凤凰城 - Phoenix

Phoenix was hot, believe it or not. I had a good time though, and it was good to see my friends from study abroad in China. We ended up staying inside much of the day because my two friends aren't really morning people, so they didn't usually roll out of bed until after noon or 1:00. Also, by that time it was so hot out that it was just better to stay inside anyway. We didn't really DO anything the whole time I was there and I don't think we strayed much more than 5 miles away from Natalie's apartment. We did rent some fun cruiser bikes that made getting around pretty fun and easy though. Our primary activities involved going to the grocery store, making food like eggplant lasagne, BLT's, and Chinese stir fry, eating out at a tasty vegan restaurant, at a friendly Indian restaurant, and a Mediterranean restaurant. We also spent a lot of time just sitting around on the internet and listening to music, and meeting Natalie's friends. I got to drive two kinds of cars that I'd never driven before (Honda CRV and a Volvo S40). The S40 was more fun, but I was less impressed with it than I was with the CRV. My friends complimented me on my authoritative parking skills. On my last day there we helped Natalie move out of her apartment into a room in a house with a bunch of messy nerdy boys.

It was a good trip and I'm glad I got to go, thanks to Mom's help. Also, I would recommend to anyone that they fly Southwest Airlines. They have FREE SEATING!!! Instead of getting assigned seating and having to sit in the middle seat next to stinky or annoying people, you can sit wherever you want once you get on the plane and hopefully avoid those kinds of people and instead sit next to attractive people. It is great.

And here's today's video, Helena by My Chemical Romance. I like it because the lead singer is so intense, and I like the black/red color scheme.

Job(less) Anatomy

I will be sure to let everyone know the very moment I get a job. In the mean time, I'm still looking.

I made some money this weekend 'babysitting' my cousins. They are old enough that I didn't really have to do any actual babysitting (no diaper changing, for example), so it was pretty easy. I really just had to spend the night there, but I ended up spending most of the days there too because their house is air-conditioned, unlike my apartment which is more like a sauna without the steam.

Aside from watching their cable and lounging in the AC, we also went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was really amazing. It is an exhibit of real human bodies which have been dissected and preserved. It is like doing a cadaver lab without all the slicing and dicing and fainting. I would highly recommend that you go see it if you have a chance.

So, it was a pretty good weekend. Tomorrow I am helping my roomate Grant's parents move to their new house, and then I have to get ready to leave for Phoenix on tuesday morning.

Here's today's Jack Handy quote:
I'd like to be buried Indian-style, where they put you up on a high rack, above the ground. That way, you could get hit by meteorites and not even feel it.

And here's today's video of Shakira shaking her anatomy in "These Hips Don't Lie":

And finally, as a little bonus, here's a Natalie Dee cartoon called "giraffes are not encumbered by the rules of society."

Summertime

Let's see... 9 days into summer vacation and I'm already kind of sick of it. Call me crazy, but I don't really like summer vacation very much. I kind of wish I were taking summer classes, but they are expensive. Luckily I've been pretty busy every day so far running errands or seeing people, or whatnot. Hopefully I find a job before the horrible summertime boredom sets in.

I got my grades for this past semester, and although they weren't very stellar, they were actually better than I was anticipating. I got an A in Phonetics and Phonology, and A- in both Study of Words and in Intro to Linguistics, so all my linguistics classes were in the A territory, which is fantastic but it's also what I was expecting. Then, in Political Geography, the class that I got a D on the first test, I managed to pull out a B-. I wasn't expecting anything higher than a C in that class, so I was very happy with that. Then, in American Foreign Policy, which I also messed up big-time and got a D on the final exam and wasn't expecting anything higher than a C, I got a B in. So I was happy about that too. Then, in my last class, Problems in International Relationsn, I got a lower-than-expected C+, but that's because I didn't really put any effort into the final paper which was worth 1/3 of our grade. I didn't put much effort in because I spent all my time trying to salvage that political geography grade instead and just didn't have time left over for that paper. So I'm actually not very upset about that. My cumulative GPA dropped this semester from a 3.487 to a 3.447. Hopefully, with any luck, I'll still be able to bring that up over a 3.5 next semester though.

