"Without music life would be a mistake."

Walt Ribeiro is awesome.

2009-06-25T20:41:53Z

soon we'll be found

2008-12-03T06:29:10Z

One of my favorite singers Sia, of "Breathe Me" fame, has completely blown me away with her music video for "Soon We'll Be Found." I have always been fascinated with sign language and the beauty of the coordination involved. I don't think any description I can give will do the video or song justice but I thought I would share because it inspired me.
Soon We'll Be Found

My favorite performance is from Later... With Jools Holland, during which she had amazing vocals.

Her performance on Letterman was also quite good and had a great background set.

urbandictionary.

2008-10-06T18:17:09Z

Go to http://www.Urbandictionary.com and type in your answer to each question then write the FIRST definition it gives you for your responses

1) Your name? Helen

the fear of bananas
"i have an immense helen. even 1 little banana and i freak out."

2) Your age? 22

1) A .22 Caliber hand gun. .22 is a measurement of inches, not millimeters you fucking retards.
2)22 inch rims
"'22 inch rims on the Lac. I guess that was yo footprint in the sand carrying us on yo back' -David Banner"

3) One of your friends? Arde

someone who breaks the connection between people
"tessa is an arde because she didnt post a video of people who love each other."

4) What should you be doing? Homework

Homework: (Noun) a punishment given to students by evil teachers after the students have already put in 7 hours of hard labor. (See evil, torture, wrong, cruel, unjust, satan, crap)
"my satan teacher gave me crap"

5) Favorite Color? Red

1) a communist
2) CCC tablet (Coricidin, OTC anti-tussive medicine)
"1) 'You reds!'
2) 'He passed out on 48 reds (!)'"

6) Hometown? Kalamazoo

Yes it does exist! It's in Michigan and is a bigger town than people probably think, mainly due to the fact that it's home of Western Michigan University. There is also the much smaller Kalamazoo College, also called K College. There is usually plenty of to do in the area and the public library is nationally known.
"there's a place called Kalamazoo?!"
"I hear there's a party in the student ghetto tonight."

7) Month of your birthday? October

10th month of the year
"i was born in october"

8) Last person you talked to? Ken

It literally means "know" in Scottish. Can also mean "know what i mean?" in Scottish.
1.Scottie: "Dae ye ken him?"
Translation: "Do you know him?"
2.Scottie: "It's fucked up, ken?"
Translation: "It's fucked up, know what i mean?"
or
Kenneth: A boy who is extremly hot with long hair, he is not the samrtest, mega peverted, and cannot cunduct a band. A kenneth is usually in love with a girl, and is too afraid too admit it. A kenneth is gernerally a nice person, but can have huge mood swings and turm in to a complete dickhead.
"Who is that hitting on my girl dude?"
"Oh, that's a kenneth!"

9) Where are you right now? Apartment

A confined living space. A gerbil cage for humans. That is, a shower, microwave, food, bed, and toilet, all contained within a few hundred square feet. An apartment dweller typically knows the sex habits of the dweller above and the favorite music of the dweller next door, but would not recognize the face or name of either.
Apartment construction materials include: cream colored linoleum, cream colored latex paint, cream colored carpet (extensively spotted), cream colored pre-formed shower, cream colored counters and dark brown hollow-core doors.
"I just leased a new apartment. It's a nice unit; I don't have to wait long for the community clothes washer and it only costs 75 cents a load."

10) Your nickname? I don't really have one that people call me but I'll go with Tain (from hytain)

(adj)(adverb)(verb)
1)very good, impossible cool
2)special in one form or another.
tain can also be used as a sufix to increase the amount of exageration or quanitive proportion of the base word it is added to.

eg. mate that (insert event) was tain
eg. that (insert event) was gun-tain
eg. I'm gunna go tain up that (insert event)

Info: The word was initially developed in brisbane, australia by a high school student observing a niche in the market for a new 'hip' adjective. The word will continue to make in-roads on the ever stale words 'cool', 'nice', 'insane', 'phenominal'

I found this survey quite entertaining and am interested in what responses other people would get. If you end up taking the survey, feel free to post your results in the comments :)

I was waiting for this to happen

2008-09-15T20:36:51Z

Indexed.

