Yet another painful reminder...

...that I live in Idaho.
While at the local sushi spot, (and here's where you pause and think, "Wait, you're getting sushi in Idaho?!?" I know, right?) I was pained to notice this on the menu.

Idaho Moo Rolls:
Grilled beef, avocado, tempura veggies, cream cheese, and sesame seeds.
The most disturbing ingredients have been highlighted for your convienience.

All in all, I'm pleased to say my sushi sampler was very tasty and devoid of cow.

Parodeez: Ur doin it rite!

Homework break on YouTube+LOLcats+Come Together=This video that will be everywhere on the internet within the next week or so.



(This is so wrong...but it sounds so right.)

LOL TOGETHER
Copyright © 2008 Allison Lonsdale & Eben Brooks
Here come ol' LOLcat
He run out of happy
He can has cheezburger
Look out, you haz a flavr
He's in ur base killin ur d00dz
Do not want kibble, give me the gushyfuds!
Ceiling Cat watching him
He going to the moon, BRB
He maded you a cookie, but he
Went NOM NOM NOM! He sorry
Longcat is looooooooooooooong
Everything you do he say ur doin it rong!
LOL Together right now! OMG!
He chargin lazors
He steal lolrus bukkit
He make invisible sandwich
It not so gret aktuly
He say I like Fark, Worth1000, SomethingAwful
Baby we can Photoshop until we both ROFL
LOL Together right now! OMG
(Chan it up!)
He upgraded your RAM
He see what you did there
He say Today is Caturday
He one holy kitten
He say You know me, I know you
OMFGWTFBBQ!
LOL Together right now!
kthxbai

Top five: Personality quirks Liz Lemon and I have in common

(Some of these are just sad… On a brighter note, two weeks until comedy night is done right once again!)

1. Awkwardness around people…especially those of the male persuasion. The following exchange is so something I would do.

Random Guy: (flirting) Hey, is this seat taken?
Liz: (irritaed) Ugh! Really, dude? I have to move my coat?! There are, like, four empty seats over there. Can't you just be cool?!

I’m not even going to touch the bit where she wonders if he would’ve bought her mozzarella sticks, because I’m pretty sure I’ve thought that before.

2. Geek girl love for stuff like Star Wars and Harry Potter. This next Halloween, I am so dressing up as Princess Leia…and probably for the next four Halloweens after that. Someday, I want a man who will understand when I complain that my eyes look like Admiral Ackbar’s.

3. Liz is married to her work and right now I’m married to school. Really, those twelve hour days on campus can take a toll on a girl.

4. Eating habits. Yesterday, I had a hot dog from the Dollar Dogs stand for lunch and dinner didn’t really happen, because there were doughnuts at the psych society. Um, Mom, pretend like you didn’t read that last part.

5. In the NBC Christmas special, Jack described her as a “weird writer lady.” Hey, me too!

I didn’t even mention the obvious ones like our unconventional sense of humor or the fact we totally look alike or the eerily similar family situation (except my brother’s still got a few years to go before he loses his memory in a senior class skiing trip).

It’s official. I’m going to be Liz Lemon when I grow up.

Also, if you like 30 Rock, please check out Pregnant Cornbread, a new 30 Rock fansite! It has the potential to be what Officetally is to The Office.

Top five: Musicians with the name "Ben"

1. Ben Gibbard
2. Ben Harper
3. Ben Folds
4. Ben Lee
5. Ben Kweller

Moral of the story: Kids, if you want to make it big, have everyone start calling you "Ben."

Top three: Internet buys under five dollars

1. Sushi Band-aids--For some inexplicable but awesome reason, they also come with a free toy. Price: $3.99

2. Mayan Rocks buttons--The best are the Andy Warhol buttons, which would look super cute with this $10 tote bag from Target. Price: $1 each

3. It's A Wonderful Life Cat Magnet--Somebody please buy this for my fridge, kthxbi. Price: $4

Bracketology

I filled out my NCAA brackets this morning. Having zero college basketball knowledge (my school doesn't do the intercollegiate sports thing), it's very much like Battleship--hit or miss, but mostly miss. This year, I employed a slightly more specific technique.

From the 1st Round: Higher Ranked Seed
(With the exception of Cornell, in honor of one Andrew Benard.)

From the 2nd Round: Longer Names
(In case of a tie, it went to the lower letter of the alphabet.)

From the Sweet 16: More realisitc names for my future children
(This helps explain why Marquette made it so far.)

