Wednesday, November 29, 2006
movies 2
stranger than fiction. good movie. it's will ferrel exercising his acting chops. so perhaps it's not as comedic as you might expect. i wasn't expecting it to be tho, so i was okay. it's quirky and interesting and smart. it's a love story, but not a full on romance. a bit predictable but not boring, even so. good music. altho that might be because i like spoon.
the fountain. absolutely beautiful. a bit confusing tho. it's the type of movie you'll need to see more than just once to fully understand. after it ended, most of the audience stayed and quietly talked it over. it's also a romance. i urge you to go see it wit your boif / girlf. i saw it wit harry and it just wasn't as good. it's incredibly moving (i cried, seriously, like 7 times). and i'm seriously planning on watching all of darren aronofsky's films, starting wit requiem.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
mashup
the wii is dangerous! people have been hurt, even dogs! oh noes!
and in rather unrelated news, here's a list of tv's 100 best catchphrases.
@ gap
broken locks...
keys to my heart
You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.
In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.
You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.
Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.
Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.
You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it.
In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.
What Are The Keys To Your Heart? http://www.blogthings.com/keystoyourheartquiz/
keys to reepal's heart
In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.
You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.
Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.
Your risk of cheating is 100%. You are not suited for a monogamous relationship.
You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it.
In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.
Monday, November 27, 2006
vocab
All Hebrew originating names that end with the letters "el" have something to do with God.
Alma mater means bountiful mother.
Corduroy comes from the French, cord du roi or cloth of the king.
Fido means faithful in Latin.
January is named for the Roman god Janus.
Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'
The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan 'finger-lickin' good' came out as eat your fingers off in Chinese.
The magic word 'Abracadabra' was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
rose and radish
Saturday, November 25, 2006
friends!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
gobble gobble!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
movies
have seen quite a few movies lately: jerry maguire, borat, marie antoinette, and casino royal, the new bond film.
jerry maguire. most of you have seen it so i won't go over it much. but that little kid? jonathan lipinski or watever? he's the cutest ever! the movie itself was good. could've done witout the nudity tho...
borat. disappointing. i was looking forward to liking it but... some parts were hilarious but overall the movie wasn't so awesome. the commercials give away a lot of the funny parts (but not some of the funniest bits of all). it was supposed to be hella funny because it was supposed to be all real, or unscripted or watever. but it wasn't. and i'm not talking about the parts where he argues wit his producer. i mean the bear, or garage sale, or pam anderson... eh, anyway. the movie wasn't bad. but it also wasn't good.
marie antoinette. i was totally looking forward to seeing this film and i was not at all disappointed. i think that it helped that i already knew the movie wasn't going to be 'conventional'. reepal didn't like the movie at all. i think he was waiting for the story to kick in. well, it doesn't. not really. it's just not that type of movie. wat it was... it was arty and beautiful. well shot wit good music. exuberant and colorful, candyful. i loved it.
casino royale. of the four, this is my favorite. i gotta say that i wasn't quite sure about daniel craig as bond. i didn't find him attractive enough, which i kno sounds silly for judging a whole movie. but bond is supposed to be hella attractive. anyway. after seeing the movie? wow. i'm sold. totally. he makes a great bond. i read something somewhere about how he's not handsome, but he's sexy. the bit that sold me on him being bond was when he was in the shower wit the girl. he does these two things and just wow. i don't want to ruin anything. but the finger thing and the temperature. :) i liked that. and he has a nice low voice. besides just sexy tho, craig does a good job. he's very human in this movie, which i liked. there's this part towards the end when he's on the boat talking to m and he's touching his feet. lol, i dunno why, but i thought that was nice.
