I'm at work and I have a bunch of homework to do but I don't feel like doing anything since I stayed up until 3 or 4am watching Ten Inch Hero.  As a result, since Andy isn't here to force me to do any manual labor, I decided to do a random survey.  But first, Ten Inch Hero mini review time!  I said I would wait for it to be released in the US and when it was finally released through Blockbuster, I said I would wait until I was done with exams (i.e. Spring Break) before watching it.  As this post shows, I couldn't wait (I have a paper and an exam tomorrow and I haven't done much for either).  I initially wanted to watch it for Jensen Ackles with a mohawk and a kilt.  I thought it would be a cute movie-kind of like a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but with Jensen, and that I would like it.  I didn't think I'd love it, since I don't really love chick flicks all that much.

But I loved it.  It might have been because I was pissed off at Jason for picking Melissa and then dumping her on national TV only to make out with Molly on the same couch less than 20 minutes later (I still can't believe Melissa potentially ruined that awesome dress only to be dumped by that idiot!).  It might have been because I was fairly tired.  It might have been because I pretty much love all things Jensen-related (Yes, even Plight of Clownana!).  Whatever the reasons, I loved this cute little indie chick flick.  It's about these people that work in a sub shop in Santa Cruz and they're all damaged in the romance department in some way.  That's the basic, basic plotline.  But there's also a bunch of witty banter, a (mostly) realistic storyline for all characters, characters for everyone to relate to in some shape or form, and of course, Jensen Ackles with a mowhawk.  What more could you ask for?! There are a bunch of famous-non-famous and semi-famous people (crazy Derek from OTH, Johnny Z from GH, Molly from Heroes, Daneel Harris, Clea Duvall, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jensen (!), etc), the acting isn't terrible and the story isn't overly cheesy.  I'll admit, the ending is a bit predictable since it's a Rom-Com, but by then, you're so deep in the story that it's okay.  Also, there are a few lines that made me groan, but I think it was intentional based on the characters that delivered them, so I'll allow it.  The tampon scene is probably still my favorite scene ever from this movie, but there are a bunch of little things that make it enjoyable.  I may regret gushing about this in the future, but watching the movie made me insanely happy and it's definitely one of my favorites of the year (even though it was released in 2007).

And, in my rush to write the review and post the survey, I closed the window without copying the survey (Sonuvabitch!), so yeah. I rock.  No survey.  Just another movie review. 

Tampon Scene:

As expected, I'm too lazy to study for my Developmental Biology exam today, so I finally have time to post about my awesome time talking to the freakin' famous Jared Padalecki.  It's been a little over a week since this has happened, so I may forget a few tiny details, but whatever... most of the people reading this have probably already heard this story (or parts of it) millions of times by now, so it shouldn't matter too much.  Anyway,on with the story.  It's long, it's full of pictures and links, it's Jared Freakin' Padalecki!!!

It all started on the first day of Positive Psych, while Alex and I were waiting for Sarah to exit the classroom in Ames Hall. Alex (aka the coolest person ever) mentioned in a slightly nonchalant tone, "we've been asked to do a conference call with Jared... you can do it if you want" whlie looking at her phone.  I, of course, gasped in disbelief and Sarah came out at the moment wanting to know what was going on. We tried to tell her about the conference call but Sarah didn't realize how awesome this call was since she didn't (and still doesn't, really) know who Jared Padalecki was, even though she used to watch Gilmore Girls and I currently watch Supernatural and pretty much rant about how awesome he and Jensen are on a daily/weekly basis. 

While at Starbucks with Alex and Sarah, I texted Sana and told her about the call, starting a long string of "oh my god! Jared Freaking Padalecki" type texts for about a week.  It didn't really sink in until we left Starbucks and Sarah and I returned to the Marylander, however, and when it sunk in, I started to freak out via SMS to Sana.  My wildly active imagination started to come up with multiple ways of how this call could go wrong: What if I couldn't come up with a question?  What if I come up with a bunch of questions and the other people on the call take them all?  What if I lose my voice?  What if Jared thinks my question is stupid? What if I miss my cue? and on and on.  Sana assured me that I would not lose my voice and that she would help me come up with questions and would do the call with me to make sure I didn't miss my cue, which calmed me down for about a night.  The next day, while watching Supernatural, I freaked out to Sana once again (this time in person): What if my questions are stupid?  What if the call gets dropped?  What if my phone dies during the call?  What if someone calls during the call?  What if I get nervous and fuck up a brilliant question, thus making Jared think I'm an idiot?  What if Jared laughs at me and tells Jensen about that stupid chick on the conference call who asked some dumb ass question?  What if it's a video conference?!  (My personal favorite) What if they laugh at my stupid question while on set and it makes it to the blooper reel for Season 4 and then Jared and Jensen laughing at me is caught on millions of DVDs for everyone to see??! What if I miss my cue???!! Again, Sana assured me that I would not make a fool of myself and Sarah came out of her room briefly after Ben left the apartment and got to listen to part of my freakout.  It was not a pretty sight.  I'd also spoken to Leslie and Steffie about the call and they didn't do much except add to my nervousness.  At this point, we didn't know much about the call- only that it was a conference call on Monday the 9th- so Leslie told me to make sure I find out what time the call is so that I don't miss the call and when I do get on the call, make sure not to blank out and miss my cue to ask my question.  Steffie told me not to get starstruck on the call and miss my cue or mess up my once in a lifetime chance to ask Jared a question.  Obviously, they were so helpful and managed to calm me down... not.

The weekend before the call, Kelly, Erin, Sana, and I ventured to Hampden to buy a pie (Love me some pie!) and then I went with Sana and Sarah to see Levitz's Projections play so we didn't have time to come up with questions on Saturday.  As a result, Sunday was devoted to coming up with questions for the call (after discussing a bit of drama that occurred that weekend and won't be mentioned on here so that this post can remain public).  We managed to come up with 8 awesome questions, 1 not so awesome question (Valentine's day plans) , and 2 last resort questions (is he dating Ruby and why does he pout so much on SPN), just in case all of our other questions were stolen (it was unlikely that these questions would be asked because they would've most likely been ignored--even though I really want to know what's going on with GC!  I think it was mostly to keep from freaking out again lol).    I went home and went to sleep to prepare for the crazy, crazy day that has since been dubbed "Jared Freakin' Padalecki Day.

Monday morning, I woke up and read an article with Jared, which surprisingly calmed me down when I remembered how nice and funny he usually is (to my chagrin, this article had our not so awesome question in it, thus bringing our question count to 8), so I managed to be calm for a majority of the morning.  I went to class, listening to Kings of Convenience, Sigur Ros and Midlake to stay calm and mellow (Midlake mostly because they were from Texas like Jared and not really to calm down so much).  I met Sana at the DMC to get a camera to tape the interview and then we went to Starbucks.  I didn't start freaking out until we were at the housing office waiting for Regine to leave her office (she agreed to let us use her office phone for the call because she loves us) at around 12:50- the call was at 1.  Thankfully, Regine got out quickly and we called the conference number and were placed on hold for about 15 minutes- with not so relaxing classical music- while waiting for everyone else to join the call.