From the Elite 8: Presence of blue in the school colors

From Semi-finals: Cooler mascots

National Champions: Flipped a coin--North Carolina was heads for the win!

"What's a triangle graph?"

Liz Lemon: "I don't know, it sounded real."

Instead of a real post, tonight is all about meta-blogging. I bet most of you have heard of Indexed, but for the uninitiated, you must check it out. Jessica Hagy finds the most fascinating connections between everyday life and then charts them in a mathematical way.

Case in point:

Because I'm a nice person, I'm also going to link to her book, which you can buy here.

Infinitely Indie

Part Uno:
When I got a call from a friend inviting us over to hear his brother-in-law give a home concert tonight, I was not expecting to hear what I did. Turns out, his b-i-l is Cary Judd. It was my first time listening to Cary, but it certainly won’t be the last. (That sounds cliché, and I know saying it sounds cliché sounds a little cliché. But I am what I am…that’s Popeye.)

Okay, seriously, guys? Do yourself a huge favor and check this guy out. His music is awesome, in the truest sense of inspiring awe. He “starts by playing a riff or progression that finds itself embellished in a swirl of drum or guitar loops that he masterfully creates with a series of electronic pedals at his feet.” (The website explained that much better than I would have.) The lyrics are strung together so poignantly and perfectly it’s easy to get lost in them. As a reference point, he’s similar to Wisely, Jeff Buckley, and Wilco, but at the same time, not really like anything you’ve ever heard at all. (There I go again with the clichés!)

Adding to the surreality of the experience was his baby son falling asleep on my lap. (Tonight also marks the first time I’ve ever been mistaken for the mother of someone else’s child. That was weird.)

Need more proof? Check out some of the bands he’s toured with--Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes, The Shins, Tristan Prettyman, Ari Hest, Pedro the Lion, and Of Montreal. If that’s not some serious music talent, I don’t know what is.

You can listen to him at his home page, myspace, or buy his albums on iTunes.

Part dos:
My own personal indie cred was boosted today when I bought a t-shirt from a local printing company for $8! Whoo! The best part is I was *thisclose* to buying the same shirt from the resident trendy clothes shop for $22 a few weeks ago. Good thing I held off!

Pi Heaven

Happy Pi Day, everyone! I adore pi. I was totally in the MESA club in high school. I also adore pie! In fact, my very first top three list was about my favorite types of pie. (They happen to be cherry, french apple, and pecan.) What's your fave?

Top three: Ways to celebrate Pi Day involving pi
1. Buy a pi shirt! This one's my favorite.

2. Watch the original pi rap. It's also a very funny spoof of the old PBS kid's brainwashing educational show Zoom.

3. Indulge your inner nerd with a math movie. I recommend Stand & Deliver, Mean Girls, and The Absent-Minded Professor.

Top three: Ways to celebrate Pi Day involving pie
1. Buy a pie shirt! This one's my favorite. (Alas, it's sold out, so you'll just have to admire it and pray Threadless reprints soon.)

2. Consume lots and lots of pie. Lots. Start with making Martha Stewart's cherry.

3. View. Swoon. Repeat.

EnthyMEME

Q tagged me for her book title meme, which goes as follows...

"Write the first word in the title of the book you’re reading right now (if you’re reading several, please just choose one). Then format the first word so that the letters have a separate line (yes, you’re right: an acrostic poem type thing). Choose a phrase for each letter that describes the book. Characters, places, and even types of food is fine. It just has to be something from the book."

So, I choose "The Power of Logic, 3rd Edition" by C. Stephen Layman himself!

Proofs
O statments = particular negatives
Well-crafted argument (cue Law and Order sound)
Equivocation is an ambiguous fallacy.
Really don't want to do my 85 question assignment for this class, hence the procrastination!

P.S. I'm really proud of my logic/blog (blogic!) pun in the title.
P.P.S. I tag Chilly, if she feels so inclined.

Covet

If my computer short-circuits in the next little while, it's because I'm drooling over these utterly fantastic shoes. Only Miu Miu could make this look super-classy and not like someone took a bedazzler to some strappy sandals.
(Image courtesy of {this is glamorous} )

Top Three: Talents displayed last night…

…at our ward talent show. I usually call these “lack thereof” shows, but there were a few gems.

1. First, there was the girl who played/sang Regina Spektor’s Music Box. Really superbly good. I love that song.

2. The PCA (Polynesian Cultural Association) dancers performed this dawesome Tahitian dance thing. There was more hip shaking than I think most of the very, very Mormon boys in attendance had seen in their entire lifetime.

