Happy New Years!
Well, technically New Year's Eve, but today is the day everyone celebrates the new year anyway. Or is it the old year that is being celebrated? Either way, I hope you had a wonderful 2008, and are ready for an even better 2009!
Cheers.
I swear I'm not a lucky person. But then again, I've had a really good week.
I just won a $50 Electronics Gift Card from Nabisco. I persistently entered that little code on the bottom of my Wheat Thins box into the online interface, I clicked on a gift, and voila!, I got a message saying that I've won. Yay.
And to think; I've always scoffed at these sorts of contests. If you have a Nabisco box sitting around, there are still 2 more days to enter if you want try your hand at luck. See the Magical Crackers.
Finally my fondness for Wheat Thins has paid off, literally.
When I went to the shore this Thanksgiving, I took my camera along to snap some photographs of the ocean waves cascading over the pier rocks. On the first walk we took down the boardwalk, I put said camera inside my knit hat for easier carrying. Unfortunately, the camera fell out of my hat and onto the ground. Bleh. It never turned back on again. It had been acting up earlier, but I'm fairly certain I pulled its last straw by throwing it on the ground. It had been well loved and well traveled. I will miss you good friend.
In brighter news, however, I spent my Christmas money on a new camera, so now I can resume my usual photographing happiness. A month without my own camera was a miserable existence.
I decided to stick with Canon since I was very pleased with my last camera, and can I just say, I LOVE my new Canon A1000? I opted for the brushed bronze color since the plum isn't exactly the prettiest shade of purple. It has a ridiculous 10 megapixels that could potentially make prints the size of poster murals. Craziness. Plus there's a 4X optical zoom and its macro option is way better than my last one. See my Christmas nails? The red glitter appears quite close.
Sorry, I will stop reveling in my new camera joy. My attention must now be turned to crafting a carrying case, so I don't end up throwing this one on the ground too.
The Overprivileged Children's Fund
This holiday season, help where you are needed most. Upgrade little Sammy's iPod. 16 Gigs is never enough. American children are suffering.
Men, I hope you stayed out of the doghouse this Christmas by remembering to never get your special lady a vacuum cleaner, blender, toaster, mop, washing machine, ironing board, crock pot, mixer, pots, pans, feather duster, and well, you get the idea--anything used for cleaning, cooking, washing, or commonly associated with any type of menial household chore. The more practical the present, the more likely a disaster waiting to happen.
JC Penny's bewareofthedoghouse campaign seemed to create a buzz in the blogosphere. Watch the linked video. I think it's funny; but to be fair, a tad sexist as well. Women are never exactly exiled to the doghouse when they give a bad present.
Although, giving a man a typically masculinized useful product (like tools for example) does not work to reaffirm contested gender roles. Most men are fine with the assumption that they like hammers (and therefore fixing or building things) as a collective group. Most women, however, are not fine with the assumption that they like vacuum cleaners (and therefore cleaning things) as a collective, because they've been unduly confined to this role for centuries past.
Therefore, my response to the JC Penny's ad is this: Men shouldn't get all the heat for poor gift giving attempts, but at the same time, men should know better than to give "gifts" that make women feel like domestic slaves. It's just common sense my friends. 
Gender roles aside though, the best bet for a successful gift is one that is tailored to the individual. If your wife/girlfriend hints she wants a blender for Christmas, it might (and I say might quite purposefully) be okay to forgo the diamond earrings you were going to get her and go for the blender she requested instead. Gifts that indicate you've paid attention (commonly known as 'gifts from the heart') always go farther than gimmicky ones that TV commercials tell you must get.
That said, I think it's funny that my dad got my mom a pink sapphire ring. I wrote this post even before I saw her present. My dad is a smart man, smart man.
Don't forget to track Santa on Google Earth as he brings all the children of the world their presents. Santa must be real, he's on Google Earth
No matter what Santa brings you though, Merry Christmas! May your holiday be filled with joy and happiness and love.