In other summertime news, I've been looking for jobs, but not very hard. I figure I don't need to start getting desparate until the beginning of June. The study abroad thing in Jordan didn't pan out. The linguistics job that I applied for way back in March doesn't seem like it'll be an option. I might be able to get a gig doing a website for MiniTec, a company that makes the kind of Mini Coopers that I want to buy one day. Aside from that, I've called about a job here and there, and sent an email or two, but nothing very appealing. Can't someone just pay me to sit at home and work on my Chinese and go for bike rides and stuff?

One more summertime news item, as if it isn't hot enough for me here in Boulder (it's plenty hot, I have a pretty low tolerance for heat), I'm going to fly to Phoenix next week where it is some 20 degrees hotter. Why? No, it's not because I'm just that masochistic. I am going to visit two of my friends from study abroad in Nanjing whom I haven't seen in almost a year. I'm just going for 5 days, and hopefully the heat won't kill me (it almost gives me heat stroke just thinking about it). Hopefully I can con them into us going up into the mountains for some camping or something, it should be cooler there.

Here's today's Jack Handy quote:
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.

Here's today's video. It is "Camisa Negra" by Juanes. He's Colombian. This is kind of a strange video, and I don't really see how it is at all related to the lyrics, but I like it anyway. One thing that bothers me though is that in the song he keeps saying, "tengo la camisa negra" which means something like, "I have the black shirt," yet he's actually wearing a white shirt in this video... I don't get it:


Alright, that's about it for now. Adios people.

What I'm Doing

What I should be doing right now: furiously writing my big paper and/or studying for my test-from-hell tomorrow.

What I'm actually doing now: blogging.

What else I'm doing at the moment: slowly writing my big paper. kind of studying for my test-from-hell tomorrow. listening to soothing classical music. wondering if I'll ever start playing the piano again. reading Jack Handy quotes. thinking about how tired I'm going to be tomorrow. thinking about how drunk I might be tomorrow night after I'm done with everything. thinking about how glad I am that I freaked out earlier in the week, so now I'm actually not as far behind as I might have been otherwise. thinking about my future (immediate, and less immediate). wondering what on earth I am going to do this summer. thinking about how much money I've spent on Starbucks double-tall lattes this week. wondering why it has taken me until this late in my college career to discover caffeine. thinking about fast custom old mini coopers. wondering how well I've done on some of my other final projects and exams and when I will find out. being pissed that I was .5% away from an A in my study of words class (I got an A-. I figure if I had earned just 3 more points over the whole semester, I would have an A).

Ok, that's enough for now. Back to work, but first, here's today's Jack Handy quote:
Too bad you can't buy a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin real fast and freak everybody out.

And also, here is today's video:

Our President and James Blunt

When asked what was his best moment since taking office in 2001, Dubya said, "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5lb perch in my lake."

What a dolt.

Anyway, here's the whole (short) article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4982338.stm


On an unrelated note, here are five reasons why I don't like James Blunt (see his video below):

1. The first two lines of this song are, "My life is brilliant. My life is brilliant."
2. Later in the song, after some pretty girl smiled at him on a subway, he's bummed that he can't be with her, but luckily he has a plan: "I've got a plan. You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true." First of all, that isn't a plan. That is merely a statement of truth. Second of all, he is getting way too worked up about some random girl smiling at him in a crowded place. It's actually pretty shallow of him to be so depressed over a girl who he's never even talked to. Sure, she may be beautiful, but she may also be stupid and annoying.
   
3. He has ugly feet. I don't like his voice.
   
4. This is a weird video, and not weird in a good way. Why does he line his stuff up all nice like that? Why does he jump into the water? Why is he in Antarctica? Why does he take his clothes off, but not his pants? Besides, aren't his clothes already wet anyway? So why does he even bother taking them off at all?
   
5. Girls like him anyway.

Is this funny? No, it's sad.

The world should be scared that we are the most powerful nation in the world: