Buh-bye, Bulgari

In Rome, I bought a fancy shmancy souvenir -- a key ring from Bulgari. It set me back a pretty penny, and it was a great reminder of a fun week.

Yes, "was."

The clip part broke off about a month ago, so I brought it into the Michigan Avenue store to try to have it repaired.

They told me today that they can't repair it. I asked about some sort of warranty on the item. They said there was no warranty on "leather goods." It seems to me that, with the high price of all of these luxury goods, there should be SOME kind of warranty no matter what the product. Can we say "implied warranty of merchantability?"

Thus, as of right now, I proclaim war on Bulgari and henceforth boycott their products. He wasn't even apologetic about it. How rude.

Stan Berenstain

Today, Stan Berenstain died. He was the author behind the Berenstain Bears.

As a kid, I loved this series. I think my favorite was Berenstain Bears and the Sitter. Or maybe Berenstain Bears in the Dark. Or maybe Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight. Heck, who am I kidding, I loved all of them!


Thanks for the memories, Stan.

Homebody, Examined

So recently I took a quiz thing that said my "ideal relationship" right now would be casual dating. This result makes me wonder: How does a homebody go about casually dating? Or...how does a homebody meet other homebodies? Or...what do two homebodies do on a date? Mutual homebodying?

Also, I recently had a conversation with a good friend of mine from high school. Neither of us has had much experience with the relationships side of life. Looking around, we see that many of the long-term relationships people are in are relationships that began in undergrad. This makes me wonder (a second time): Is there some sort of expiration date on, well, date-ability? And...if I haven't jumped on that ship yet, has it set sail already? And...if I look on the back of my diploma, will I find some sort of sell-by date in fine print along the lines of "Has reached her shelf life for relationship-readiness. Do not purchase past 06/2003"...?

Maybe it's just the company I keep and the people I know are a skewed sample, but it seems that dating past undergrad is especially difficult. Sure, going to law school may have opened up a second-time-around door, but the well's pretty dry over here, too. Now that I think I may be curious enough to jump on board, is it possible that I'm already past my expiration date?

Rude Awakening

Normally, I have a lovely, peaceful view of the lake from my window.


This morning, however, around 8:30 AM, I awoke to the sound of a Vietnam war movie in surround sound, with this blight on the view outside my window.


Yes, that is a starring helicopter about 30 feet away. Needless to say, it was loud as all hell and goddamn annoying, too. 8:30 AM on a Sunday morning? So unnecessary.

Mrs. Federline

Britney, time to wake up and smell the divorce papers.

Edit: Wow, considering the flurry of Hollywood matrimony news, that was an especially appropo time to mention Brit-Brit's wedding.

See: Jessica & Nick are separated! (Also, how much grosser can Jessica's dad get?!)
Also see: Christina Aguilera gets married.

Hrmmm...

So maybe it's time to start fishing?

Your Ideal Relationship is Casual Dating

Maybe you're looking for love... But mostly you're looking for fun. You could get serious with the right person. For now, though, you're enjoying playing the field.

What's Your Ideal Relationship?

Guten Tag!

Law Fairy tagged me. I am IT. There are rules and all that good stuff.

Here's how you play this one:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

The fifth sentence is...*drumroll*:

"Why am I here?"

I think that sums up the story of my life (for now).

My tag? Slater, LAK, and, hrm, Barbie Mike!

*skedaddles*

Just in Time for Christmas

Atari, revisited.

The Atari Flashback, with classic games such as Pong and Centipede, retails for the '80s price of $30. Now you all know what to get your older brothers for Christmas.

Advice Q

A friend has been asking me for advice on his long distance relationship. He wants to break up with his LD girlfriend (of two years), who lives across an ocean. Something to think about: He has tickets to visit her at Christmas already. How best should he do this?

Also, just as a minor rant, I think he is totally off-the-mark when he thinks he can check out other girls/get their numbers, etc. He says that he's "mentally" free now. WTF? I say he can't so much as call this girl (or any other girl, for that matter) before he breaks up with the LD girlfriend. She needs to know. It's only fair to her.

Maybe my mindset against emotional cheating supports the evolutionary psychology theory that men are more upset by sexual infidelity (b/c their interest is in making sure their mates propagate their own genes) while women are more upset by emotional infidelity (b/c their interest lies with keeping their mates around to help raise the offspring)?

Rejoice

Call off the search team -- I have found my bookstand. (And just in the nick of time, Watson!)

32 Candles

Can anyone tell me if the "Sixteen Candles" sequel "32 Candles" ever was released?????

Side note: I found out what Jake Ryan (a.k.a. Michael Schoeffling) is doing now; he's a "successful furniture business owner/furniture maker" in Pennsylvania.

Class Time

Can someone tell me WTF is up with the introduction of this ridiculous 6:10-8:10 class period?!?! What are we, an extension school?

Count me in

I just accepted my NY offer.