i was pretty ew when i saw him wearing his tight little swim trunks in the commercials and movie. but really, wat else would work? reep said in some interview daniel said that the wardrobe people brought over a lot of different types of swimsuits. but craig said that the little shorts were the only thing bond would wear. which i agree wit. i just... wish bond would have worn regular board shorts. eh. oh! and nearly everyone in this movie has bad teeth! eek! or big noses... bond's love interest was pretty, but she looked better without all the overdone makeup. and her top teeth were a bit off. and the 'sexy lady' of the movie had a huge head. and an ever larger nose! and the 'bad lady' of the movie wasn't bad looking but her nose in profile was hugenormous! bah. and maybe that's just me as an american, but wat's wrong wit these europeans who don't care about orthodontistry! and yeah, i kno, i don't have perfect teeth either. but hey, i'm not an actor.
anyway, the movie itself is very solid. it's supposed to be like the 'first' movie. how he becomes like the bond we kno now. i think they did a really good job wit that. he blunders a little bit. doesn't have the drink or the name down just yet. but he's so egotistical that he carries it all off quite well. the movie addresses his personality and character. how come he can't seem to be true to just one women. and how come he seems so aloof and emotionless. anyway, definitely worth seeing if you have the time.
btw, for those of you who think you've seen him before, you probaly have. appt he's been in lots of things, including layercake (as the main character), munich, sylvia (her love interest), road to perdition, i dreamed of africa, and even tomb raider (her love interest). who knew? full list here.
stoopid!
splatter
jackson pollock. even if you've not heard of him, surely you kno of his work: paint splatter. anyway, now you can do art in his name as well.
(thanks to reep for the link)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
frauds
Some of the amazing and famous hoaxes around Darwin's time:
Barnum's Fiji Mermaid (he spelled it Fejee Mermaid). This was an ugly, dried-up, black object about three-feet (one-meter) long that was promoted as being half-monkey and half- fish. It was eventually found to be a hoax.
Poet Edgar Allan Poe ran a long-running hoax promotion of a manned balloon flight across the Atlantic.
The city of Palisade, Nevada, enticed tourists to visit the city because of its regular gunfights and street brawls. Tourists flocked into town to witness the gunfights, not knowing at the time that they were all staged.
A report in The Illustrated London News of February 9, 1856 claimed that a living pterodactyl (an extinct flying reptile) had been discovered in France.
A hotel operator hoaxed tourists to visit his city by creating a "Silver Lake Serpent" that lured many people to the area.
A cigar manufacturer named George Hull hired stonecutters to carve a 10-foot giant, which he buried on his property.
In the wake of evolutionists' desire to find fossils of creatures that lived in the ancient past, this Cardiff giant was "accidentally" unearthed in 1869, and wagon-loads of tourists came to see Hull's find. He charged them 25 cents each for the privilege.
Friday, November 17, 2006
two face
i find it intriguing how people spend so much time on making themselves look good. i mean, i'm not entirely witout vanity. but i don't think anyone can call me vain. a while ago a friend i were talking about how we kno wat makes us look good, and yet we don't care enough to actually do it. i remember once going over to another friend's house and before going out, she curled her hair. i think that's amazing. wanting to constantly look good. i think i care most about my clothes. i sorta need to match. even when it comes to dragon boating. altho i don't go overboard wit that. i only need to match. one of the hs girls actually goes to the beach in heeled sandals. can you imagine? and i scoff at the girls who feel they need to wear makeup to the beach practices.
some entertainment show (extra or et or something) has a segment on 'ugly vanessa' where she first dolls up in a blond wig and does stuff. later she dresses down (fat suit, not so trendy clothes, unkempt hair, braces) and tries to do the same stuff. of course she's met wit different results. the tyra show did something similar. identical twins tho. one made pretty, one not so much. they went on job interviews. homely girl was way qualified. pretty girl totally not. guess who got offered the jobs?
each time the reporters were shocked at the results. but why? i thought it was established fact that attractive people get treated better. (tall people too. alfred told me of a study they did for women choosing men. the shorter men were well educated, good jobs, good hobbies and habits. tall men were, besides their height, not so outstanding. women overwhelmingly chose the taller man) and yet even knowing that, lots of people don't try much to make themselves more attractive. why is that?