Finally, at about 1:13, the operator came on the line as did Jared (insert "Oh My God!! shriek when Jared said hello, haha).  I tried saying hello to Jared, but the operator didn't know what she was doing, so the call started off with a very confused Jared (" Are they there? what do the participants want me to say??) and a nervous me thinking that perhaps we set up the speakerphone wrong or something.  Finally, the operator got the call to work and the call was BRILLIANT!  We got to ask two questions: one asking him to tell us about his first time watching a scary movie which turned into his first time watching Friday the 13th and the Exorcist and running around a state park afterwards with a bunch of friends while amped up on Coke ("that's coca-cola by the way..." haha) and the other was about his reaction to the rising tension between Dean and Sam on Supernatural aka "The Brotherly Love Question" ("we filmed 86 episodes of 'aww dean I love you, aww sam I love you, let's go protect each other" so he was happy that they weren't as mushy and that he could explore Sam's darker side).  Mostly, the call was dominated by a bunch of geeky boys who were asking dumb questions about Godzilla (rattling off useless trivia about how many movies Godzilla's been in even though Jared said he didn't watch godzilla movies), Darth Vader ("who's better? DV or Jason?... yeah, well DV killed his girlfriend" JP: yeah, that's not that tough" teehee), and the Great Gatsby ("What does the green light mean to you?" to which Jared responded with a hearty laugh and "Oh my God" along with every other person on the call.  he then told the kid that IMDB profiles took stuff from when he was 19 and they're not updated very often).  The call was about 45 minutes long and he gave awesome answers to even the dumb questions and made funny jokes about Jason ("oh that dude?  He ain't gon' catch me!" and my personal favorite: "Jason goes to the moon, Jason shops at Target, Jason and the Muppets" which can be seen in the article linked below) and a bunch of other stuff that I won't go into here. 

Sana and I went to a special premiere for the movie on Tuesday night.  Not much to report on that except that we were kind of nervous that we weren't going to get in when we saw everyone else in line with a pass that we didn't have.  The movie was awesome, but if you want to know what I thought of it, you should go read my article over at the News-Letter.  That's right, I'm published!

I should end here so that I can study a bit before the race and the Oscars tonight (which gives me about 2 hours... good stuff).  You can "watch" the conference call here and laugh at the people on the call (myself included) or just enjoy the awesomeness that is Jared Padalecki. 

P.S. If you liked those interactive stories as a kid...you know the ones... "are you going to watch the movie (turn to page 13) or go to Billy's house (turn to page 69)... you should check this out.  It's an interactive zombie movie and is a pretty cool procrastination tool.  See if you can survive. 

Yeah, I'm a bit of a dork for doing this, but I wanted to see if I could come up with 25 random things about myself and I succeeded.  So, here they are...

1. I love country music.  It kinda goes along with my love for NASCAR and men with southern accents.  I'm a bit of a hick.
2. I claim to hate Lil Wayne but, while there's truth to this statement most of the time, I can't help secretly enjoying whenever he comes on my Pandora radio stations.
3. I have an unhealthy love for everything Texas (except George Bush).
4. I want to be a filmmaker but having to write and pitch my own ideas puts me off from wanting to apply to graduate programs.
5. I have intense physical reactions to even the thought of spiders (itching, shaking, etc), but Spiderman was one of my favorite superheroes as a kid.
6. I can recite pretty much every word from the first X-Men movie.
7. I don't have a favorite band because I listen to way too much music and can't make a decision to save my life.
8. I can't be around a person for too long or else they start to annoy me and I become a bitch for no reason.  Steffie can confirm this little fact.
9. I hate Nicholas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, and to a degree, Clint Eastwood. 
10. I enjoy watching bad movies just so I can mock them. (Winners Take All is seriously one of my favorite movies even though it's TERRIBLE, though not as bad as Killer Klowns from Outer Space)
11. When I was younger (read: 10th-11th grade), I tried to create a list of every movie I'd ever seen.  It lasted a few months but I never finished it. :-/
12. I've never been hungover. Go me!
13. People who walk/sit around with their mouth open really, really annoy me.
14. I have a pretty bad temper thanks to my mom.  It takes A LOT to make me mad but once you piss me off, watch out.
15. I haven't been on a roller coaster since middle school.  This makes me sad.
16. I suck royally at keeping in touch with people.
17. I hate musicals but I secretly love Bollywood movies. Go figure.
18.   I love dressing up though I don't do it very often.
19. I want to backpack across Europe one day.
20. I'm a bit of a "pics with Celebs" whore or a "good time girl" as my sisters call me even though I'm not a huge fan of taking pictures.  I can't help it. I'll cover my face if you try to take a picture of me but stick a celeb or favorite athlete in the mix and I'm all smiles.
21. I love cooking.  I suck at baking though.
22. I'm a bit of a cake addict.
23. I watch way too much TV.
24. I'm not one of those girls who can picture their wedding and all that stuff, but I've always wanted to get proposed to in Central Park by the garden.
25. I love to sing and dance when others aren't watching

Time for bed.  I've got class in the morning.
=)

So I guess this may be a bit of a movie post since I spent most of today watching movies.  January's been an awesome movie month for me, starting with Slumdog Millionaire and ending (?) with Vicky Christina Barcelona.  I wasn't disappointed with any movie that I watched this month except for possibly Killer Klowns from Outer Space, but we'll get to that in a bit.   I've decided to try and watch at least one movie a week and write about it on here as a bit of an attempt to keep myself from going mad with the crazy science courses I'm taking this semester (more on that next time). I'll try to go in order so that I can look back and see what my favorite movie was this year (if I ever decide to do so). 

If I remember correctly, Slumdog Millionaire was the first movie of 2009 for me which is a pretty awesome way to start the year.  I saw it at The Charles with Erin, Molly, Sarah, & Molly's friend Emily(? I suck at names, sue me) and had a pretty good time even though it was really cold and rainy while waiting for the shuttle back.  The story was engaging, the characters were awesome, and the soundtrack was sensational.  I don't remember any specific details that I wanted to include in the post since I watched the movie at the beginning of the month, but I highly recommend it for those who haven't seen it. 

I saw My Bloody Valentine in 3D last weekend with Sana and loved it.  I'm not usually a huge fan of remakes, but Jensen was in this one (and I plan on watching Jared in the Friday the 13th remake next month as well- must support Supernatural!) We had to walk through a sketchy area of Baltimore and take a bus through the sticks to reach White Marsh, but it was worth it.  We missed the show we were supposed to see after getting off at the wrong stop and me almost breaking my toe, resulting in a trip to Starbucks and an unsuccessful search for apple pie (why doesn't Chilis offer apple pie?! They have every other dessert but no apple pie- hell, no pie except for this chocolate walnut coconut thing sans the coconut and with extra walnuts! What a disappointment. Anyway). The theater was packed so we had to sit in the front (unlike Slumdog where we were literally the first people to enter the theater for the show).  The movie itself was awesome. I feel like the 3D aspect of the film really helped keep everyone engaged in the story or at least kept everyone entertained.  Black people are always crazy during scary movies, yelling at the characters and the screen, and though it annoys me sometimes, I found myself yelling right along with them so it turned out to be a good time.  I didn't expect the ending at all and really enjoyed a lot of the editing tricks and cuts they did (I won't spoil anything, but the end where the killer is revealed and the lights are smashed in sync with a cut to show the killer as the miner? Friggin amazing!) throughout the movie.  Also, Jensen Ackles on the big screen in 3D? A Big Hell Yes.  Wow.  Just wow.  I'm not a huge fan of Kerr Smith, but I enjoyed disliking him and he did a surprisingly good job as the sheriff/ annoying boyfriend.  The only thing I didn't like was Jamie King who could have died a million and one different times in the movie due to her stupidity but stayed alive just to annoy me.  Other than that, I think the movie was well done and would definitely see it again.

