrix had better not save the day! However, I still think they should have just changed the filming schedule. Bizarre!

In the meantime....hello! Where is Hugh Grant in the Harry Potter films? I feel as if he is the one great British actor (I can hear Matt saying, "Except for Elizabeth Hurley") not to be included and on his behalf, I am offended. Hugh needs to make an appearance. Maybe Hugh should play Bellatrix!

Kat: Did you listen to NPR this morning? That's how I heard that icky Helena Bonham Carter was turning 40.

Sorry, Dani.

Helen McCrory will no longer play the part of Bellatrix Lestrange in the fifth Harry Potter movie as she is currently pregnant and will be heavily so by the time they film the Ministry scenes. She is set to be replaced by [icky] Helena Bonham Carter.

See the rest of the info here.

awesome.

Proof that all you really need is a hot soundtrack and Samuel L. Jackson to make a hit teen film:

sweet.

http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/

at first it looks like your average car commercial, but once you click on "watch civic" in the upper left-hand corner it becomes freaking awesome. I didn't think they were for real until I watched the making-of video. whoa.

c-raaazy.

***You Are Likely an Only Child***


At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated.
At work and school, you do best when you're organizing.
When you love someone, you tend to worry about them.

In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic.
Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management.
You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.


The Birth Order Predictor
http://www.blogthings.com/birthorderpredictorquiz/

Aaaah! It's worse than crack!

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant. Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle. You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs. For you, comfort and calm are very important. You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection. You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

From the same site

This is actually oddly accurate:

Your Love Life Secrets Are

Looking back on your life, you will only have one true love. You're a little scarred from your past relationships, but who isn't? You expect a lot from your lover - you want the full package. You tend to be very picky. In fights, you love to debate and defend yourself. You logic prevails - or at least you'd like to think so. Getting over a break-up doesn't take long. Easy come, easy go.

Your Love Life Secrets, Revealed

I make sense too

Your Linguistic Profile::

65% General American English

20% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Washington, D.C.: First 2.5 years of life
North Carolina: Next 16 years of life
Connecticut: Next 7 years of life

Mother from N.C., father from Michigan.

I must say, though, I was rather ambivalent about several (where ambivalence wasn't an option)... e.g., I will readily say "kitty corner," "catty corner," OR "diagonal" depending on my wont. What can I say? I'm a man of the people. I do as they do, say as they say. When in Rome.

well, good heavens. I'm just all over the place.

I tried to post this in a comment on the last post, but the HTML wouldn't work...

Your Linguistic Profile::

65% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I grew up in CA, have lived in CT for 7 years and my mom's from TX. makes sense, no?

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

goldurnit.

You know, my Teacup shirt JUST arrived last week, and already there's another SGR t-shirt that I want...

An Open Letter to Jennifer Garner

Dear Jennifer Garner,

Please have my babies.

Love,
Matt

prepare to be dazzled.

it's a bit long (6ish minutes), but worth every second. my favorite part is where he rides the pony.

dance dance evolution

it's about freaking time.

Go Fug Yourself rips Brandon Davis a new one

this makes me so happy. why am I thrilled, you ask? because I had the misfortune of sitting through two years of high school french with this greasy, slobbery man, and it pleases me to no end to know that the rest of the world (excluding paris hilton, apparently, and mischa barton for a while...what was she THINKING?) has discovered his ickiness. my high school friends and I have spent the afternoon trading "brandon is so gross/annoying/dumb..." stories, which include his paying a classmate to write his term paper and paying another classmate for sexual favors. (he's really, really rich.)

brava, GFY. brava.

oh, and here's the video referenced in the GFY post. I actually stopped watching a few seconds in because my brain cells threatened to kill themselves en masse if I continued to expose them to his tirade, but I hear it's pretty amusing.

to alleviate Matt's boredom

try this:

I'm bored

Entertain me!

I'll see your random comic...

...and raise you one:

hahahaha

Ok, so a late-night burst of nostalgia prompted me to see what was up with WYBC these days, if I could. I couldn't get the station webpage to load, so I went to ydn.com to see what I could find. And lo and behold, check it out: some freshman with a YDN article named Nick David has a radio show called... Cafe Eclectic. No joke.

And here I thought I was being original. (I wonder if HE thinks he's being original...)

Today's Ocular Trauma plus new icon part deux

OK, this one I actually thought was really funny. I don't know what that says about me.

Also, I think the icon issue was due to some hotlinking problem... I stole it off of a website which I think disapproved of blogger.com linking to it. I guess it worked for me because it was already in my cache or something.

This is the icon (I am mainly just posting this so then I can put the uploaded version of it in my profile, but I will probably be too lazy to go back and remove it):


PS Dani, are you alive? Has AdSense approved our blog? If so, we should activate it so we can start raking in the big bucks.

Additional Ocular Trauma for your viewing pleasure

The above is one of the cleaner ones. Perhaps as days go by I'll work you up to the truly bizarre.

I just wanted to note 2 things today:

A) I did my first day of sprint exercising yesterday, and it hurts like the proverbial mofo. Both during and after... my legs were quite sore today. Which means I think it is working.

2) I just wanted to share a bit of nerdery all around and didn't know where better to share it. Today, I installed a web server on my laptop and am now running a wiki site (a la Wikipedia) that only I can access, because I think it will help me organize my thoughts better than I can on paper.

Oh, and, one more thing, actually:


Paris Hilton, American Idol, Pamela Anderson. Our Googleability soars!

WOO.

I just wanted to announce that I just printed out my project, which was a FINAL project, which was the FINAL thing I had to complete in order to finish my first year of business school. woo. woo, I say. WOO.


carry on.



--ericat13, starting to like this capital-letters-for-emphasis thing. it's COOL.


WOO.

trying to up our AdSense points

from Salon.com's The Fix:

No wedding dress for Katie? If you're wondering how the strange saga of the Katie Holmes/Tom Cruise affair is going to play itself out, the Awful Truth says it has confirmation of one of the many possible endings: amicable separation. A Cruise camp insider says that Holmes and Cruise are currently just hashing out what would be a reasonable amount of time for them to stay together for appearances' sake, but then will call it quits (in which case, Holmes will still reportedly get $19 million). "They are not getting married," the snitch says. "Won't happen." (The Awful Truth)

awesome.

think about it. no, YOU think about it.

The More You Know...

Cake frontman John McCrea interviewed on NPR

For those who (like me) missed it about a year ago, a very intelligent interview with John McCrea of Cake is to be found here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4482730

He gets 10,000 bonus points from me for using the words "mercurially" and "boobies" in the same interview. It's about 20min, however, so block some time for it.

There's also another interview linked from the same page, but I have not yet listened due to time constraints. Later tonight, mayhaps.

He stands for things. More importantly, he stands ON things.

I know I'm about a week behind (EXAMS, remember), but in case you haven't yet seen Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, I suggest you do so immediately. Why don't I ever remember to watch his show or the Daily Show?

Also, the Kentucky Derby is going off in a matter of moments. I don't know much about the horsies, but I'll admit to having a little space in my heart for the one called Lawyer Ron.

(edited to add this link, too.)

Exercise regimen meets mix concept

This is inspired by an exercise regimen which I originally heard about on the Bob and Sheri Show (best morning radio EVAR, podcast it at www.bobandsheri.com or via iTunes) and which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology (98:1985-1990, 2005, if anyone cares). The basic point is that sprint training can be just as, or nearly as, effective as endurance training for things like muscle tone, metabolic rate, etc. So, although conventional logic suggests that you should do endurance training for endurance events and general cardiovascular health, this study concludes that this is not necessarily true; you can get benefits in endurance and so forth from sprint training.

The advantage, of course, is that sprint training takes MUCH less time than endurance training. The regimen the sprinters followed was (this was on exercise bikes but you should be able to do it running as well):

30 seconds ALL-OUT sprint (you have to perform at your absolute max or it doesn't count)
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint

So, a total of only about 15min spent doing this procedure, out of which only about 2min is actual exercise (although you FEEL like you are still running for like an hour after you finish, which is kind of the point). People who did this 3x a week got essentially the same benefits as people who trained at a moderate pace for like 2 HOURS A DAY, the same number of times per week.

At any rate, I am planning on taking up this regimen at least a couple of times per week. To facilitate this, I am making several iPod mixes with fast/slow alternations (30 sec "sprinty" clips, intermixed with 4min "resty" songs) that should help motivate me. It is fun.

Anyway, I think the fast/slow mix idea could be fun to do in just the general mix-CD sense... kind of like when ^kat^ did the Up/Down concept a couple of years ago. But the catch here is finding "fast" and "slow" songs (I use quotes because I am not really just going by BPM here... some of my "slow" songs are really rather uptempo... I guess it would be more "arousing" vs "soothing" to be more accurate... or "sympathetic" and "parasympathetic" if you are a neuroscience dork) that you can play in alternation without the whole mix sounding too weird. If an added constraint is desired, you could stipulate that each fast/slow pair must come from the same artist (or album, if you wish to draw from compilations). I may do this at some point, in which case I will be happy to share my labor-fruits.

And, BTW, Kat, I still have not forgotten my own take on the track-numbers mix... general busy-ness and the death of my first iPod this semester set back my hobbyish endeavors a bit, but I am very happy to announce that in terms of workload, my summer has arrived. So hopefully a bit more hobbying soon.

Back to track-picking....

Two questions

Okay friends, two questions for you:

A. What is AdSense and should we try to get it on our blog to make pennies?

B. I just found, hidden deep in a box, 35 dollars from my grandma (who has passed away) that was a birthday present either for my fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. On what should I spend it?
SocialTrinity

I'M BAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!! I just returned from the most horrible retreat, the highlight of which was the drunken homeless woman who awoke me at 1:30 in the morning screaming, "Open the door! Let me in you a*^(&*#s!" It went on for half an hour!