2008-07-24T01:14:44Z

This cover makes me smile. :)

US National Gymnastics Championships on TV!!!!

2008-06-04T16:28:37Z

2008 VISA Championships
NBC
Saturday, June 7th
4 - 6pm EST

I am OBSESSED with gymnastics and visit 15 or so gymnastics blogs on a daily basis for info on international competitions, video clips, etc. This year is particularly exciting because the internal competition to get on the US Women's Team going to Beijing is very, very, competitive this year. As this post's title suggests, the US Nationals are taking place June 5-7th and Day 2 of the championships will be aired on NBC. Yay!!! Olympic Trials are June 19-22 and the final selection competition is July 16-20th. These competitions are incredibly important because they are what the Olympic Selection Committee look at to determine who is chosen for the US Team, which will consist of 6 women and 2 alternates. At the Nationals, the top 12 all-arounders as well as accepted petitionees and event specialists will qualify for Olympic Trials. The top two all around competitors from Olympic Trials are guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team and the rest of the team will be determined after the final selection competition.

Though anyone who qualifies to Trials could theoretically make the team, three of the six spots are already locks, baring injury, for Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, and Alicia Sacramone. The format for Olympic finals is three people per event with all scores counting so the remaining spots will be given to those who can fill the holes left by the these competitors.

Beam: Shawn, Nastia, Alicia
Vault: Alicia, Shawn, ?
Floor: Shawn, Alicia, ?
Bars: Nastia, ?, ?

Basically, the final spots on the team will probably be given to two bar workers and a power individual who can perform well on vault/floor. Of the potential field, the main competitors are Sam Peszek, Shayla Whorley, Chellsie Memmel, Ivana Hong, Bridget Sloan, Jana Beiger, and ~~Ashley Priess~~. Dark horses include Randy Stageberg, Darling Hill, Mattie Larson, Chelsea Davis, and Britney Ranzy. In order of scoring ability, here's how these athletes could potentially contribute to the team:

Potential bar-tistas: Chellsie, Shayla, ~~Ashley~~, Bridget, Sam?
Potential floor-ers: Sam, Randy, Darling, Mattie?, Bridget?, ?
Potential vaulters: Sam, Ranzy, Randy?, Ivana, ?
Other beam-ers: Chellsie, Shayla, Sam, Ivana, Beiger

UPDATES: Ashley has retired from elite gymnastics completely :(. Shayla has pulled out of Nationals due to a lingering back injury but has successfully petitioned to Trials. A knee injured Chelsea was supposed to peform only on bars but has also pulled out and, I think, successfully petitioned to Trials. Bridget is only competing bars and beam as she recovers from a knee injury; she will be at Trials.

In addition to Nastia, Shawn, and Alicia, my ideal Olympic team would consist of Chellsie, Sam, and Shayla, with Bridget and Jana (or Ivana) as alternates. These are the people I am most rooting for. That being said, Nastia Liukin is my favorite gymnast. If she hits her routines, she has a potential to medal in the all-around, bars, and beam at the Beijing Olympic games. Here are two vids of her performing at the 2008 Pacific Rim Alliance Championships.

Bars (7.7 A, 16.65) - tied for hardest bar routine in the world

Beam (6.6 A, 16.4) - this is one of the most amazingly executed beam routines I have seen in a looooooong time

The End.

FACE PONYTAIL!

2008-05-30T04:48:26Z

So yeah...I am a horrible updater. Seeing as how I haven't posted in over ten months, I thought the gestation period of my laziness should end and, thus, I have decided to post. Obviously, things have changed so I've summarized my year and made a update type thing to bring order and superficial coolness to my life.

With most of my friends graduated, I had a difficult time this school year because I had to build new social and academic groups from scratch. I did Arts Chorale again during fall semester and joined many of their group activities but most of the people who attended were already close friends and I often felt like a reserve player who knew her number wouldn't be called but was still welcome to participate in practice. Even so, I loved singing in Arts Chorale because it was a great creative outlet that helped alleviate the stress of whatever was happening in school during those few hours of rehearsal. Any break from my academic chaos was welcome because I had an insanely hard course load and my mom decided to stay with me here and there during the semester in a backfired attempt to help during exam times. Though well intentioned, her presence ended up increasing my anxiety as I tried to avoid conversations about how hard my classes were because talking about it just made me more stressed. Five days before four of my finals, my mom got sick and I had to take her to the hospital, where she stayed for a couple days. I ended up bombing most of these finals, which snowpiled into an academic fiasco with the bureaucracy at UofM during winter break.