My pastor had an awesome sermon on Sunday about how Christians have become overrun by materialism and greed especially at Christmastime. I couldn't agree more, and unfortunately I think we all (myself included) fall captive to these sorts of sentiments in our American celebration of the holiday season. We have let consumerism rob us of the joy of Christmas. Take for example the plastic pony commercial. 
A girl gets a real pony as a child. Her friend gets a plastic pony. The friend gets jealous when she sees the other girl's real pony. What good is a plastic pony when your friend has a real one? 20 years later the spoiled girl gets a Lexus in her driveway. Those same old feelings of superiority gush back in.
What a moral. Treat yourself to the best. Outshine your friends. What has happened to us? Where have our relationships gone? As my pastor said, contentment is elusive--a present tense concept. We need to find it, keep it, and garner it. If there is anybody who should be content, it should be us.
The BK does it again.
Burger King wins the creepiest-marketing-campaign-ever award for the third time. First it was the King. Then the Subservient Chicken. Now its' a naked King trying to sell meat scented body spray. No really. I'm not lying. 
You can see it for yourself here. Or read about it on Yahoo.
Burger King Corp. may have just the thing. The home of the Whopper has launched a new men's body spray called "Flame." The company describes the spray as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat."Ewwww. I think I just vomited a little in my mouth. Those hand gestures by the King are just a bit too suggestive for me.
The fragrance is on sale at New York City retailer Ricky's NYC in stores and online for a limited time for $3.99.
Burger King is marketing the product through a Web site featuring a photo of its King character reclining fireside and naked but for an animal fur strategically placed to not offend.
Happy Birthday Moonlight Masquerade!
It's been a good 4 years.
Here's to many more in the future!
Improper netiquette (that's Network Etiquette for all you living under a rock) can be really annoying. Sometimes I get perturbed when an email starts off, "hey u" and other times I feel like it's completely appropriate. It's hard for me to articulate when it's okay to write in text talk and when it's not. In professional communication, it's obviously unacceptable, but where to you draw the line with friendly emails?
Also, how do you sign your emails? You want them to be warm, but not too chatty; pleasant but not over the top. I find it frustrating to always be thinking of new ways to sign emails. I used "Thank you" for a long time, but that one bothered me, because it's not always appropriate to say thank you unless someone in someway deserves a thank you. It seems weird to say, "Hi, how are you? yaddah yaddah. Thank you."
Then I used "Take care" for awhile, but then I noticed that several of the people converse with via email regularly use that exact phrase and you can never respond with same catch phrase. Plus, I don't want to be the copy cat that steals email signatures. This leaves me in a predicament. What other salutations are left? Sincerely is too formal. Best is too short. What's left out there in email-sign-off-phrases land?
When at the boardwalk, one must always get boardwalk fries.
When at Ocean City, one must always go to Thrashers.
When at Thrashers, one must always get the large bucket size of fries.
When holding a ginormus bucket of hot boardwalk fries, one must always dump a bunch of apple cider vinager and salt on said bucket.
Yum.
Between three of us this was still too many deliciously salty, vinegary, french fried potato sticks of heart attack happiness.
I feel it necessary to comment on my original Black Friday post. I thought the Black Friday consumeristic phenomenon was funny up until today when I heard the two terrible news death stories from yesterday's shopping frenzy. 
Walmart employee stampeded to death during Black Friday shopping mayhem. The NYT describes:
Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him.
Two men pulled guns and shot each other to death in a crowded toy store Friday after the women with them erupted into a bloody brawl, witnesses said.
It's that time of year again. The day that shoppers have been waiting for since last year's day-after-Thanksgiving. The day that true bargain hunters strap on their running shoes to brave the freezing temperatures, bustling crowd, and early-set alarm clocks. It's going to be mayhem in the stores today. Everyone and their uncle has gotta hit the sales.