3. The highlight was a live action version of Snape and The Mysterious Ticking Noise. The timing wasn’t perfect, but the girl playing Dumbledore had me in hysterics.

Happy Middle Name Day!

In honor of middle name day, I thought I'd share a short story about mine. When I was thirteen, we were having a family New Year's party and my asthma was all out of whack because of our new kitten. I went to the garage to mope and get away from the party and there was no evil cat hair in the garage. Plus, I was thirteen, so mopiness came with the package. At one point in the night, my Uncle Tom came in to check on me and informed me that at this age my middle initial stood for Angst, and not Alice. It did not make me feel better, but looking back he was entirely correct.

Fun fact 0ff the top of my head: Hermione's middle name is Jane and Ron's is Bilius.

Top Three: Things I Want To Accomplish While In My Twenties

1. Live in New York. What young, single adult doesn’t want to spend some time trying to make it in the Big Apple? I just adore a penthouse view! Darling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue. (Other options I'd consider: Chi-town or Seattle)

2. Be in a band. There’s a lot I have to do before this can happen (i.e. get an electric guitar, find people to be in the band, and actually get good at the guitar) but it’s all doable. We don’t have to be great, just good enough to play a few gigs. That’s all I ask.

3. Road trip! Dude, if this isn’t a Stuff White People Like entry yet, it should be. I never got the whole “road trip” experience in high school, so I’m just waiting for it to happen in this era of my life. Preferably SoCal, but at this point I’d take anywhere warm and sunny, like St. George.

Top Ten: Literary Characters I Would Marry In A Heartbeat

(Because sometimes a “Top Three” just doesn’t cover it.)

1. Aragorn—Rough, tough, and devastatingly handsome! Faramir has much better taste in women, but Aragorn’s got his destiny all figured out. Did I mention how hot the Strider persona is?

2. Atticus Finch—Honor, thy name is Atticus! He’s not a perfect father, but he knows that. Great vocabulary, wisdom up the wazoo, and a dead shot with a rifle. Southern charm has never seemed so…legal.

3. Edward Cullen/Jacob Black—I couldn’t decide which one to list, so I don’t know how Bella’s going to decide which one gets to be her bf. (Really, we all know who she’ll pick, but the drama isn’t over yet, oh no.) Killer good looks (pun intended, of course) are only a small part of the package with these two.

4. Gilbert Blythe—Okay, this is where I have to ‘fess up and say I’ve only ever read the first Anne of Green Gables (and even that one’s a little hazy, since it’s been so long). Even still, Gil entirely deserves a place on the list, because I’ve seen the movie enough to warrant a spot. He and Anne are the ultimate in Canadian love stories (probably ‘cuz they’re Canada’s only love story).

5. Han Solo—Totally a book character, trust me on this! Han mellows down as the years go back, but his relationship with Leia grows even stronger. It’s interesting to see him domesticate and deal with real-life responsibilities. Annnnd my nerd quota went up about 50 points right there.

6. King Zachary—Kind, noble, and probably gorgeous to boot. His devotion to his country is boundless. Karigan needs to get her stuff together, because Zachary is a man among men.

7. Laurie—I hesitated not putting Professor Bhaer here instead, since I’m much more like Jo than Amy. But it’s Laurie I fell in love with first and continue to fall for time and time again. Laurie’s got passion, which is very high on my list of attractive features *and* he’s musical.

8. Mr. Darcy—He is imperfect on so very many levels, but you know what? None of that matters. He’s Mr. Darcy. The fact of the matter is, he and Elizabeth truly love each other and make each other happy, despite their differences.

9. Peregrine—Looking over this list, it’s clear I have a thing for royalty. I also better explain just who this “Peregrine” guy is. He’s the man-of-all-trades in M.M. Kaye’s absolutely delightful story The Ordinary Princess. Him and Princess Amy, while both quite “ordinary” apart, make a remarkable couple. (See also: Geric, from The Goose Girl)

10. Robin Hood—In the many adaptations of this story, the one I think of most is Robin McKinley’s version. Robin Hood perfected the “scoundrel with a heart of gold” persona long before all the others—and believe me, there have been many since. His other good qualities include vision, loyalty, and a sense of skewed charity.

Others that almost made the cut: Rochester, Knightly, Matthias (on account of being a mouse and all), Nathan Steed, Fred & George, and Arthur Dent.

Any you agree/disagree with? Who'd I leave out?