During the winter semester, I had to meet with a special advisor due to said bombing of exams and, after our first meeting, she adamantly insisted that I had a learning disability that I’ve somehow been able to get around because I’m relatively intelligent and a natural problem solver. She even made me meet with a learning disability specialist to get tested and, of course, I passed everything with flying colors. The one benefit of everything was, in talking to the disabilities counselor, I realized I have some residual anxiety issues that stem from being bullied for a decade or so, with the bulk of the damage occurring in middle school. Whatever anxiety I may feel has been there for so long that I’ve habituated and I don’t feel it anymore, though I do notice when it is gone. Realizing this feeling exists has helped me understand the reasons behind whatever self-destructive tendencies I may or may not have and has significantly reduced said anxiety.

Good things did happen during winter semester, though. The most noteworthy discovery would be the amazingly awesome person commonly known as Ken. As microbiology lab partners, we laughed at our many experimental failures and enjoyed talking as we Gram stained the hell out of various microbes. It’s funny because it’s possible we could have never met. Neither one of us was actually required to take microbiology for our majors and, on a whim, signed up for the class to complete our schedules. He commutes from Canton, a city I generally associate with Swedish meatballs and IKEA...which, ironically, is a store he has never been to. He also works at the Kelsey Museum every day so I get to visit him after work or he can visit after his work...seeing how my apartment and the museum are about a 7 minute down State Street from each other. I’m not complaining :D. All things aside though, I think I’ve become happier and more relaxed since meeting Ken, though the mundaneness of my own life does come into focus when he is not around.

Speaking of work, I’ve been trying to find a decent paying job in Ann Arbor with little luck. However, I am working in a lab on a volunteer basis up to 10 hours a week with fairly laid back/nice people. In addition to getting credit on my resume and a recommendation, I’m becoming quite versed in loading gels and am becoming familiar with isolating DNA and performing PCRs...which could become repetitive in the future but at the moment I don’t mind much.

Also, I passed French 232, which was the bane of my existence, and I do not need to take anymore foreign language classes. YAY! To inform those who don't know, I have struggled with language since I switched to LS&A and, honestly, this is monumental achievement. When I found out, I started yelling and jumping up and down like a madwoman, scaring the beejesus out of a friend in the process. Luckily, I live on the ground floor so the reverberation did not disturb any other tenants.

MOVIES
I saw 24 movies in a three day period. I felt compelled to finish all of my 2007 movies so that I could create a legitimate top 10 list before Oscar nominations came out (with the exception of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which I believe may have made this list). It was an intense time, to say the least. Speaking of which, here is my top 10 list for 2007:
1. Once
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
3. Atonement
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Juno
6. Death at a Funeral
7. Ratatouille
8. Lust, Caution
9. There Will Be Blood
10. Hot Fuzz
Honorable Mentions: 11. Waitress, 12. Persepolis

So far this year, I’ve seen three movies that have impressed me (though none were released this year).

Grave of the Fireflies (1989) (5 stars)
- An animated movie from Studio Ghibili, this film came out as a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro and it is AMAZING. It tells the poignant story about a Japanese brother and sister as they try to survive on their own during World War II after their mother is killed during an air raid and their father is away at sea. Obviously it isn’t the happiest movies, but it is definitely worth the watch as it is one of the most emotionally honest movies I have ever seen. I cried during this movie so be sure you have a box of tissues ready if you watch it. And by crying, I mean gut-wrenching tears that I could not control. I will not give away any more spoilers…just go and watch the movie now.

The Lives of Others (2006) (4.75 stars)
– Oscar Winner for Best Foreign Film. Taking place in East Berlin in 1984, this movie follows a highly regarded “Stasi” interrogator who is commissioned to spy on a political playwright. It’s a quietly compassionate and intense political thriller that completely immerses the viewer in the world of this spy and how he is affected by, well, the lives of others.