So to update:

1. I have not had time to practice my alphabet speed skills, and it seems like you've all surpassed me, but I have taken up Latin as a summer enterprise: Sine philosophia non valemus. You get bonus points for translation.

2. I was supposed to move my furniture on Saturday because a friend wanted it. She now has decided to move into a furnished apartment, leaving my furniture homeless. I do not need my furniture. What do I do? Throw it away? Donate it to the salvation army? I just can't be bothered with it!

3. Kat B. and I were hoping to housesit for this woman next year, but I think it the furnished place taken my the friends who were supposed to take my furniture might have snatched the housesitting opportunity. This is so ironic because I sent my friend the e-mail saying, "Hey, look at this housesitting thing...maybe you're interested?" Ugh, I totally doomed myself!

4. I hate my life. I think we need to move up our Cedar Point trip. How does June work for everyone?

SocailTrinity

I really need help

Things I can do:

1) Type the English alphabet in order far faster than any human being should ever really need to
2) Waste time in general

Things I cannot do:

1) Get my ass to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can get up at 7:30 and go see a talk by a Nobel-Prize-winning neuroscientist.

who knew the streets of Cincinnati were so mean?

from my rollingstone.com daily digest:

FOUR IN T.I.'s POSSE SHOT, ONE DEAD

Four members of Atlanta rapper T.I.'s posse were shot in a gun battle on Cincinnati's Interstate 75 early this morning that left one person dead and three injured. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the feud began at the city's Club Ritz during an after-party for rappers T.I. and YUNG JOC -- who performed earlier that evening at the club Bogart's -- and moved outside, where shots were fired into two vans transporting T.I.'s crew. The identities of the shooting victims (three men, one woman) have yet to be released. T.I.'s latest album, "King," has sold 996,000 copies in its five weeks out, putting it just shy of platinum. The rapper also recently made his movie debut, co-starring in "ATL" with OUTKAST's BIG BOI.

I would like to point out that though I've never attended anything at Club Ritz, I've been to Bogart's often, and this is just beyond bizarre. It's in a crap part of town, though, that's gotten steadily worse over the years, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

Oh! in other news, I think I'm going to download my last test in a half-hour! then, 8 hrs later (guh), I'll be done done done with my first year o'law school...

Last one tonight, I swear

OK, now I REALLY have to 1) get a life and B) go to bed.

Booyah part twa

This is not French for "three," aka "trois," but rather one of the noises the incredulous masses will make when they gaze upon my awesome alphabet typing speed. As in, "Buh... wha... twaaaaaa?!" Just thought I'd leave you with a little amazement before heading off to bed.

And if anyone out there is looking for a ridiculously good-looking neuroscientist with almost freakishly nimble fingers... you know where I live.

a follow-up...

...to an earlier post, from cnn.com:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A Harvard University student's "chick lit" novel has been permanently withdrawn and her two-book deal canceled, publisher Little, Brown and Co. announced Tuesday, as allegations of literary borrowing proliferated against Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."

"Little, Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life' by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract," Michael Pietsch, Little Brown's senior vice president and publisher, said in a statement.

Little, Brown, which had initially said the book would be revised, declined to comment on whether Viswanathan would have to return her reported six-figure advance. Tuesday's decision caps a stunning downfall for the 19-year-old Viswanathan, a Harvard sophomore whose novel came out in March to widespread attention.

read the rest of it here, if you haven't already. There's an entirely new section that they quote and compare to a different author from before. Tee hee. SAFETY SCHOOL. *thumbs nose*

Booyah part deux

Mwuhahaha. A modest improvement, I know, but I'm sure I can do better with time.

BTW, you lefties totally have an advantage at this game if we are all using QWERTY keyboards... the QRST and VWX are by far the hardest segments to hit reliably. Kat can use this as her excuse for why she is not beating you. The reason she (and Erica, for the moment) is not beating me is because I am awesome.

I also beat Dungeonman 3.

game on.

I have to stop for a while, though. my brain hurts, and my keyboard would probably like a little break.

Booyah

I found this game really difficult yesterday. Then again, I was going on 4 hours of sleep at the time (with preceding days featuring 6, 2, and 3 hours of sleep per night). Today, after 11 hours of sleep, I found things much easier. (The first-years in my program were busy writing, filming, and editing films and skits for our annual retreat, which occurred Saturday, and we couldn't really begin until our ginormous final was over on Tuesday. Hence no sleep. Although things went over well in the end, particularly our neuroscience edition of Celebrity Jeopardy! and our trailer for Postdoc Mountain.)

I bet the people with ridiculous times have remapped their keyboards somehow... I mean, maybe they are just freaky-good typists, but you could potentially change things so your keys were all in alphabetical order, and just run your fingers down each row.