my mom wants me to get double eyelid surgery. she tells me that it'll be easier for me to apply eye makeup. i tell her that if i were ever to get it (and i have a lot of reasons why i wouldn't, not wanting to conform to western standards of beauty being at the top of my list) it would probably be so that i would look prettier wit my conventional, larger, more opened eyes. because, as we already kno, attractive people get more benifits. so then why not just do it? it it's not something drastic (surgery), time consuming (blowing out your hair everyday), or expensive (professional teeth whitening) then why are we so anxious to hold ourselves back?
and since it really is the case that attractive people get treated better, then why are we so hard on those who put in a lot of effort? for those who have had multiple surgeries. maybe they don't have a mental problem. after all, they're only trying to be the best they can be. they're only trying to reap the rewards of being beautiful. it's not their fault they weren't born as naturally beautiful; they have to put in the extra effort. society rewards us for being beautiful. and why should we punish those who want to be rewarded? isn't that a bit backwards? they are living up to their full potential. the rest of us are just settling wit wat we have, wat we care to bother ourselves wit. maybe those people should be praised. "be all you can be" the army tells us. but at wat price? is there only so much beauty in a person? in order to enhance your beauty outside, must you give up the beauty on the inside?
borat
borat. unless you've been hiding under a rock you should have heard about this movie. i mean, lordy, he even has a wikipedia entry! anyway, here's an article about how the people of his supposed hometown are mad enough to sue. there's also a bit in wikipedia on his lawsuits, lol.
reepal and i actually saw the movie a couple weekends ago. and we were both pretty disapointed. there were parts in the movie which were just hilarious. but overall the movie was just 'eh'.
squid
Thursday, November 16, 2006
overstock.com
overstock.com has some suprisingly nice things! well... not surprisingly nice. but surprisingly pretty! these picks are a little different from the ice.com picks in the last post. a pretty cheap ($32.99) but still pretty art deco necklace. a good choice for that sorta modern, sorta old school woman in your life. i like this next necklace a lot (sorta considering it actually). very simple and perfect for all occasions, wit real diamonds! for $89.99. and for the ladies who don't like necklaces maybe she would like a ring. it's sorta a weird ring... reminds me of a class ring. or something superman would wear. but i like it; it's pretty cool, and meaningful! ctr: choose the right. in gold it's $14.99 and in silver it's $12.99.
and lastly, from nordstrom, we have this very cool winged necklace for $98. i actually like this quite a bit too. planning on going to nordstrom this weekend to check it out. it says mini, but i'm not totally convinced (and no, i can't be bothered to take out my ruler and just measure out the dimentions)
craazzy!
surely you're heard of the ps3. and i'm sure you also kno that they are already fetchy crazy high prices on ebay. retail price is about $600. and originally ps3s were fetching up to $2000. but do you kno how much this one ended up? the closing bid was $99,999,999.00. no, i didn't add in six extra 9s, it really was that much.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
ice.com
this snapshots site has become nearly exclusively fashion and jewelry stuff. sorry! originally i wanted to make it broader than that. have a little bit of everything. as long as it was 'pretty'. but i dunno... i'm pretty dedicated to fashion and jewelry, so it's just easier for me to find stuff like that... i'll try tho. to expand the posts beyond that. ...but not starting wit this post. lol...
ice.com has lots and lots of pretty pretty things! here are some ideas for things to get for a girlfriend or sister or mother or friend who likes jewelry. :) btw, there's free shipping on all orders and everything i've chosen is for less than $100!
a simple silver flower pendant for daily wear for that girly girl of yours ($25). and a fancier (altho not much more expensive $30) necklace wit colorful and sparkly stones. another option, maybe for a more tomboyish girl, is this tough looking black stringray pendant on a ball chain ($75). and for the girl that prefers earrings, i suggest this pair ($55). very pretty czs, which can be both dressed up and dressed down.
cheap cheap
this article brings up a lot of really good points. so if you've ever had a relationship, are in one, or ever plan to have one again, read it and take notes!
something i found striking was the bit on forgiveness. 'some people forive too cheaply.' i think sometimes that's me. i don't like to punish people and so when someone says their sorry, i sort of just accept it. whether or not they've actually shown remorse. i believe that 'genuine forgiveness must be earned'. however i don't think i always make people earn back my trust. instead of focusing on them (showing me that they really are sorry, showing me that they'll never do it again) or focusing on us (making changes to assure that it won't happen again), i only work on myself. working to forgive them and not punish them. working so that things remain the same. working so that my actions are not affected by my hurt so that i don't take out my feeling on the person. but mabye i should 'take it out' on them. after all, they messed up. and they should suffer the consequences. not just me. i've been wronged, but i didn't do anything wrong. so why is it that i'm the only one suffering? if i too easily forgive them. maybe they'll get the wrong idea, and think that it wasn't such a big deal afterall, and that only makes the mistake all too likely to be made again. =\
i saw a little bit of the greg behrendt tv show the other day. the segment was on forgiveness. a guy cheated on his wife and greg decided that his punishment would be to strip down to his underwear and wear a sandwhich board saying that 'i'm sorry', 'i love my wife' and something else... 'i'm sorry i cheated' or something. anyway. the guy had to wear this and walk around on the street outside the studio. he also had to ring a bell and shout out 'i love my wife!' another girl cheated on her boyfriend, and they made her get into a big glass tank, where they poured worms and maggots on her while she shouted that she was sorry. and since her mouth was open, i think she probably even ate a few. but anyway. before they poured the bugs on her, her boyfriend steps in and asks greg 'does she have to?' greg was pretty upset. 'of course she has to!' he wanted these people to prove that they were sorry. i don't kno if this was a good way to do it. i don't feel like bugs have anything to do wit cheating. and him walking around nearly naked like that does not make up for the fact that he cheated on his wife. but nothing does. you can't ever make it up. you can't ever fix it new. maybe not even fix it like new.
i think one of the worst things for me (back to personal stuff) was that it didn't seem like he was really sorry. i felt like i was nice enough to forgive him so easily the first time that he should've taken care to never hurt me like that again. but he did. even immediately after i didn't punish him. i still believed him when he told me he was sorry. but when i asked him to prove it to me, by not talking to her, he wouldn't. maybe this has to do wit his character, in that if he just doesn't agree, then he is unwilling to compromise. but i think it also has to do wit me forgiving him too easily in the first place. i try to be strong. i try to handle things myself. and i usually blame myself before blaming others. and i think that's wat messed me up. i took on too much of the burden of blame. i think that's wat we're thinking when we forgive too quickly. we think we're being kind. by not putting all the blame on the person. but it's not fair to yourself. people need to take responsibility for their actions. because like greg said, there is never a good reason to cheat. never. it may not have been their intentions to hurt you, but they did. and now they need to share in your pain. because otherwise they just won't understand wat you're going thru, and will forever be going thru.
and in closing: 'the instant we become an adult is the moment when the instinct to love is greater than the desire to be loved'.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
sketchy
and speaking of fun, i love these 'stardust ballerina' flats from anthropologie. and i love them in both colors. wow! unfortunately it's $128 a pair. :(
Monday, November 13, 2006
spiderman 3
the older spiderman 3 teaser trailer and the new trailer trailer.
::edit:: controversy over the leaked unfinished trailer. which is, btw, damn worth watching, if you can find it, that is.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
lol
"He makes George Bush seem like a personality" - Jackie Mason on John Major.
"He is a sheep in sheep's clothing" - Winston Churchill on Clement Attlee.
"Winston, if I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee." "Nancy, if I were your husband, I would drink it." - A conversation between Nancy Astor and Winston Churchill.