My mom grabbed us a newspaper yesterday so we could look through the ads inside. It appears that most stores are opening at 4 AM this year. Seriously? I always considered ourselves a serious shoppers, but not THAT serious. We'll be sleeping in at least until the sun comes up. Geez.
I have always secretly wanted to go to a store on Black Friday where crazy shopper-people are stealing merchandise from each other's cart, pushing and shoving to grab the new hottest toy, and weeping in ecstasy over the biggest deals they found. Not that I want to BE one of those people, I just want to witness it. American consumerism at its finest.
I am in Ocean City, Maryland right now over Thanksgiving vacation. Yay, the beach--even if it is a freezing cold beach. The roar of the waves and boardwalk shops, however, comfort our temperature woes. 
We watched a few crazy people stick their toes in the water. Followed by their whole feet, ankles, calves, knees, and finally an unexpected wave soaked their pants completetly. Haha. I bet they were sorry they got so close to the water.
Unfortunately this "holiday" for me means working on papers that are due next week. At all the hotels we canvased, I had to ask, "and you have free WiFi, right?" so I can do my research. Happy Thanksgiving to me.
A bird roasting emergency? No worries. 
Don't forget that if on this turkey holiday you should happen to have any turkey related questions, there are trained professionals waiting by the phone to rescue you.
We have the following:
The Butterball Turkey Talk Line 1-800-BUTTERBALL
The Reynolds Wrap Turkey Tips Line 1-800-745-4000
The USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHOTLINE
and there are more, believe it or not.
This article compiles a few stories about the funniest turkey calls. How one loses their turkey, or worse, loses their dog inside their turkey, I have no idea.
It might be fun to be one of the turkey line operators. Imagine the calls they get.
Who knew the blacktop could be so pretty? I love it when the rain transforms normal things into extraordinary things.
I also love the print that leaves create on concrete sidewalks during the fall. You know--that pretty brown and white collage. It's the small things in life that make me happy.
Thanks Amazon. Thanks for the recommendations, but between you and me, you suck at recommending things for me to read!
Amazon always sends me these "we recommend..." or "we think you'd like..." emails. I always want to scratch my head and say, why? Why do you want me to read these Amazon?
No, I don't want to purchase
The Lady as Saint: A Collection of French Hagiographic Romances of the Thirteenth Century
Laboratory Investigations: AP Environmental Science
Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity (Ucla Fowler Museum of Cultural History Textile Series, No. 2)
Lucia Etxebarria Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas
The Scandal of the Speaking Body: Don Juan with J. L. Austin, or Seduction in Two Languages
Nope, Not Interested.
I suppose the reason my recommendations are so off has something to do with me buying presents and textbooks for classes online. It really throws off my "recommending database."
According to some friends, apparently Netflix and YouTube aren't so great at recommending movies or videos respectively. Way to go fancy algorithms. You'll never fully capture how human minds (or shopping habits) work!
Oh my. Doodlers.
Presidents. Vice-presidential wanna be's. They all doodle, according to CNN.
Some guy bought an Obama doodle (of poorly drawn heads) last year for over 2,000 bucks on eBay. Now he's getting offers in the 6 figures, but he won't sell. I think he should. The doodle is hardly fit for hanging on the fridge, let alone over the fireplace.
Palin likes to make doodles too. Only hers prove that her mind must always be racing. Talk about a jumble of chicken scratch. Reminds me of middle school when I was deciding how to fashion my John Hancock.
I see why these two went into politics...because art school just wasn't for them.
Spell Check always did anger me.
This article is the perfect example, from over at Revealing Errors, of how spell checker messes us up. Apparently Reuters posted a story that proclaimed the recalling of beef panties. What are beef panties, you ask? Well, in short, I have no idea, nor do I want to know. The whole idea goes something like this:
Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Tuesday said it would voluntarily recall 94,400 pounds of frozen ground beef panties that may be contaminated with E. coli.Hardy har har. Snortle snort. Silly spell checker results make us chuckle, but also sorry, very very sorry in the case of big news organizations that publish stories about beef panties. I myself get frustrated over words like globalized, rhetor, and problemetized. Spell checker is bad for language, very very bad.