Teeth (2007) (4.25 stars)
– VAGINA DENTATA...that’s all I need to say, really. The heroine of this movie discovers she has this condition after some unfortunate circumstances. It’s billed as a “black comedy horror” and I guess that’s the best way describe it. After seeing the movie the first time, I felt uneasy because I hadn’t known the genre ahead of time and my reaction to serious scenes (ie. laughter) did not match how I thought I should feel (ie. repulsion). This movie did an impressive job of meshing genres and any movie that successfully utilizes a bizarre plot point gets kudos from me. However, I should warn all males that there are a few scenes that may a bit unnerving when viewed.

MUSIC
- I’ve been learning to beatbox. I can do a decent basic beat but I’m having issues with increasing the difficulty because that requires good breathing techniques, which I don’t have, and I can get lightheaded if I start improvising.
- My vocal range is now around a C3/D3 – E6, with an occasional B3 or F6. Very cool. (For reference, middle C is a C4; C3 is an octave below and C5 is an octave above.)
- The music of Spring Awakening is consuming my life. I found a decent camcorded video of the entire musical during fall break and the soundtrack has been on repeat ever since. It’s also a great vocal warm-up for me because the songs hit both the low and high end of my range, and it has probably contributed to my increased vocal range.

- New(er) Artists: Flight of the Conchords, A Fine Frenzy, Flobots, Adele, Lauren Pritchard, Paramore, Kerli, Robyn, Jenny Owens Young
- Old Favorites: Imogen Heap, Sia, Feist, Sara Bareilles, Missy Higgins, Gavin DeGraw

FOOD/DRINK
- Sava’s Café = my food heaven. I’ve eaten there quite a few times already and I continue to order the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with a side of fries. They also have some tasty pierogies. Speaking of which…
- I discovered Mrs. T’s Four Cheese & Potato Pierogies. I am obsessed and Meijer frequently has these on sale as a “buy one, get one free” item.
- Monster, the energy drink. Before March, I had never had an energy drink before but some microbio study sessions with Ken introduced me to the substance. I have to pace myself when drinking it because I crash soon after finishing a can.
- "Sex pasta" is currently available in three flavors...and don’t knock 'em till you’ve tried 'em
o BBQ Sauce: In a non-stick wok, fry pasta that has been evenly covered with soy sauce and bbq sauce. Mid-fry, add an additional layer of a different bbq flavor. Sweeter, tangy bbq sauces (ie. brown sugar, honey) work/taste better than spicier sauces (ie. hickory, hot).
o Soy Sauce: Sprinkle a layer of sugar on top of the pasta and add soy sauce. Interchange the ingredients until the right mixture has been made
o Beef Sauce: Cut a defrosted medium serving of angus beef into short slivers and marinate them with soy sauce and pepper, which you should rub into the meat. Microwave the meat, covered, for two minutes on each side and pour the meat and juices onto some pasta.

...I'm sure I forgot something but that's it for now...

134 Movies and other happenings

2007-07-26T00:59:07Z

So much time has passed, so little time to tell about it. I'm currently taking English 325 and Statistics 350 at U of M this semester. As for adventures, I got 3% hydrogen peroxide in my eye about a month ago. During that moment of extreme pain, I couldn't help but swear profusely for several minutes while trying to get the contact cleaning solution out of my eye. I am also pissed at Wendy's for upping their prices of nuggets, fries, and frosties from $0.99 to $1.09. Adding insult to injury, they also changed the oil to a new brand that makes the fries soggy and improperly cooked. Stupid Wendy's.

I read Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows in about 6 hours Saturday afternoon/evening. Pleasantly surprised, I actually enjoyed the book; its quality was much higher than that of book 6, which is my least favorite. In comparison with the other six books of the series, this book is the most character driven because the book does not revolve around the predictability of school (ie. tests, breaks, teachers, etc.). I actually lost track of time within the story a couple of times because I was so involved with the characters.