After watching Lie to Me earlier this week, Sana, Sarah (towards the end), and I watched Killer Klowns from Outer Space on the This Network.  Holy crap- so bad! Sarah's dad bought us a converter for the TV and I quickly found that we had two channel 45's- one was FOX and the other was a network, simply called This, that played terrible movies from the 80s all day.  I decidedd to tell Sana about it while we were watching TV and as I switched to it, Killer Klowns from Outer Space was starting.  Of course, we had to watch it.  First off, there were kids making out at some lookout point and instead of making out on a blanket like normal kids, they were using a raft.  A raft?! Really?! Who the hell has a raft in the back of their station wagon?! The Killer Klowns were fugly aliens whose spaceship was in the shape of a giant circus tent.  They were mostly pregnant looking and quite hideous and trapped people in cotton candy type cocoon things and shot at people with guns full of popcorn.  Also, said popcorn turns into mini killer klown type jacks in boxes (without the boxes) once released in certain situations.  And if the movie wasn't bad enough, it kept getting interrupted with commercials about AA and Al-Anon support groups and Riddex infomercials.  What a piece of garbage.

I'd been trying to watch In Bruges for a while now, probably since around the time of the Golden Globes or a little while after, but due to problems with Megavideo or internet connectivity or some other problem, I'd been unable to watch it until this afternoon.  It's a little slow in the beginning but it picks up really fast in the middle and towards the end.  Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes did a great job, but I loved Brendan Gleeson the best, especially at the end when things start getting crazy.  The dialogue is funny mostly because the main characters are Irish hit men and Colin Farrell's character, Ray, is so ridiculous at times (what about the Vietnamese?!) that you wonder how he's still alive with half the shit that he gets away with during the film.  The characters are easy to sympathize and connect with despite the slow start and Ray's sometimes annoying character, but all in all, I thought it was a great film.  I'll most likely have to watch it again sometime in the future (without any interruptions this time) to get a real grasp on what went on in the beginning of the film, but I enjoyed it.

Finally, after a quick movie break sponsored by dinner and a Flight of the Conchords episode, I watched Vicky Christina Barcelona which I'd been wanting to see since before it was released (so sometime around last summer?).  Most of the people I'd spoken to and the awards people seemed to enjoy it (though I don't always trust the awards people), but last night, Sarah ranted about how she hated it and it was the worst thing she'd seen.  I haven't seen many Woody Allen movies, but I enjoyed his earlier movies and felt fairly indifferent to his more recent works, so I was a little skeptical myself.  The movie was awesome though.  Penelope Cruz did a phenomenal job as Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem)'s crazy ex wife, Maria Elena and was easily my favorite character in the movie.  I found it a little weird not to think of Javier Bardem as crazy, scary Anton, but after a while I got so sucked into the movie that I didn't even think of it after the first few minutes of Javier's character getting introduced in the film.  Vicky and Christina weren't as compelling as Juan Antonio and Maria Elena, but I prefered Christina (Scarlett Johannsen) to Vicky.  Christina seemed like a bit of a ditz at the beginning but she was an overall interesting character and I could kind of relate to her inability to stick to one thing for very long.  Vicky's storyline was fairly dull (like her husband Doug- what a tool!) so I didn't reall care about her unless she was interacting with Juan Antonio.  Also, the setting of the movie was beautiful and the soundtrack was sen-fricken-sational.  It features Paco de Lucia's "Entre dos Aguas," which is easily one of my favorite songs of all time.  Like Vicky, I too love spanish guitar and that song is just gorgeous.  As always, you can see a bit of Woody's usual neurotic behavior in most of the characters and I felt like it added to the overall charm of the movie. Good stuff.

I guess that's it for movies this month.  I finished my first week of class, but since I'm not sure of my final schedule, I'll leave it for another time.  I am excited to have class with Astin (who kind of reminds me of the shorter balcony muppet, no offence meant.  It may just be me!) and for my positive psych class (I read the first chapter of five today while waiting for VCBarcelona to load and found it really interesting).  I'm not looking forward to Developmental Biology at all and Functional Human Neuroanatomy kind of scares me a bit.  IFN is still up in the air since I haven't gone to the class yet, but if I can get out of it, I will.  I don't feel like writing about my life and having randoms read it unless it's on here.



Till next time kiddies!

Wow.  Just.  Wow.  I've seen two amazing movies this month and classes start tomorrow.  My eyes are burning a little right now though because I just got in from the cold after being in a movie theater (like 4 rows away from the front) with 3D glasses on (or, ya know, maybe its because Jensen's hotness burned my retinas...).  If I have time this week once classes start, I'll write a mini review thing for the both of them because, yeah.  Wow.

P.S.  I want pie and it seems like no one in Baltimore is willing to give me any pie.  What the hell is wrong with the world when you can't even get a damn slice of pie?!

Let the records show that I'm not a bad democrat. I'm simply a poor college student who despises standing in the cold. 

I watched the Inauguration at work in the "Big Room" with a bunch of other random workers and was very, very close to tears from the moment Barack came out to the second I left the "Big Room."  His speech was awesome (as always) and the whole ordeal was amazing. 

Yay Obama!

So, okay,  it's like this...

My co-worker Nancy had two extra tickets to go to the inauguration (read: take a train to the capitol and possibly watch the inauguration from a TV) and I seriously considered going for a bit.  I told Erin and everything and thought it would be cool, but then decided not to go.  Why?  Well, here are the reasons:

*The train left Penn station at 6AM.  6AM!  That's damn early.
*The train would leave DC to come back to penn station at 7.40PM.  That's right... 12 hours in DC.
*The whole inauguration process will most likely be done sometime around 2pm if that late.
*It's DAMN cold outside.  I don't want to stand around in the cold when I (probably) won't even be able to see Obama.
*I could be working.
*There's currently snow on the ground (though I didn't know about this when I refused the tickets.)
*Did I mention that it's cold?
*The train leaves penn station at SIX IN THE MORNING!

I feel like I should be upset that I'm not going and Pixie & Emma and pretty much most of the people at my job will be there, but I'm not all that crushed.  I'll most likely watch it on NYTimes.com or CNN.com or something but, to be honest, I don't really care all that much anymore.  I know it's history in the making and stuff, but I'm not really all that political and I'm kind of over it.  It might be because I didn't vote in the election (thank you Bronx board of Elections) so I'm not as excited as I could be.  Who knows?

Does that make me a bad democrat?

On a more positive note, I made chili from scratch for dinner tonight and it came out pretty well considering I didn't have any peppers and stuff to make it like Texas chili.  Go me!

I've had my new computer for about 2 weeks now and am just getting around to posting on my livejournal after 2 months of inactivity.  Nothing of importance has happened recently, except for my 21st birthday where I failed to get drunk at least once (I had a few alcoholic beverages, but alas, no humorous tales of stumbling around with my equally drunk comrades as every 21 year old should do) like I planned.  No worries,though, I have a while to flash my ID at people selling me alcohol.