"He could not see a belt without hitting below it." - Margot Asquith on David Lloyd George.
"Richard Nixon impeached himself. He gave us Gerald Ford as
his revenge." - U.S. politician Bella Abzug on Tricky Dickie.
"Nixon's motto was, 'If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." - U.S. writer Norman Cousins.
"Gerry Ford is so dumb that he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." - former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
"I wouldn't say she is open-minded on the Middle East, so much as empty-headed. She probably thinks Sinai is the plural of sinus." - Jonathan Aitken on Margaret Hatcher.
"A shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Harold Wilson on Edward Heath.
Thursday, November 9, 2006
racist?
did anyone find the last gilmore episode to be a bit racist? suki's husband goes to the babysitters to pick up thier kid and he rants and raves about their asking him to take off his shoes when he enters their house (they're japanese). okay, yeah, i kno that not all cultures don't do this, and most asian ones do. but that doesn't make it right or wrong; that doesn't even make it weird. anyway. he goes on and on about how 'crazy' it is that they make him do this and how his feet smell and how he wears boots so that others don't smell his feet... dude. so the problem here isn't that their culture is crazy, it's that you have poor hygiene. and that's no excuse to be racist.
after the show they had this little blurb thing from the aerie girls (wat's the point of this segement anyway?). as i recall there were three caucasion girls and one girl who was very possibly asian. two of the white girls said some stuff about the show and then they panned to the asian girl talking. and then they basically mute her out. you can hear her still talking (altho you can't hear wat she's saying) and the camera goes back individually to each of the three white girls thought bubbling about the couples on the show (loralie and chris? loralie and luke?...) okay, so i kno that the asian was rambling but you could've edited it down. you didn't have to make it so that it appears that her opinions are unimportant. and them muting her emphasizes her ramble. which makes her seem weird or crazy, again wit the unimportance. the studio people need to be more careful about these things because she's the token asian in the group. so you probably shouldn't be censoring her.
and grey's antomy. why is that minorities are wit minorities and whites are with whites? all the african american actors (besides burke) are in relationships wit people of their own color. and christina, the token asian, is wit a black buy. i'm glad tho that they brought in a latino actor: dr. callie torres. but she's wit, like, the pathetic underdog of the show, george, who's still basically in love wit meredith. and as badly as you want to feel for her, dating a guy who can't fully commit, you can't feel bad for her because she's crazy. she lives in the hospital, takes her off her clothes all the time, says 'i love you' too soon, and forces herself of george. (the crazy latino ladydoesn't deserve the white guy) and yes meredith did once sleep wit an indian guy, but she kind of broke his penis. ...is that a sly poke at how asian men can't handle white women because they don't have the sexual powess? and yeah, african american dr. weber did sleep wit meredith's mom, who's white. but they didn't end up together. she left her husband and now has alzheimers. he just got divorced. is this their 'punishment' for crossing racial lines? and burke, as you recall, now has a bum hand.
also did you ever notice this asian women thing? we are stereotypically portrayed as demure and subserviant. so to get away from this, they've done a 180 and now we're all bitches. high strung, over-acheiving, type a bitches. lucy liu's character on ally mcbeal? christina on grey's? wtf is this? stereotyping is still stereotyping.
omg!
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
splatter
jackson pollock. even if you've not heard of him, surely you kno of his work: paint splatter. anyway, now you can do art in his name as well.
