What I’m Watching

A while back, I watched Mean Girls 2. Obviously this was in response to the success of the 2004 movie Mean Girls – I thought the original was one of the best movies I’ve seen. Unfortunately, the sequel to it wasn’t.

Mean Girls 2 stars Meaghan Martin playing the role of Jo Mitchell, the new girl in town. Similar to the first Mean Girls, Jo is picked on by a group called the Plastics, girls who are overconcerned about their physical appearance and gain popularity and social status by bullying others. The Plastics soon start picking on Jo’s father as well, which further enrages Jo and fuels her to retaliate against the Plastics.

I’m not sure if this was intended or not, but I see Mean Girls 2 as more of a remake of the original Mean Girls rather than a sequel. The plots are extremely similar, down to the relationships among the characters and the way in which the characters develop personality-wise as they mature.

If you haven’t seen the original Mean Girls yet, I recommend you see that rather than the second version. If you’ve already seen the original and want to see a remake of it, you should watch the second version. If not, I’m sure there’s plenty of other better movies out there that you will probably be more interested in seeing.

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Topic #66: What are your favorite slang words? Which ones are overused?

I actually have a strong disliking for all slang words, and I’m very critical about using the proper words at proper times. I think that all slang words are overused because they shouldn’t be used at all.

Back on February 16 of this year, the Daily Post prompt told me to describe my favorite and least favorite word. I stated that my least favorite words were any words that had multiple meanings that could be subsituted with a different, more precise word.

Generally, all slang words are regular words that originally had one meaning that now have a completely irrelevant and random meaning because of the slang connotation. For example, “cool” is probably one of the oldest slang words that there is. As we all know, cool’s real meaning is something that is of low temperature, but not low enough to be considered cold. Some day a long time ago, someone decided that “cool” could also be used to describe something good, appealing, or desirable. Obviously, being good, appealing, or desirable has nothing to do with temperature, but this person decided that “cool” would be a good word to use to describe this new trait instead of creating a completely new and unused word.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2

#PrayForJapan

Quote of the Day

Regarding texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross for Japanese natural disaster relief:

“Dude, I just did that Red Cross texting and donating thing like 50 times. Wait, who pays for all this money that they donate?”

“You do, it shows up on your next wireless phone bill.”

“OH SH-“

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Topic #64: When is it better to be sorry than safe?

I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but isn’t this a really stupid question?

It’s better to be sorry than safe if the negative consequences from attempting a particular act are not significant to not perform the act or take a safer alternative. For example, if you spend five cents to get a chance to win a million dollars, you should probably take the risk, because you can probably find five cents lying around on the ground.

However, you should not risk it several thousand times if the chances aren’t particularly high, or else you’ll probably end up just losing money.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2

Picture of the Day

I Forgot to Hit Save…

Two monitors for twice the blue screen fun…

(Taken with an Apple iPod Touch)

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Topic #63: You’ve got a magic tree: what does it grow?

The obvious answer to this question that most people would jump to is money. If there was a tree that grew money, the owner would be able to buy whatever he or she wants. But then I realized that most answers that are concluded impulsively aren’t necessarily the best answers, so I decided to think about it a little more.

I still want a money tree.

Most people would agree that the most important things in life are not material goods, but are generally abstract, such as well being and good health. You obviously cannot have a tree that grows happiness or health – these are concepts, not things that you can pluck off a tree. But what if you were to achieve happiness and health indirectly?

The things that make an individual happy vary depending on the individual, but most people can agree that engaging in stimulating activity brings excitement and pleasure. For example, someone might consider reading a book stimulating because it prompts their brain to process the information and immerse itself into the storyline. Another person might consider skydiving stimulating because it prompts a massive rush of adrenaline and dopamine in the brain when (s)he falls from the sky at unimaginable speeds. So how do we get these things that lead to happiness? We buy a book; we buy a trip up into the sky to go skydiving. Thus, money will eventually lead to happiness.

How about good health? Most people are unable to maintain good health because of a lack of money. People sometimes revert to purchasing poor-quality food because they cannot afford organic and well-treated foods that may be more expensive. People sometimes suffer from disease and disorders because they cannot afford the medication to treat their illnesses. People sometimes cannot receive consultation about their health because they cannot afford to see a doctor or another medical professional regarding their issues. If everyone could buy these tools, they could lead themselves to good health. Thus, money eventually leads to good health.

And, it would just be awesome to see money growing from a tree starting as a little bud and expanding to its full size.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2

Picture of the Day

What’s That Purple Fuzzy Stuff Growing on my Pizza?

I ordered a pizza at about 2 AM last night.

I ordered a “Taco Party” pizza, and it doesn’t even look or taste like a pizza. But that’s not the point.

It was a 12-inch pizza, so I obviously didn’t finish all of it last night. I ate a little bit over half of it, then stored it away so I could finish it later.

Fifteen hours later at about 5 PM when I got back from my classes, I opened up the pizza container to have a snack only to find…

“What’s that purple fuzzy stuff growing on my pizza?”

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Topic #62: Describe the town where you grew up. Do you still live there? If not, do you ever visit?

The town where I grew up was a new town when my family and I first moved there. We moved in to a new house, and other houses in our vicinity were also being constructed from ground-up. My family and I moved in when I was about two years old, and we lived there until mid-way through my first year of middle school.

I would describe the town as extremely safe and friendly. There were a lot of small children about my age at that time inhabiting the homes, so I knew a lot of people in my neighborhood, as we rode the same bus back from school. Nobody was concerned about violence, and the children would all play outside with no risks.

Relative to other places I know, my old home town was extremely flourishing with nature. My parents’ neighborhood isn’t very verdant because many homes don’t landscape their yards very much, and the neighborhood of my apartment isn’t at all verdant because I’m here to go to a university located in an extremely populated city. However, my old home town had tons of massive trees, and everyone seemed to have trees, plants, and flowers planted in their yards.

There were a few instances when I visited our old house with my parents, but as of lately, we haven’t returned to the neighborhood at all.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2

I think there’s a tiny bit of confusion I need to clear up regarding the wireless Internet being broken at my apartment, and how that affects my communications. Way too many people have been asking about it, so I decided to explain it here so I don’t have to repeat it over and over for each person who asks.

If you don’t know already, I own an Apple iPod Touch with which I use Meebo, an instant messaging application. I never turn my iPod off, and only restart it about once every one or two weeks, which means I am almost always connected to the Internet with my instant messaging accounts. Even when I walk outside of a wifi hotspot, Meebo still shows me as online (but away) and I am able to see the messages I receive during my non-wifi times once I reenter a wifi zone.

Unfortunately, the wireless Internet in my apartment is not working at all. The router is in my neighbor’s room and he’s almost never in his room, so it’s extremely difficult for me to find out what’s wrong with it. I’ve tried calling our Internet service provider before, but they say that they can’t even detect a router connected to the port, which leads me to believe that the router isn’t even plugged in and my neighbor is doing this either as a prank or to annoy me.

So, in case you haven’t made the connection yet, I cannot use Meebo while I am in my apartment. Which seems fine, because I can just connect my laptop to the wall and get Internet via a LAN cable, but this poses a slight problem with my instant messages.

When I sign in on my laptop to Pidgin (which automatically signs me into AIM, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, and IRC), I only see messages that I receive from that point on. All the messages that I received while I was outside of a hotspot are still queued up to send to my iPod. That means, if you instant message me while I’m away and outside of a wifi zone, I may not actually see it until the next morning when I connect to the wifi at my lecture hall (or later that night when I go to work, if that day happens to be a day that I work).

So, please stop complaining to me about not replying to your instant messages even when my status is set to Available. I most likely just haven’t seen it yet, and will still get back to you if you instant messaged me something valid that prompts my response.

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Topic #61: What’s the longest you’ve been without sleep? If your blog is about work, tell the story of an all-nighter you have pulled. If your blog is about an area of interest, tell a story of the last time you missed sleep, or got up extra early, to do something you enjoy.

The longest I have been without sleep is about 26 hours.

This occurred on September 17, 2010 when the Facebook Hackathon was held in Madison, WI. I went there to film a video for the Badger Herald. I intended to stay only for a few hours, but ended up staying the entire night. I had woken up at 7 AM that morning to go to class. The Hackathon started at 8 PM, and went on for 12 hours until 8 AM the following morning. After it ended I walked back to my apartment and went to sleep by around 9 AM.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2