I am actually supposed to be writing a character sketch and a first person anecdote for my surreal fiction writing sems class that's due tomorrow morning, but since my idea is pretty crappy and I have no real desire to write it at the moment, I decided to look up "Anecdote" on wikipedia to see if I could get some ideas, i.e. procrastinate before watching Jensen on Jimmy Kimmel at midnight.  I've been googling a lot of crap tonight for this project from lame superheroes and superpowers, to regular superpowers, to baby names, to personalities for certain zodiac signs, so one more couldn't hurt right?

Right.

While reading the wikipedia entry for anecdote, I came across this little gem:

"One day in New York City,  [Sidney Morgenbesser, then Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University], put his pipe in his mouth as he was ascending the subway steps. A policeman approached and told him that there was no smoking on the subway. Morgenbesser pointed out that he was leaving the subway, not entering it, and that he had not yet lit up. The cop repeated his injunction. Morgenbesser repeated his observation. After a few such exchanges, the cop saw he was beaten and fell back on the oldest standby of enfeebled authority: "If I let you do it, I'd have to let everyone do it." To this the old philosopher replied, "Who do you think you are—Kant?" His last word was misconstrued, and the whole question of the Categorical Imperative had to be hashed out down at the police station. Morgenbesser won the argument."

I probably find this funny for the sole reason that I've taken too many philosophy classes and have been exposed to a bit too much philosophy in general during my years here at Hopkins.  Nevertheless, it is fairly amusing that a philosopher got stopped in a NYC subway by a cop and got taken down to the station because they thought he was calling the cop a cunt (if you didn't get that from the above, there you have it).  It also gives me pleasure that the philosopher didn't mispronounce Kant's name (Can't... *shudders*) like certain philosophy instructors who teach in Hodson and wear NKOTB sweatshirts or long fur coats (to avoid prosecution, these people shall remain nameless, but we know who you are.).   I can totally see this happening in NYC since some of the cops aren't always the brightest tools in the shed.  Anywhoo, there's my attempt at procrastinating for tonight.  I'm off to finish this assignment so I'm not up until 2AM writing about lame superpowers and the people who have them.

So, I stole this from Brooklynvegan, but whatever.  Chills, man, chills.    There was a Hopkins sized Obama mob last night/early this morning that was pretty cool until the cops got all militia-esque and started arresting and tasering people.  Erin, Sana, and I sought refuge in Subway and Uni Mini, as usual.   Apparently, an anthropology professor got arrested and stuff.  Craziness.
( It would've been even more awesome on CNN... )

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081030.wvvote_psa1030/VideoStory/VideoLineup/Pick



Thanks.

Another time when I shouldn't be on here, but I saw this on a blog and I thought it sounded like a fun thing to do and see if people are actually fooled by it.  I dunno... seems like a cool idea.  I would totally make a weekend out of it and see what happens.  Of course, it has to be planned carefully to make sure the plan is carried out flawlessly.

HOW TO: BE A CELEBRITY HOTEL GUEST

October 29, 2008

I heard about this on a podcast that I recently started subscribing to on my iTunes and almost missed the escort van to go grocery shopping because of it. This is why I prefer dogs over cats.  Ten years! You would never hear about a cat doing anything like that!

Even if you're strictly a bona fide cat lover, it's nearly impossible not to be moved by the brand of loyalty unique to dogs. Buddhists believe that on the day that the Buddha died, he summoned all animals to his side. Only members of 12 species -- dogs among them -- reached him before his death. He rewarded those who came with a year of their own, which is why the cat has no sign in the Chinese zodiac.

Although not every dog is necessarily friendly by nature, stories emerge from time to time of a dog becoming separated from his or her family and undertaking an incredible journey toward reunion. Dogs are used in therapy for Alzheimer's disease and in clinical settings as comfort for the terminally ill. And consider this: Between Jan. 19 and Jan. 31, 2008, no fewer than five different families in the United States and Canada were saved by their dogs when their homes caught fire. All of this substantiates the old saying that dogs are man's -- and woman's -- best friend. One breed of dog is especially prized for its fierce loyalty. The Akita is a fluffy dog that favors its wolf ancestors, with pointed ears that stand on end, a slightly scrunched face, and a tail that curls in a loop back toward its body. It hails from the Akita region of Japan, a prefecture (or state) in the north of the island. Originally all light in color, the Akita was first mentioned in Japanese literature around A.D. 712, and is depicted on much older pottery excavated in that country.

Are dogs humankind's best friends? The answer is a subjective one, but the story of Hachiko that inspired Helen Keller to adopt an Akita may be the closest we can get to objective evidence. Learn why Hachiko became Japan's adopted national dog.....

Hachiko and Eisaburo

The yellow-coated Akita named Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the province that is the namesake of his breed. A few months after his birth, little "Hachi" (as he came to be called) was brought to the home of Professor Eisaburo Uyeno (or Ueno) in Tokyo. The two became fast friends. Each morning, Hachiko accompanied his master to the Shibuya train station. Uyeno taught at the Imperial University, and Hachiko made it his habit to see his master off. Each evening, Hachiko returned to the train station, and when Uyeno got off the train, he found his dog awaiting his arrival, tail wagging happily at the sight of his owner and friend.

Courtesy Robert Sandow
A statue of Hachiko, erected at the
Shibuya train station in 1948.

The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Uyeno didn't return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachiko was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. After time, Hachi apparently realized that Professor Uyeno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachiko waited for Uyeno to return. And each day he didn't see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachiko attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachi and Professor Uyeno together each day. Realizing that Hachiko waited in vigil for his dead master, their hearts were touched. They brought Hachiko treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

News of Hachiko's remarkable loyalty eventually made its way outside of Tokyo, and he became something of an iconic figure in Japan. A statue of Hachiko forged by sculptor Ando Teru was erected at the train station in 1934, where Hachiko had been awaiting his master's return each day for nearly 10 years. During that time, he had come down with mange, fended off numerous street mongrels and contracted heartworms. Despite all of the hardships he encountered, he continued to wait.

On March 8, 1935, Hachiko laid down to die in the spot where he had spent a decade waiting each day for Uyeno to come home [source: The Tribune]. His bones were buried next to his master's grave.

Hachiko's death was mourned by his nation. As Japan entered World War II, and all metals became precious, however, sentimentality gave way to practicality. The statue of Hachiko was removed from its pedestal and melted for use as arms in April 1944.

After the war, a group of Tokyo residents commissioned Ando Takeshi, the son of the original statue's sculptor, to create a replacement. It was erected in 1948, and it sits at the train station today.

Travel writer Cheri Sicard wrote of a man she encountered at this statue at Shibuya station. "During my last visit with 'Hachi,' I encountered an old man who had also come to pay his respects. He told me in broken English, 'I knew him. I used to bring him treats' … With that he approached the statue, gave it a friendly pat, wiped a tear from his eye and slowly walked away" [source: Sicard].

So, I'm kind of an idiot.

Kind of a massively stupid idiot.

Why?

I spilled water on my computer.

I decided to make up my bed last night before watching Supernatural with Sana (amazing episode!  The cat? Brilliant!  And the special after the episode?? Sen-frickin-sational!) and decided to put my computer on the floor so that I could straighten my blanket.  I'd done this before and didn't think anything of it.  This time, however, I had forgotten that I placed a full cup of ice cold water on my bedside table  and hadn't placed it on my Beatles coaster like I usually do.  So, when I went to move the comforter, it hit the glass and the water spilled over the table...