Also, since June 18th, I have seen 134 movies. The first week, I received my new dvd drive on the day of my final exam for Anthropology 101. I ended up watching 32 movies completely (which means no fast-forwarding was involved) during that week, a feat which will not happen again for a loooong time. I only fast-forward during boring, predictable parts or during bad movies. For the rest of the movies, I probably watched 60% without fast-forwarding, 30% with some fast-forwarding, and 10% with significant fast-forwarding. Either way, I feel comfortable in claiming I have seen all of these movies. Here is a list of the movies with ratings out of 5 stars (with 5 being the highest score):

* = re-watched movie

5 out of 5 Stars - 5

Sophie Scholl: The Last Days 10 <-- one of the best movies I've ever seen

Brick 5

Children of a Lesser God* 5

Dancer in the Dark 5

History Boys, The 5

4.5 out of 5 Stars - 15

Braveheart 4.5

Breakfast on Pluto 4.5

Chinatown 4.5

Chocolat* 4.5

City of Lost Children, The 4.5

Dirty Dozen, The 4.5

Kinsey 4.5

Life Aquatic, The* 4.5

Little Miss Sunshine* 4.5

Motorcycle Diaries, The 4.5

Nowhere in Africa 4.5

Proposition, The 4.5

Transamerica 4.5

Tristram Shandy 4.5

2046 4.5

4 out of 5 Stars - 30

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints 4

AI: Artificial Intelligence 4

Amores Perros 4

Bad Education 4

Before Night Falls 4

Birdcage, The 4

Changing Lanes 4

Clerks 4

Departed, The 4

Dr. Strangelove 4

Fifth Element, The 4

Good Bye Lenin! 4

Half Nelson 4

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 4

Libertine, The 4

Little Children 4

Mission, The 4

Oliver Twist (2005) 4

Pollock 4

Ratatouille 4

Right Stuff, The 4

Rory O’Shea Was Here 4

Saved!* 4
Seraphim Falls 4

Soylent Green 4

Squid and the Whale, The 4

Sybil 4

United 93 4

Woodsman, The 4

Y Tu Mama, Tambien 4

3.5 out of 5 Stars - 32

Art School Confidential* 3.5

Breaking and Entering 3.5

Broken Flowers 3.5

Casa de los Babys 3.5

Catch a Fire 3.5

Catch and Release* 3.5

Darling 3.5

Devil Wears Prada, The* 3.5

Diner 3.5

Duma 3.5

Full Frontal 3.5

Heavenly Creatures 3.5

Junebug 3.5

Live Free or Die Hard 3.5

Lost Boys, The 3.5

Monty Python’s Life of Brian 3.5

Mysterious Skin 3.5

Notorious Betty Page, The 3.5

Ocean’s 13 3.5

Player, The 3.5

Producers, The 3.5

Rainmaker, The 3.5

Raising Victor Vargas 3.5

Sherrybaby 3.5

Shooter* 3.5

Surf’s Up 3.5

Transformers 3.5

Unforgiven 3.5

Way Home, The 3.5

Witness 3.5

World Trade Center 3.5

World’s Fastest Indian, The 3.5

3 out of 5 Stars - 30

Bonnie and Clyde 3

Cache (Hidden) 3

City of Ghosts 3

Clear and Present Danger 3

Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The 3

Dreamcatcher 3

Dying Gaul, The 3

East/West 3

Ellie Parker 3

L’Enfant (the child) 3

Evan Almighty 3

Fail Safe 3

Family Man, The 3

Funny ha ha 3

Lonesome Jim 3

Melinda and Melinda 3

Mr. Brooks 3

Mulholland Dr. 3

Murderball 3

My Summer of Love 3

Ninth Day, The 3

Opal Dream 3

P.S. 3

Paradise Now 3

Passenger, The 3

Pure 3

Real Genius 3

Reign On Me 3

St. Elmo’s Fire 3

Undertow 3

2.5 out of 5 Stars - 12

Alpha Dog 2.5

American Pie 2.5

Flicka* 2.5

For Your Consideration 2.5

Griffin and Phoenix 2.5

Jarhead 2.5

Licensed to Wed 2.5

Logan’s Run 2.5

Nancy Drew 2.5

Padre Padrone 2.5

Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The 2.5

Rumor Has It 2.5

2 out of 5 Stars - 10

American Pie 2 2

American Pie 3 2

Benchwarmers, The 2

Failure to Launch 2

New Guy, The 2

1.5 out of 5 Stars

American Pie 4: Band Camp 1.5

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer 1.5

Fast-Furious: Tokyo Drift 1.5

Material Girls 1.5

1 out of 5 Stars

American Pie 5: The Naked Mile 1

This must be Heaven sent...

2007-06-16T21:52:16Z

Jesus has appeared to me in the form of a blueberry muffin. I wonder how much it would fetch on ebay...

Trust Me

2007-05-06T06:16:14Z

I am mildly in love with Veronica Mars. The Show...the characters...the actors...the music...the clothes...the wit...everything. Our courtship began a couple years ago but, unfortunately, it may end soon as the ratings have not been very high during the current and past two seasons. The fate of its return is mysteriously uncertain so I've decided to advertise in a last ditch effort to keep it on the air. Though it is mid-season, don't worry about being confused with plot lines. The rest of this season's episodes are all supposedly self-contained so you can just watch them, enjoy them,...and spread the word.

P.S. I would have posted this last week had it not been for the Vicodin withdrawal.

I feel sticky

2007-05-03T18:31:42Z

Don't you hate it when you step in a partially dried soft drink spill and end up walking the rest of the day with an unwavering suction on one foot?

the quest for sanity

2007-04-24T03:51:11Z

As I'm sure everyone knows, taking exams really sucks. It stinks worse than the biology hall during fetal pig dissections. Ugh. I just had my orgo 2 exam this morning, which went better than expected, and I have one more for neurobiology on Wednesday morning. I will be moving out on Wednesday and Thursday to our Ann Arbor apartment (where I'll be living in the summer). Then, on Friday, I'll be getting my wisdom teeth out at 8:50 am. Busy, busy week. In order to remain sane and positive, I have decided to overlook the bad and search for the good. Here are some of the fruits of my labor:

Coolest Praying Mantis:

Coolest fruit holder:                                                                                      Coolest Rings:


Coolest use of CD tower container:           Coolest Packaged Meat:

Coolest Hot-Air Balloon:

Interesting furnature ideas:

Interesting Jewelry Designs:

That's all folks!

Disturbed? So am I.

2007-04-17T21:28:45Z

Me...as a guy.

I think "disturbed" may not be a strong enough word.

I honestly haven't been looking for all of these face imaging programs. I just came across them on another's blog or a link was sent to me. In any case, I found this program called Face Transformer that will morph your face to different genders, races, and ages, among other things. The photo above is what I would look like as a man, and all I have to say that I am one ugly dude.

I saved images of each morph and put them together so that you can see them in context.

As mentioned, I think I would be one ugly dude. Granted, this program makes almost everyone look uglier no matter what is done to the original photo.

I must note that there is a disclaimer on the site saying that this is just for fun and no racial implications/stereotypes are intended. Since the only "original" race settings included the choices above, I don't know the amount of inaccuracy of these pictures. I'm wondering if the Caucasian and East Asian faces are more exaggerated for me.

I actually looked much less Asian as a kid. Even so, I think the eyes on the "Child" face do look a bit familiar. Everything else, not so much. And, I defy my skin to attempt to get darker. The only way that would happen is if I sunburn myself to death.

Last but not least...

At least something pretty came out of this morphing program. However, I do have to say that petshopmistress, splash, and the rest of my anime drawing friends could kick that simulated manga artist's ass.

Short Stories

2007-04-16T21:27:49Z

I'm kinda a reading nut, bookworm, etc. and an avid listener of audio books. Usually I go for novels but lately I've started reading and appreciating short stories. Recently, I read a novella by William Shunn titled "Inclination" that I strongly recommend to everyone. It was even nominated for a Hugo and a Nebula Award. For anyone who doesn't know what these are, a Hugo is a award given to a variety of SciFi works every year, while a Nebula is another SciFi award given to US fiction published every two years. Essentially, if a book wins or gets nominated for either of these awards...it generally kicks ass. As it so happens, an audio book of "Inclination" has been made.