Of course the article was talking about beef patties, not beef panties.
This error can be blamed, at least in part, on a spellchecker. I talked about spellcheckers before when I discussed the Cupertino effect which happens when someone spells a word correctly but is prompted to change it to an incorrect word because the spellchecker does not contain the correct word in its dictionary. The Cupertino effect explains why the New Zealand Herald ran a story with Saddam Hussein's named rendered as Saddam Hussies and Reuters ran a story referring to Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement as the Muttonhead Quail Movement.
Thank you to all the veterans who have fought for our country.
For our lives.
For our hope.
For our freedom. 
I personally think of my grandfather who fought in WWII and I am proud of his service to our country and proud to be his granddaughter.
To all of the veterans on this Veteran's day, we appreciate you today, but also on every other day of the year too. There is no just one veteran's day.
I had no idea text-to-speech things even existed on the internet. There are websites that you can go to, type in words, and have the computer read it back to you out loud. Phrases. Full Sentences. Whatever you type in, they read back to you. At Cepstral, you can choose your voice, rate, pitch, and effect. I'm partial to William, although Amy has a nice intonation as well. Yay, who doesn't like to play around with cool technology toys? It's actually a great idea. Especially for people with speech or hearing difficulties.
On the other hand, you know, these are also great for kidnappers, perverts, pranksters, and other assorted criminal offenders...
But that's beside the point, right?
Oh so cool. Design the World a Coke.
Look at the Coca-Cola bottle I designed (For some reason it won't face the right way in the still shot. Click on the link to watch it rotate in all directions and at all angles, because it's in 3D! So fancy, I know). Seriously, you have to check out my beautiful Coke bottle. It's pretty awesome.
Now make your own; but be warned, this site is highly addictive. I thought I would spend 10 minutes playing around with the design tools and ended up burning 2 hours getting the color of splattered paint just right.
You can't say you haven't been warned; but really, this is just too cool. Even more exciting than the M&M website that lets you make crazy photographs. Wait. I'm noticing a trend. I think I'm a sucker for these sort of interactive marketing things. And now I'm advertising for them on my blog... I have in no way been paid to tell you how cool Coke is.
Don't drink Coke; just design their bottles. Good, now I don't feel like I have broken any moral codes.
I got to see my Emily and Nicole this week! We had a little rendezvous in Frederick. I missed my girls so much, so this was good for the spirit. It's amazing how fast time can fly by without seeing people who are dear to you. Sad. Writing this post, I realize we did not take any photos. Booo.
Frederick has a cute little downtown, where we went out to eat. Mmmm, good food, outside on that terrace. And then we went back to Emily's place to chat and watch SNL skits. Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, so unbelievably funny. Oh, we also got some presents from a little place known as Paris, France. Thanks Em.
Sorry my posts are so sporadic as of late. I hardly have time to breathe on some days, so blogging sometimes falls right off my list. I know you are saying, "Wait, Jenn, blogging is next to breathing." And yes. I hear you. Maybe I just don't have my priorities right...
Anyway though. Last weekend I went with a group of friends to King's Dominion in Virginia. We thought it was perhaps a little closer than it really was. Or maybe it just seemed farther away since we hit Friday DC traffic. The rollercoasters were worth the trip though. Oh man. The volcano. The dominator. Plus others. For some of our friends, this was their first time at an amusement park, first time on a rollercoaster. Good stuff. Welcome to American culture, now hold on before you get dropped 150 feet to the ground.
Also, the park was doing a Halloween Haunt which include scary people in scary costumes jumping out at us and chasing us around in circles. They also set up a bunch of haunted houses around the park. Ahhhh.