Directly onto my computer.

I cursed loudly and ran over to see the damage.  The Bones episode I was watching was still playing, so I didn't think it was that bad but the screen was completely black so I turned the computer over on my bed and grabbed my hairdryer to try and get as much water out of the computer as quickly as possible (It seemed logical at the time!). 

Then the computer shut off.

I asked Sarah to Google what I should do and she said that I should remove all plugs and batteries and let it dry for about 24 hours and don't try to turn it on (I tried to turn it on before she told me this)... and not to use a blowdryer or fan to hurry the drying process.  Which, as I stated in the previous paragraph, I'd already done. 

Great.

It didn't say why I shouldn't use a blowdryer, so I'm hoping desperately that I didn't kill my computer in my moment of desperation.  I turned it upside down and placed it on a towel to dry and that is the way it has been since last night. 

So yeah, I'm kind of an idiot.

I'm at work all day, so I have no temptation to try and turn on the computer to see if it'll work until I get home later this evening.  Hopefully, it'll be fine. 

*fingers crossed*

Holy crap... I can't stop laughing.  Oh wow.  I would put my questioning your intelligence icon up, but laughter wins this time.  Man.  I'm mean.  Thanks Steffie for sending this to me.  whoo.

*EDIT: Let me just clarify that I saw this video at 4am and so I found it very amusing.  I still find it funny but it desn't kill me as much as it did this morning.

Wow.

I'm amazing.

More to come when I can form a coherent thought not related to Chinese cosmology and Amazonian Indians.


:o)

Okay, so I have a question and since I probably won't see anyone until I come back from home this weekend, I figured I'd post on LJ and find out what you people thought. 

I registered for the oh so fun course of Anthropology of Mental Illness a few days ago.  I'd gone to the first class and thought it would be an interesting course to take.  The readings seemed interesting, weekly precis didn't sound so bad, and papers are always preferred over exams.  I didn't even mind that there are supposed to be oral presentations in section (a little piece of information that they conveniently forgot to mention on the syllabus, mind you)... much.  However, after three sessions in the class, I realized that the reading is a little too heavy for me at the moment (in terms of content not amount, although there is quite a bit of reading to get through for the class) and I'm not sure I can handle it. 

My family has a history of mental illness and I thought it would be an interesting way to understand it.  When I told my mother that I considered taking it, she was not too happy about it and advised against taking the course, in fact.  I just thought she was being paranoid about me taking on too much school work and that I would be fine, but I'm not sure if I can handle reading about depression and mentally ill people being institutionalized and incomplete mourning because they all hit a bit too close to home (several members of my family are or have been clinically depressed and there is a crapload of incomplete mourning due to my brother's death.).  I feel a little ridiculous getting signed permission to get into the course only to drop it a week later, plus I'm not quite sure what class I can take in place of it.  I considered taking Photoshop and the Digital Darkroom with my roommate because it only meets once a week and would be a fun class without as much pressure as the other classes I'm taking.

I spoke to my sister about it after coming out of class today and she thought that if I really thought I wouldn't be able to handle it that I should drop the class and take a class with "substance," i.e. a class that mattered to my major and wasn't just a BS course.

So.  Here's my question:  Should I continue taking Anthropology of Mental Illness and attempt to separate my personal issues from the material being discussed during lecture and section or should I drop it and try to find another course asap?

Any and all suggestions are welcome.  I'm off to read an article for my research interview in an hour and to go to my CCS meeting before I go home (yay!)

~K

School has started again.

Do you smell the fresh ink drying in the notebooks of hundreds of students across campus?

My last first day of classes (until Spring semester) as a Hopkins student is officially over, so what better way to recap today's events than with a livejournal entry?

I woke up insanely early to go to Great Discoveries in Neuroscience, which started at 9am, so that I could beg the professor to let me into the class.  I need to have 17 credits this semester in order to begin the execution of my "Graduate From Hopkins in May" plan.  This is slightly difficult considering I've not found many classes that seem extremely interesting except for about three classes.  Of course, three classes does not equal 17 credits and will not get me in a cap and gown in May.  So, I took the advice from my advisor and tried to get into Great Discoveries.  The class seemed interesting enough for a Science-History course.  Except for the fact that this semi-interesting class includes a presentation (which is not graded but is required for the sick enjoyment of the seemingly easy going professor) and exams in the form of in-class short essays.  Two things that I am not fond of.

At all.

Nonetheless, I decided to suck it up and stay for the class and try to get in after lecture ended.  I felt slightly inadequate when he made everyone introduce themselves and state their research interests.  Most of the people in the class were already moving onto their second research job and some had gone to different countries to research cool stuff and make documentaries whereas I hadn't even started my first research job yet (hopefully that'll change soon, but more on that later.).  I tried to keep from thinking negatively about the class; I mean, it was only one ungraded presentation, not 6 graded ones like that godawful anthropology course I tried to take last semester with Erin and Sana and the professor was supposed to be an easy grader.  It might not be so bad after all.  So I stuck it out until the end of the lecture and went up to Prof. Barbaran (?) to ask him to sign my add/drop form.  Unfortunately, he refused, stating that he didn't want to go over 30 students.  He took my email and other information and told me he would let me know if a spot opened up.

I went to the back to the Registrar to have someone fix the registrar's mistake of dropping Cognitive Dvelopment and keeping IFN on my schedule and putting me in the wrong Greek Philosophy section.  The woman managed to put me into the correct philosophy section, however, thanks to the registrar's cockups, I couldn't get out of IFN because Cog Dev is now full and I can't get back in.  

"I can't do anything more than apologize at this point.  Do you need this to graduate? I'll keep an eye on it for you and add you if someone else drops it."

Thanks for that.  Thanks a friggin lot, Registrar.  Pfft.

I went back to my apartment to have a quick snack and call Mollie, the lab manager over at Kennedy Krieger, before my next class at twelve.  I got into the elevator in the basement as I usually do and managed to slip on not one, not two, but three puddles of water in the elevator and narrowly missed plunging to my death (aka utter humiliation) once I managed to get to the inside of the elevator car and away from the evil water.  Luckily I was alone and no one else witnessed my embarrassment.

I called my sister to tell her of my elevator episode (a regular thing amongst my sisters and I), but she was busy so she wasn't as enthusiastic about making fun of me as she usually is, so I decided to call Mollie and make sure my research position was still available.  She answered on my second attempt and told me to come in on Monday and that she would "be sure to have a lot of folks for [me] to talk to when [I] get there."  I hung up, feeling triumphant and went into the kitchen to make an early lunch.  I put a pita in the toaster oven to make a sandwich and once it was ready, instead of using the oven mitt like I usually do, I decided to be lazy and use one of the pot holders, ultimately burning the skin off of a third of my index finger and a slightly smaller portion of my palm on my left hand.  Cursing wildly, I ran my hand under water for a while, put Neosporin on the area to stop the searing pain, made my sandwich, and left fo Anthropology of Mental Illness.

The classroom was pretty full when I got there and I failed to save Sana a seat, though I managed to get her a syllabus.  The class seemed to be really interesting, though, like Great Discoveries, the professor wasn't really willing to go over 60 students.  She mentioned something about a trip to San Fran for an Anthropology conference of some sort and the syllabus promised a lot of work, but it seemed really interesting so I waited until the end of class and tried to get her signature to register for the class while Sana waited for me outside.  There were about 14 other students waiting with their add drop forms with me, so Professor Han promised that if 5 or 6 people dropped the class (which she thought was inevitable given the amount of wok required for the course- including a 5 page midterm paper, a 15-20 page research paper, and weekly assignments), she would let us all in the class.  Two have already dropped the class as of like two hours ago, (but I can't register because of stupid probabation. Thanks a lot Nervous System II.  You ruined my GPA!) so there's still hope for that class.  I'm excited to take that class, though Sana doesn't seem to be loving the weekly assignments (which would mean she would have to actually read, gasp!) and the fact that attendance will be taken at every class (which would mean she might actually have to go to class, double gasp!). 

I went back to the registrar with Sana so that she could fix the mistakes that the Registrar made on her add/drops (surprise, surprise!) and then went to Levering to have a coffee and wait around until El Film de Padro Almodovar started at two.  Finally! I was waiting anxiously for this class all day.  I just knew it would be awesome.  I got into Dunning and found the classroom fairly easily.  Prof Gonzalez told me and two other chicks in the class about having to take his grandson to school today, where he witnessed a bully in action and scared the kid by threatening to report him to the principal.  That then led him to tell us about how he went to a Catholic boarding school for four years where he was also bullied until one day he fought the bully (apparently he grew up around bodyguards and army men and stuff) who bit him on his chest making him have stitches since the bite was so nasty.  Yikes! Also, the priests made a fake boxing ring and would make the kids fight two rounds at night on the weekends for fun. 

He stopped his stories when other people starting walking in, including a shitload of Kappa Sorority girls (literally half of the class were sorority girls and their friends).  Prof Gonzalez started the class with the revelation that the introduction would be in English, but most of the lecture will be in Spanish or English, depending on what he felt like speaking at the moment.  I've been fooled! I thought since this class was cross listed and since there was no "this class will be taught in Spanish" warning anywhere in the description, that the class would be taught in English! The entire syllabus (all one page) was in Spanish as well as the Questionnaire he passed out at the beginning of the class.

Crap.

I managed to understand bits and pieces of his Spanish parts of the lecture thanks to Steffie speaking Spanish every once in a while at home to force my mom and I to learn a few words (and half a year of spanish from 7th grade), but for the most part, I was screwed.  I can read a little Spanish, I can understand a bit of Spanish, but not nearly enough to make it through this class without falling behind in lectures.  From what I could understand, the class seemed just as interesting and awesome as I'd hoped.  Too bad I couldn't understand most of the lecture. :o(  I left at the end because practically every one wanted to talk to Prof. Gonzalez and I didn't feel like waiting.  Instead, I sent him an email when I got to my apartment (while torturing myself with Spanish music and regretting taking French with bad crazy Ms. Passanante instead of taking Spanish with good crazy Mr. Aiello) and explaining my dilemma and asking for his thoughts on what I should do.  He still hadn't responded (he still hasn't responded actually) about an hour before I had to go to my CCS E-board meeting at 6.30, so I decided to look for replacement courses.  I had to replace IFN and now I had to replace Pedro Almodovar, so I was back where I started with needing two more classes to make it up to my 17 credit mark.  While looking, I suddenly remembered that if I paid off my NYU bill, I could transfer the credits from my Dublin program.   Oh, what an epiphany! Why hadn't I remembered that when Ms. Breckenridge asked me if I had any college credits! Silly, sily Kanderson!

Good: If I pay off my balance and Hopkins accepts the credits, I would be 6 credits closer to graduating, which means that I can shave 6 credits from my Graduate Hopkins in May Plan and I would probably only have to take 15 or 16 credits instead of 17 and/or I might not have to stay for intersession!

Bad: That NYU bill is still kind of steep.  Technically, I can pay it off right now, but I would be completely broke with a capital B-R-O-K-E afterwards.

What to do???

Oy.  So, that's how my last first day of school went today.   My hand is still slightly red where I burnt it and I can see a slight scar forming, but it feels a lot better than earlier this morning.  Hopefully the redness will be gone by morning.  I have work tomorow, so I should probably go to sleep so that I can wake up early in the morning and get there on time.  Crumbly Urology reports, here I come!

Course evaluation to come soon (once I've finalized my schedule and have actually gone to all of my classes). It's my senior year! Ahh! Who knew it would go by so fast?!

I completely forgot about this little list until I saw a postcard from Erin with Eric Clapton's guitar on it.  Anyway, Noah (the dude Erin and I met after the Radiohead concert) brought this up and it was really hard to come up with it.  In fact, I don't even know if it will remain this way (much like the desert island entry which desperately needs to be updated) for very long.   Hopefully it will.  What is it I'm rambling on about, you ask?
The top 5 living bands/artists that you would like to see in concert, of course.
Making up this list was pretty hard for me because most of the artists I listen to have either died or broken up.  Or I've seen them in concert already.  Not to mention, Radiohead has always been one of my top artists to see before I die and since I had to cross them off the list, I had a hard time coming up with someone to take their place.  However, I've managed to come up with my list and I told myself that I would write a long(ish) post instead of just making a quick list since my Radiohead post was so short and undescriptive.  So, without further delay, in no order, my top 5 living artists/bands that I would like to see in concert.

1. Eric Clapton

The man is seriously one of the best guitarists alive.  Ive liked his music since I was younger, but didn't really get into his stuff until I bought my dad an Eric Clapton's Greatest Hits CD for a birthday/Father's Day/Christmas present (I forget which one).  It's not obvious on my Last.fm charts, but I love, love, love Eric Clapton.  He has such an amazing voice and his songs are oh so good.  There aren't enough words to describe the awesomeness that is Eric Clapton and if I wasn't able to convince those of you taking the time to read this that he deserves to be on the list, I have two words: Layla. Live.

Word.

2. The Faint

I have to thank Travis Pastrana for introducing me to The Faint, otherwise I would not know about these guys.  They're a dance-punk- electronic- indie- new wave band from Omaha, Nebraska that is just amazing.  I made a promise to myself that I would see them in concert the next time they came around (a promise which was broken last week when they came to New York the same week I saw Radiohead and I failed to go.).  Their songs are insanely catchy and I've heard they are a pretty good band to see live.  Hopefully they'll decide to tour again soon so that I can correct the massive error of not going to see them.  I'm not particularly in love with their newest album, Fasciination, but Danse Macabre and Wet From Birth are good stuff.  I feel like going to see them would probably result in another Crystal Castles experience, but at least I would be prepared for it.

3. Interpol*

I've missed them every time they've come to New York and I'm getting tired of all these missed opportunities.  It's true that most of their songs sound alike, but dammit, they all sound so good!  Their last album wasn't my favorite, but I love all their songs and I would love to see them live at least once before I die or they stop making music.

4. Stone Temple Pilots

Call me sentimental, but STP was the first band that I ever actually got into and since they just got back together, I need to see them before Scott Weiland decides to get on drugs again or they break up again... or both.  They haven't really had an actual album since like 2001 but I still have a spot for them in my heart, as cheesy as that may sound.  Scott has dance moves that could earn a dance battle with Thom Yorke, plus Eric Kretz is my favorite drummer in the world. Crackerman? Forget about it.