HP4

"Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" (or, as I more lovingly refer to it, HP4) was good. I'm still not jumping out of my skin with excitement (but, really, how often does that happen where movies are better than the book), but it was definitely worth the time and anticipation. The movie was surprisingly funny -- funnier than the book -- but in a sort of dorky funny way. Nonetheless, dorky funny was appreciated...I liked it. I didn't like how Cho's dress was all stereotypical Asian cheong-sam dress, though!! What is up with that????? PC Police, where are you?

That aside, overall, a fun and action-packed movie.

P.S.: I really want a mini Hungarian Horntail for Christmas. :)

*** possible spoilers ***

They cut out a BUNCH of stuff in the movie, though! And a lot of the characters. I was a little taken aback from the very beginning b/c, if I remember correctly, the first scene does NOT have anybody other than Wormtail attending to Voldemort. That kind of set the mood for the rest of the movie in an "Okay, so I guess 600+ pages aren't easily adaptable to movie form, so let's see where they've abridged it" sort of way. A lot of the changes/removals were pretty smooth, but a couple made me wonder b/c they seem to make the next directors' jobs more difficult.

They got rid of the back story of Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban (and his father and mother's aid in doing so). Not only that, but the whole Barty Crouch Jr. background with Winky the house elf (who doesn't appear in the movie!) and and Barty Jr.'s overcoming and eventually using against his own father the Imperius curse.

They cut out Percy, Barty Crouch Sr.'s eager assistant (and soon-to-be estranged Weasley brother), entirely. That suggests any future Weasley family troubles will not be featured and could pose a problem b/c it seems Rowling is setting Percy up for something either evil or glorious by the last book. Hrm.

Also, they cut out the controversy over Madame Maxime's giant blood and the story of the giants in general. This omission seems important considering the peace mission Hagrid and Madame Maxime embark upon in the next books. It seems Dumbledore emphasizes that, in order to overcome Voldemort, the magical world -- not just wizards, but all magical creatures from elves to giants -- must come together and work with each other to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters, so why cut out this important tie?

There are a couple others that struck me as distracting, but for the most part, the changes/omissions still maintained the general story and made the movie work as a whole.

So Excited

I just bought my spring break tickets.

Into Berlin, returning from Athens.

Best of all, less than roundtrip to/from either of the cities.

SO EXCITED.

Miscellany

First: Thank GOD the holidays are starting earlier and earlier...because that means more egg nog and peppermint ice cream. Yayayayay!

Second: The newest Miller Lite commercial is awesome.
Lawyer to man on the stand: "... And in your opinion, which has more flavor: Miller Lite or Bud Light?"
Man on the stand: "The Miller Lite, definitely!"
Lawyer: "Let the record show that our taste expert states --"
Opposing counsel: "Objection! He's not a taste expert!"
Judge: "This man's legal name is Flava-Flav. Counselor, I'll allow it."
Lawyer and Flava, pointing at opposing counsel: "Yeeeeeeeahhhhhhhh, boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Um, according to whom?

Estee Lauder dropped Elizabeth Hurley in favor of Gwyneth Paltrow because they wanted to make their company "more sexy."

Uh, yeah...a married new mom whose child is named after a fruit is way more sexy...

More Speechless?

In the spirit of "I like my Bio Data, B-I-O-D-A-T-A!," here are a couple of other videos. 'N Chink was at UCLA when I was there! And Bok Choy Boys come from the student group my friend performs in.

'N Chink -- Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely
'N Chink -- The Last Episode
Bok Choy Boys -- I Want My Chow Mein

And, while I'm posting video links, this video is super cute. Take that, all of you Mac v. PC debaters! (Thanks, Mikey!)

Celeb Lookalike

OH MY GOD.

Carol's date in As Good As It Gets (an actor named Randall Batinkoff) looks EXACTLY LIKE Professor Harcourt. Okay, so Batinkoff's IMDB picture doesn't look like Harcourt, but if you watch the movie, Batinkoff's character is Harcourt even down to the intensity and downright aura!

And, yes, it's a little disconcerting to see Bernie Harcourt getting it on with Carol/Helen Hunt.

Gay Haiku

The most awesome haiku in Gay Haiku by Joel Derfner:

"Your CD rack has
No Barbra, Britney, or Cher.
Are you sure you're gay?"

State of Affairs

odderie: I'm such a supergeek.
odderie: I can't find my little bookstand.
odderie: And it's really upsetting!
odderie: I haven't used it all year.
odderie: Since last quarter's finals...
odderie: :-(
mcm: Does that say something about this years scholarship? ;-)

Coincidence?

This article reminded me of my brother's ChemE car:

MPRE Haiku

Feeling dejected
Just took the MPRE
March test, here I come.

Speechless, Part Deux

Holy crap.

I don't know if I'm being super culturally insensitive (in which case I apologize profusely), but this video is starring HILARIOUS.

Hollaback here. And turn on your sound.
Edit: Do not click on this in class.