My throat hurt so bad by the end of the night from screaming so much. I'm not sure whether it was the haunted houses or the rollercoasters...
When my parents cam to visit me two weeks ago, I took them to the National Zoo. Yay. I love the zoo. The day was a little rainy, but I'm still really happy they came down to see me. We saw the elephants, sea-lions, tigers, black bears, gorillas, and gross reptilian things. 
The gorillas were the most amusing. Two were in the middle of a fight when stopped by their cage. They actually did the whole, beat on my chest, I am alpha male thing. It was crazy to see. Everyone was chattering and clapping when they did that. But it was a little too much violence for my tastes. Walking away from that display really made me think about agression and natural tendencies. Is it really ok to push your brother off of a branch? And then for human children to clap about it? This was some sort surreal experience for me, and it made me feel uncomfortable.
After the zoo, I took my parents to Dupont Circle where we had dinner at little Italian place. Yay for visitors!
I forgot to post about a Chinese festival that I went to with some friends from my cohort last Sunday. We took the metro to Chinatown for a parade and little performance on the streets of DC. It was fun and festive. I was enthralled by the pretty fabrics of the dragons dancing down the streets. The Chinese know how to do celebrations in rich color.
The show was a display of kung fu (or maybe some other form of fighting since I really don't know my kicking and chopping so well) and drumming with ribbon dancing. Yay. I love living in a multi-cultural city. Homogeneity is so boring when so many different cultures have amazing contributions to our diverse world.
Who wants to go on a little field trip to China now? I know I do.
The first day of fall was September 22nd, and I completely missed it.
How sad. There were no grand celebrations. No groans about how summer has passed us by. No fall festivities to welcome the new season.
The day came and went with no recognition.
How remiss of me. Well, apple cider, falling leaves, pumpkins, and crisp autumn air: hear my apology and know you will appreciated in due time.
Holy Word! This is creepy. A whole new level of creepy I didn't even think existed in 21st century America.
Sing for Change A bunch of children singing hymns for Obama. The angelic little voices. Matching t-shirts. Excited parents and overzealous music teacher.
If this isn't bad for democracy, I don't know would be. Am I the only one who thinks cult-like children groups are a bad sign for our future? No matter the candidate being endorsed, this is political propaganda and indoctrination at its worst.
This is interesting. Improv Everywhere.
They do the most random things in the most random paces with hundreds of random people. You gotta love it.
No Pants Day
Food Court Musical
Frozen Grand Central
My favorite is probably no pants day. Why doesn't DC attract these types of events? It's always NYC.
I went to swim laps at the rec center on campus this week. I stuck my head under the water to get ready to swim some laps, but I heard something strange. Something that I thought was air bubbles in my swim cap at first. But the noise did not stop. Words? Were those word I was hearing? Or music? Could it be music? I asked my friend I was with if she heard it too, and lo behold I was not going crazy. She had heard an ad for McDonalds the last time she went swimming.
UMD broadcasts radio stations in the pool. Literally. Underwater. Stick your ears under and you can hear it. Come up for a breath and silence. It is the coolest thing ever. I had no idea it was even possible to listen to music while swimming. This will make using the pool much more enjoyable. When in high school, I always wished they'd invent something like this, and here it existed all this time.
Now I can swim to the beat.
My roommate and I finally got a freezer that works! Yay. They hauled away the old fridge and brought in a new one. Finally. Ice. And TV dinners. 
The first thing I ate from our new spanking new freezer was one of those little cups of "stick it in the freezer and wait 24 hours and out comes sorbet" things. It was so tasty. And cold.
I remembered the name: Del Monte Fruit Chillers. Freeze overnight & Eat. They cleanse the palette. I recommend the glacial mango. Although, after looking at their website I also want to sample the frosty peach, polar raspberry, and arctic strawberry. Ok, that's all the flavors--it looks like I might still be eating sorbet when it starts snowing outside. Brrrrr.
Which reminds me...I have big plans for making smoothies soon, before it gets too cold. I love frozen treats.
On Sunday my Aunt and I met up in a city between the two of us to catch up. We went to what I would consider one step away from being a "mega" church. The music was really loud, and the building looked more like a warehouse outside and concert stadium inside than a traditional church. A different experience for me, not necessarily bad, not necessarily good. I don't think I would drive for 30 minutes to go there again though. Meeting with my Aunt who I usually only get to see once a year was the nice part.
Then we went to a 1950's inspired diner in Old Columbia with electric pink walls and a cardboard Elvis cutout in the corner, Cheeburger Cheeburger. The sandwich and fries were delicious. I love how they encourage you to get about a thousand different toppings on your "invent-a-burger." It ended up being so big, I could hardly fit my mouth around it. Thank you slice of pineapple, onion rings, roasted red peppers, bleu cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, guacamole, and honey mustard. Yeah. It might sound gross, but it was great.
The Terps won another football game again today. Cool stuff. I wasn't feeling so swell this morning when I woke up, so I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to go, but fortunately I bucked up and went.
Apparently, for every touchdown our team gets, every attendee can get a free pizza topping at Papa Johns. And if Maryland wins, they double that number. That means that this week we can get a large pizza with 12 toppings. Whoo. It's not so much that I would every want 12 different things on my pizza, but somehow game is more exciting when we can celebrate that we will have two more topppings to add to our Tuesday pizza. We got another touchdown? Oh, yay, more toppings! I think the people around us were cheering for other reasons.
My apartment building was having a resident appreciation party today, so we did our quote, unquote, tailgating, for free. We had hamburgers and then got our faces drawn by a sketch artist named Jerry. His technique is the giant face, little body style. I never much understood the concept, but hey, it's still kind of cool to have my "resemblance" on paper. Looks just like me, huh?
Today, a group of friends and I hit up the White House. Yeah. We went inside. I bet you are jealous now, but don't be too much, we only got to tour the first floor East Wing. Thank you Wisconsin congressman, (even though I've never stepped foot in Wisconsin). 
It was cool, something every American should visit at some point in their life time. We walked through the Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room (my fav), and the State Dining Room in addition to a few others. I think I could get used to living there; a little stately elegance. My plan is in progress. My bid for the 2024 presidential election is only a few years away. Watch out Washington.
What I really want to know though, is how you get a job working in the White House. I was envying all the young professionals scurrying through the corridors. How could I be one of those people? Hmmmmm.
Oh, and about the one lone protester outside. He apparently he has a 99 year permit (of which he has completed 26 years) to camp out, but they don't offer such things anymore. All other protesters must go home to sleep. We opted not to walk by him; looked a little creepy. We don't even know what it was that he was protesting. When I suggested that I could live in the White House, I did mean in it. Not outside. Across the street. Or on the road.
I went to a REAL football game yesterday. Maryland vs. California. We did not get creamed. Or pulverized. Or chopped up and served for dinner like everyone seemed to predict. We actually won, 35-27. Go Terps!
I was amazed at how many people showed up. The Byrd Stadium holds over 50,000 people, and seemed to me like it was full. For students, they have a lottery system, so sometimes you get tickets, sometimes you don't. We, fortunately, did.
The cheers however, are kind of cruel. There is one that features the line, "Hey, you suck" over and over again. A real classy way of celebrating a touchdown. The most compassionate one though, was when a player on the other team got hurt and people in the crowd start chanting "you got f*@#ed". Well that was nice.
My face really hurts from the game. It's probably because it was about a million degrees outside and only two clouds were in the whole sky. My skin is about as red as the red shirt that I was wearing. Oh, good American sports.
My sister got me the cutest eye equipment ever. A contact case and glasses case that match each other. They're purple! With polka dots! Sooooo adorable. I especially love the compact and travel oriented nature of the cases. 
Now I can see when I'm on the move (see how cute my contact & glasses cases are).