5. Styles of Beyond

Oy.  Hard, hard decision.  There was a toss up between M.I.A., Kings of Convenience, Hot Chip, and Styles of Beyond, but SOB won today.  They're my favorite hip hop group at the moment and have been for a while, thanks to Mike from Linkin Park.   They don't rap about bitches and hoes and buying a new set of rims... their songs are easy to relate to and fun to listen to. Plus, what's not to love about an Irish rapper who admits to liking Rufus Wainwright??  I anxiously await the release of their next album, Reseda Beach... that is, if Warner Bros. decides to release it any time soon.

And there you have it.  5 living artists I must see before I die.  There are plenty other bands and artists that I would like to see (Sons & Daughters, Hot Chip, M.I.A., R.E.M.), but these are the medal winners at the moment. Hopefully I can cross a few of these guys off my list so that I can make a new list next year. *fingers crossed*  It's my mom's birthday today, so I guess I should clean the house a bit before she gets home.  Aren't I a good daughter?

* Okay, so I decided to make a slight change to the list and add Lynyrd Skynyrd to the list.  I wasn't sure if they were qualified to make the list since a bunch of the members died in a plane crash in the 70s, but they've since reunited with new people and they're supposedly working on new material for a new album, so I'm adding them.  Interpol is mostly on the list because I need to see them to make up for all the previous missed opportunies when I was really into them (high school era), but I've recently gotten into Lynyrd Skynyrd (thank you Dale Jr and Jensen Ackles) and I would lose my mind if I were able to see Free Bird and Simple Man live.  The guitar solos in those songs are amazing and they seriously give me chills.  Few songs can do that.  I've only heard a handful of their songs, but I love pretty much everything I've heard. It might be because I've been in a bit of a 70s rock/southern rock mood for a few months now or it might be because they're amazing.  Unfortunately, they're touring with Kid Rock last I heard and I really don't want to see Kid Rock in concert, but I may have to make an exception for Lynyrd. *shudder*

I'm a bit lazy, but I have to at least write a little blurb about the awesomeness that was the Radiohead concert on Tuesday.  I'm not really a fan of Grizzly Bear so they didn't really do anything for me, but oh man Radiohead, oh man!   The lights! The energy! The songs! Friggin amazing.  Hands down the best show I've ever been to.  I was a little bummed that they didn't play Bangers + Mash and Fake Plastic Trees (it was stuck in my head the entire day before the concert... so much so that I I was sure it was played during the set but after checking out the setlist, it wasn't played... oops.) but the show was amazing.  I need a new camera because my old one sucks, so I just took a few pictures on my phone.  They weren't spectacular so I won't try to upload them anytime soon.  Anyway, here's the playlist from the show, complete with two encores:

01. 15 Step
02. There There
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. The National Anthem
06. Videotape
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Where I End And You Begin
10. Faust Arp
11. No Surprises
12. Jigsaw
13. The Bends
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing Up The Walls
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. House of Cards
19. Lucky
20. Go Slowly
21. Just
22. Street Spirit

Encore 2
23. Reckoner
24. Planet Telex
25. Everything In Its Right Place

After the show, I met up with Erin and we made our way to Philly.  Erin abandoned me in New Jersey after I missed the train.  Surprisingly, she waited for me at 8th street where we took another train to 40th street and caught a shuttle to 69th street where we literally watched the bus to West Chester pull away from the bus terminal while we were stopped at a red light.  We had to call Erin's grandmother to come pick us up and met a cool guy named Noah who just graduated from West Chester U with a philosophy degree.  Some dude tried to pick me up giving me his number in case I "needed a friend."  Erin's grandmother picked us up and we told her Noah went to high school with Erin instead of telling her that he was just some random we met on the shuttle to 69th street.  He brought up the topic of Top 5 (living) bands/artists that you want to see in concert (which isn't as easy to list as it may seem... that list will probably be up here later on this month... maybe.).  I stayed at Erin's place and came home the next day to go straight to a picnic held by the NYC Comptroller's office (my mom's job) and watched people do the electric slide and the cha-cha slide.

That's about all that happened.  I could go on and on about how amazing the Radiohead concert was, but I won't because I'm not sure I can describe it and do it justice with words.  I wish I could have been closer (I was in the back and to the right of the stage), but the show was still amazing.  I am one step closer to being able to die happy.

It's been a while since I've written in this thing, not because nothing has been happening, but because I've been insanely busy and entirely too lazy to write about any of it. 

Good news is that I'm finally done with physics for the summer and I've passed both terms, so I'm on my way to graduating in May (yay!).  I met with a bunch of advisers last month and managed to come up with a plan to get all of my credits in time to graduate in May without killing myself.  I won't go into specifics, but if it all works out the way I want it to, I'll be able to walk and only have to take a three credit class in June. 

Now for bad/sucky news... both of the trips that I've been planning have been canceled.  Tickets sold out for the Supernatural Convention in Chicago in November before Sana and I could get tickets, so we won't be able to go.  After realizing that we won't be able to see Jensen and Jared in November, we decided to try to find other events and I stumbled upon the San Diego Comic Con, which would have had everyone from Supernatural, Prison Break, Heroes, and Dexter... all in one place! Obviously, since we suck at life, we only found out about this damn convention the weekend before it was supposed to happen, so we could not go.  Instead, I sulked about how much we suck at life and put all my effort into passing Physics and planning my trip to Seattle instead. There's always Dallas.... I have no idea when the Dallas con is for next year and there's no way we can go to the one in LA in March because *sigh* we'll have class.

Ah, Seattle... We'll get to that in a moment.

I was going to write about how my shoe broke in Raymour and Flanigan, but it's kind of hard to describe it, so we'll just get to Seattle.  I got to BWI a few hours after my final as planned.  I was pleased to find that there was no long line at the United Airlines desk, but when I tried to check in, one of the people at the desk told me that my flight was being handled through US AIrways.  Of course, this annoyed me a little because the line was considerably longer at the US Air terminal.  I managed to check in without much of a problem and went to security.  Now, folks, it's been a while since I've flown.  In fact, I haven't been on a plane since someitme before my senior year of high school.  So, I was slightly confused about all the new reguations in effect in security.  After taking off my shoes and putting all my stuff in a bin like I usually do, I stepped went to the metal detector only to realize that I left my boarding pass in the bin with the rest of my stuff when I set it down to take off my shoes.  So, I had to have one of the security attendants retrieve my boarding pass.  Turns out, not only did I forget my boarding pass, but I forgot to take out my electronics and my little zip-lock bag that I had prepared with all of my liquids.  So, I had to get all my stuff back and take everything out and go through security again.  Idiota.

After that whole thing, I found my gate without much trouble and sat down to read my book (a book I purchased in Ireland since my book from Borders failed to arrive at my apartment before I had to leave for the airport) and text random friends and loved ones while waiting for the plane to board.  While waiting, a cute guy's iPod died and he was asking around, hoping someone had an AC adapter for their iPod.  Luckily, I had mine in my carry-on (like a boy scout, I'm always prepared) and let cute guy borrow my adapter to charge his iPod before boarding his flight to North Carolina.

I managed to board my flight to Philly not long after getting my charger back.  Unfortunately, I was sitting with an entire African soccer team (one of the dudes had a trophy that he refused to put in the overhead container or underneath his seat) that had on entirely too much cologne.  They were all using their cell phones even after the pilot announced to turn off all electronic devices.  Stupid soccer team.