Here are the three audio book links as well as a text link:
            Part 1: http://www.shunn.net/radio/mp3/inclination1.mp3
            Part 2: http://www.shunn.net/radio/mp3/inclination2.mp3
            Part 3: http://www.shunn.net/radio/mp3/inclination3.mp3
            Text:    http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/Inclination.shtml

Seriously...read it.

Also, I found some good writing advice from the recently deceased Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions, among other classics) on the subject of short stories.

Writing advice:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

*which is to say, create or resolve tension.

Look-alikes

2007-04-13T21:55:14Z

I found this celebrity look-alike program and have been having fun inputting different pictures. It's very amusing. I tried different pictures and one comparison said that I most looked like Hilary Duff while another suggested I looked like Steve Buscemi. Um....not really. Here are the results for my most successful picture.

http://www.myheritage.com

Numb...so numb poke

2007-04-13T02:05:16Z

"Numb is the new deep, done with the old me, and talk is the same cheap it's been." - John Mayer

There's something about the dentist's office that always brightens up my day. Especially when two visits are needed. In the same day. I think it might be the overhead lamp.

During my first visit at 2 pm, I found out that not only do I need hefty amount of fillings but one of my molars will be needing a crown. This kingly tooth could only be partially serviced, though, during an additional appointment later at 6 pm. Apparently, it wasn't possible to complete the process until I get my fat, ugly, and useless wisdom teeth removed. ARG!

On the bright side, the dental practice to which I go just had a new wing installed and their chairs have massagers built into the back. How cool is that? Also, my face is numb. Now, I know I am easily amused but this takes the cake. I CAN'T FEEL MY NOSE! I keep on pushing it and tapping it, which I'm sure makes me look like I'm picking my nose, but I don't really care and I can't stop. If I didn't have aichmophobia (ie. needles suck) and actually liked how this fashion looks on most people, I may have entertained the possibility of piercing my nose. Actually, the entire left side of my face from my cheek to my chin is fairly numb as well so maybe I should get that tattoo I always wanted but was too scared to get. Who cares if it isn't on my lower back? I'll be like Mike Tyson.

On a final note, I think this might be a sign from God...

...regarding some habits of mine:

I wonder...

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T16:35:46Z

On this joyous day, I must bring you a video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_WnukOZSaCw

This is sooo wrong...though I am thankful for the invention of peeps. Enjoy!

First Post!

2007-04-05T04:19:36Z

If you haven't noticed I've finally been sucked into the whole livejournal craze. Feel free to be entertained.

I remember that when I was little I desperately tried to write diaries/journals because I loved the idea of someone reacting to my thoughts as a kid after I had become a "grown up." Is this normal? I think I felt a need to be remembered for something. It's like I did it to keep up apperances. Either that…or I wanted to be Harriet the Spy. I think it might have been a combination of both.

Well, I registered for classes today. I would have registered on Monday except I didn’t get an e-mail from the amazing administrators working at wolverineaccess. I probably should have checked online anyway, as I figured this process would happen soon anyway. As of now, I’m taking the following classes this fall:

French 231: Continuing Second-Year French
MCDB 422: Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
MCDB 423: Intro to Research in Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
MCDB 427: Molecular Biology

The problem with switching to LS&A is that they have many more requirements for students than the Engineering department. Suddenly, I have to take classes that fulfill the upper-level writing and race and ethnicity requirements in addition to 4 social science credits. Why the heck do I need to take a race and ethnicity class? I understand that some people who have led more sheltered life may become more aware of problems they hadn’t experienced. However, I shouldn’t be required to take a class I that won’t enhance my life significantly enough to attend. Fortunately for me, I will be taking Anthropology 101 this spring, which fulfills the RE and 4 SS credit requirement. Thank god there is a class fulfills two requirements and an interesting (or so I’ve heard, anyway). A friend of mine ended up taking what she called an “urban environment” class during her last semester at the university. Poor her. This summer, I’ll also be taking English 325: The Magnificence of Writing Prose…or some other pretentious title…and, probably, Statistics 350 because, according to my mom, it will make me more marketable to employers. I’ll be studying for my GREs as well so…yea…fun, fun, fun.

I'm a-watching the Colbert Report so I’ll leave with a great quote from today's guest:

“Armageddon is not a foreign policy.” – Madeline Albright