(thanks to reep for the link)
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
bah vegas!
i have three sets of friends going to vegas next monthon different weekends. ...wat the hell is so damn great about vegas anyway? and i'm not just saying this because the last time i went wit my friends it totally sucked balls and i vowed to never ever again travel wit the same set of people. but seriously. it smells there, it's over hyped, the people are rude, it's dirty, things are expensive, it's a total waste of water and energy (it's like the people have never heard of the words 'energy conservation' before!)... i could go on and on but it gets repetative, really, it's only about how much vegas sucks. =\ anyway. i'd just like to say that there are a great number of places here to visit. and they're nearbyish too (well, not a whole lot further than vegas, which is sooo dirty!). so go have a real adventure. go somewhere you've never gone before!: catalina island, balboa island (ferris wheel), balboa park (zoo), hearst castle, san juan capistrano (swallows), oceanside / carlsbad (caverns!), santa barbara (wharf), joshua tree [no more links, getting tired of looking], sequoia, palm springs, sacramento, montery bay (taffy), channel islands, napa, california delta, sausilito, red rock canyon, solvang (danishes!), calaveras country caverns, lake tahoe, yosemite, mammoth, big bear, napa / sanoma, crystal cove, griffith observatory (newly opened!), death valley, carmel, black diamond mines, temecula, union station, julian (apple pies!), lake arrowhead, mt palomar... or really, just do la (or oc or sd) right. go visit all there is to visit in la. i mean, when was the last time you went to mann's chinese? or saw the hollywood sign? go do it, and also china town, olvera st, grand central market, little tokyo, paramount studios, flower / fashion / jewelry districts, exposition rose garden, the walk of fame, la arboretum... you've lived here so long, shouldn't you really explore your own 'backyard'? and really these are only places in california. i haven't even started on arizona yet. which is pretty damn close! some bits are even closer than vegas is! speaking of vegas, another idea, why not drive past it and go to the grand canyon! i mean seriously, how many of you have been there? and once you're there you can swing by zion, bryce, national bridges, which are all incredibly beautiful and absolutely worth your time. and i would kno, i've been more than once.
anyway. the point of this post. think outside the box. outside that dirty, vulgar, smokey, tacky, sleezy, hackneyed box known as vegas. the rest of the world is funner. and also a lot closer than you think.
lyrics
All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."
Saturday, November 4, 2006
weirdness
Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.
Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.
Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on it's fur.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Astronauts cannot cry. In space, there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.
A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs.
Friday, November 3, 2006
maths
Thursday, November 2, 2006
bananas
mixed
in rather sad but still expected news, bob barker is planning on retiring from 'the price is right'.
LONDON - Maybe the pelican was tired of a steady diet of fish when he gobbled up a pigeon in London's St. James Park. One witness said the pigeon was "kicking and flapping the whole way" down the pelican's throat, Sky News reported. The pelican waddled over to the pigeon and scooped it up, Sky News said. After about 20 minutes, the pelican downed the pigeon head-first. A spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said a pelican eating a bird is usual, Sky News said. The mainstay of a pelican's diet is fish.
oh, and one more thing: donald duck's middle name is fauntleroy. teehee.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
new age
halloween is now every different from when we were kids. remember how we used to go door to door collecting mounds and pounds of candy? then we would go to someone's house and divy it up into piles and maybe trade some wit each other. there would also be a tiny little pile of 'suspicious' candy. we had heard the stories: razor blades in apples, poisoned candy, murderers luring kids into their homes... but it wasn't a real fear for us. we weren't even all that careful when inspecting the candy. we only disgarded the stuff that had obviously been opened beforehand. we weren't so much worried about poison as we were about germs and other cooties, however.
these days it's totally different. not many kids go around the neighborhoods. their parents take them to shopping malls and other plazas where the kids get candy from retail establishments. and yes, it's safer. after all, wat are the chances that ralph's is going to distribute poisoned candy? but it's also not as fun. it was fun going around to houses. seeing which ones went all out wit their decorations. sometimes there would be someone in costume hiding behind the bushes, waiting to jump out and scare the kids, but it was all in good fun. these days it's seems that it's simply too dangerous to let your kids walk around, even supervised, their well known neighborhood depending on the good will of the locals.
but it's only been 10 to 20 years since we were kids. see how things have changed... so how will things be for our kids, who, in another 10 to 30 from now, will be the ones trick or treating?