Fortunately, that flight was only about 20 minutes long and I got into Philly, without crashing, to get to my next flight.  I got some food while waiting for my flight to Seattle to board since US AIr no longer offers free food on domestic flights over 5 hours ("Really?" says Leslie, "Maybe it's because all American airlines are bankrupt.  I didn't even think United and US Air were flying anymore.").  We were boarded at 8:30 as written on the boarding pass and I sat next to this older guy whose wife and daughter were in front of us.  I called my mom to tell her I was leaving since I forgot to call her before we boarded when the pilot announced that we had to wait an hour and a half because they needed to change a tire because there were no proper facilities or tools or something to do so in Seattle. 

So, we all got off the plane and sat around waiting for the tire to get changed.  An hour and a half later, one of the boarding attendants said it would take another 20 minutes to change the tire, but five minutes later someone came out and told us that we had a new plane and would be able to board the plane shortly.  Yay!!!... Right?

Wrong.

After another 20 mintues of waiting around, the same guy who told us that it would take 20 minutes more to change the tire came back and told us that even though the plane was all ready to go, we couldn't board the plane yet because they couldn't find the pilot.  Apparently, he went for a walk when we initially got off the plane and he hadn't returned yet. Lovely.

15 minutes later, the pilot returned, but we still couldn't board the plane and the attendants couldn't tell us why because they didn't know themselves.  So, we waited around while different stories were being delivered through different attendants.  Finally, around 11.30ish, the flight was cancelled.  Apparently, after the pilot was found, they couldn't find a proper co-pilot because the one that we had didn't have the proper credentials to fly a big plane across the country.  Either that or the crew didn't have proper credentials, or the co-pilot we were waiting for was flying in on another plane.  Yeah, I still don't know what the hell happened.  The attendant told us that even though the flight was cancelled, they would still fly all of our luggage to Seattle the next morning, but the next available flight for booking wasn't until 5pm the next day.  So, I had to wait around for about 2-3 hours waiting on lines trying to get re-booked.  A random brown dude told a bunch of us that he managed to get a flight for the next morning via Delta by calling US Air direct.  Of course, a bunch of us tried it.  When I called, they initially told me that they would put me on a plane that left on Monday morning (I was supposed to be out of Philly Friday night, folks),  and then they told me that they couldn't change my flight because it was a no-change, nonrefundable ticket.  I didn't want a Monday morning flight anyway, so I told them to cancel that flight and that I would get another ticket elsewhere (maybe not that nicely...). I managed to get booked on an Airtran flight sometime before 2am and called my sister to come from Paoli and pick me up in Philly.  They gave me food vouchers but I refused the hotel vouchers because I figured we would go back to Paoli and come back.  I didn't realize that my mom and sister had already discussed what I was supposed to do and didn't remember to tell me that I was supposed to get the hotel voucher. So, after getting some food from Au Bon Pain, courtesy of US Air, I went back to the gate to try to get a hotel voucher.  The guy told me that the nearest hotel with vacancies was in New Jersey, "Right over the bridge."  I took the voucher with no intention of going to New Jersey when Leslie came and went back to Au Bon Pain to charge my phone and wait for Leslie to arrive. 

Leslie got there sometime around 3am and we decided to just sleep in the car since she had no desire to drive to New Jersey or Paoli to drive right back as soon as we got comfortable.  We stayed in the airport parking garage and slept in the car for three hours before we got out of the car and went back to the terminals to check into Airtran.  The manager told me that I wasn't allowed to check into the flight without a payment voucher of some sort so I had to go back to the US Air terminal and get a payment voucher and come back to the Airtran terminal to check in.  Once that was done, the people at Air Tran told me that the flight was overbooked so there was no guarantee that I would get on the flight anyway.  I went through security and was notified that I was lucky enough to be selected for additional security clearance or whatever they call it and managed to get to the gate when the last dregs of passengers were boarding the flight.  The stuardess told me that I would not be flying on that flight and I pissed and walked off with the intent of getting my money back.  I had been at that damn airport for close to twelve hours and I was fed up with everything.

Leslie and I went back to US AIr while Steffie called US Air to try to get me onto another flight because they thought I shouldn't let US AIr ruin my flight.  They managed to get me on a 6pm flight connecting in Vegas, which was something my mom and I didn't like (my mom because Vegas is 'dangerous'; me because I didn't want to connect again and risk having this happen again).  Leslie and I went back to Paoli and I slept for a few hours before Erin called and I told her all that went down during my 13-14 hour stay at Philadelphia airport.  I spent the rest of the day speaking to my mom and Sana trying to decide whether I should go back to the airport and connect in Vegas to try to get the Vegas.  By that point, i was so fed up with airports and US Air that I had no desire to go back to the airport and connect in yet another city.  My sisters thought I should go (leslie because I wouldn't get my money back if I canceled and steffie because I spent all this time preparingthis trip and she thought I should be able to go and enjoy myself), but my mom thought I should cancel the trip and Sana seemed to agree with my mom.  So, I canceled the trip.  I felt bad because I told Erin I would go and I was backing out on the last minute, which is something I really hate to do, but Erin didn't seem too upset since Laura was coming a day earlier anyway and she wouldn't have to spent a night at the Hostel as planned.

I called US Air shortly after making this decision and they tried to give me a voucher for travel with their airline, but after checking their computer again, the person helping me realized that the flight I was supposed to take to Vegas had been delayed, which meant that I would have missed my connection in Vegas.  Alas, I was able to get my money back because, no surprise here, US Air sucks.

After solving the issue of getting my money back, I had to find my luggage which was supposedly on its way to Seattle while I was trying to decide whether I should go back to the airport.  The people on the phone over at US Air told me I had to go back to the airport and file a claim in person to get my luggage back.  Like that was going to happen.

By the time I reached New York on Sunday afternoon, I still had no idea where my luggage was and I couldn't get in contact with anyone who could give me an alternative to going to Philadelphia or Sea-Tac to file a claim.  I managed to make some progress on Monday by getting in touch with the US Air Central Baggage claim department in Arizona.  They told me that I could go to La Guardia Airpot in New York and file a claim there since the people at Philadelphia Airport had no idea where my luggage was and if the people at La Guardia couldn't help me then they would try to do it over the phone.  Shortly after I hung up with them, Ricky from Sea-Tac Airport called me with the delightful news that they had my luggage in Seattle and he would be awesome enough to send my luggage back to Philly that night and make sure it gets on a connecting flight to La Guardia where I could pick it up the next morning.  As Ricky promised, my luggage was in New York by the next morning and I was able to pick it up after running errands with my mom that day.  So, here's to you, Ricky.  You rock.

So, there you have it.... most of what happened in the past few weeks in one nice little LJ post-shaped package.  Thanks to US Air, I missed my trip to Seattle and my friend's birthday party in New York.  Since then, I've mostly been home watching Veronica Mars and random crap on TV.  There was a bit of an adventure trying to get my dog ready for the groomers yesterday, but I don't feel like writing about it.  Anyway, I'm going to see Radiohead on Tuesday in Camden, which is pretty awesome.  I'm slightly nervous, though, because I don't know how I'll be getting home from the venue and I'm not really sure how to get there in the first place, so it should be an adventure.