Meme...me likey

Okay, here's a meme that Lisaopolis tagged me with. It's been so long since I've posted on her site that I owe her a meme. And as I have no energy to do any more work on my proposal tonight, it seems like a good procrastinating excuse.

10) Favorites
COLOR: yello
FOOD: mom's lasagna, mussels marinara, crab rangoon
MONTH: October
SONG: Sting "Fields of Gold"
MOVIE: Hoosiers and many others that I heart
SPORT: football (American)
SEASON: Fall
DAY OF THE WEEK: Sunday
ICE CREAM FLAVOR: peanut butter & chocolate
TIME OF DAY: dusk

9) Currents:
MOOD: sleepy
CLOTHES: t-shirt & jeans
TASTE: apple pie a la mode from dessert
TOENAIL COLOR: none at the moment
TIME: 11:45pm
SURROUNDINGS: living room couch, legs propped up with laptop
THOUGHTS: This is not the spring break I had in mind
WONDERINGS: Will I ever finish school

8) First:
BEST FRIEND: Laura C. Still is though.
KISS: Donnie A. Horrible, wretched kisser. I wish that experience on no one
SCREEN NAME: angelfirei
PET: my cat Muffin (RIP)
PIERCING: ears
CRUSH: Curt Harris in first grade
HOME LOCATION: Bridgeport, OH

7 Lasts:
CIGARETTE: Don't smoke. I think maybe college?
DRINK: Check out the 365 Blog for daily updates
KISS: this afternoon
MOVIE SEEN AT THE MOVIE THEATER: Pan's Labyrinth
PHONE CALL: the Canadian
CD PLAYED: Groove Armada
GIFT RECEIVED: make-up from the Canadian's mom. So sweet:)

6:
HAVE YOU EVER DATED ONE OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS? Not officially per se, but we have been "close"
BEEN ARRESTED: never
BROKEN THE LAW: Is it possible not to?
SKINNY DIPPED: sure
BEEN ON TV: yup, though it's been a few years
KISSED SOMEONE YOU DIDN'T KNOW: Of course. I was in college once (oh wait, I'm still in college).

5:
THINGS YOU'VE EATEN TODAY: coffee, bagel, roast chicken, rice, corn on the cob, apple pie
YOU'VE DONE TODAY: grocery shopped, blogged:), cooked dinner, typed parts of proposal
YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: coffee, my laptop, TiVo
YOU CAN HEAR RIGHT NOW: the shower on upstairs, my hands typing
YOU DO WHEN YOU GET BORED: surf the Internet, catch up on TiVo

4:
PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY: home & grocery store

3:
PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO: A few very, very close friends and my parents

2 Choices:
a. BLACK OR WHITE : Didn't the cookie settle this debate?
b. HOT OR COLD: mild

1. THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
Travel to all 7 continents

The Great White North

Evenin' friends:) It's been a while since I've posted, and for mostly good reason...it's Spring Break! Many of you recall Spring Breaks of yore that included scantily clad buff bods, doing body shots and shooters till the wee hours of the morning, letting the buzz kill the pain of getting sunburnt in a country full of white sand and turquoise water. I remember those days too. Note that the Spring Break of grad school differs ever so slightly. The only white sand and turquoise waters I see now are on my desktop wallpaper, and unless people can start getting burnt from 60-watt lightbulbs illuminating me typing up my dissertation proposal.

But I guess even I'm being dramatically unfair to the vacation I've had so far. Last Friday the Canadian and I did get out of town for a few days by driving up to the Great White North so I could meet his fam and relax for a few days. Nerve-wracking as "meeting the parents" always is, I must say that it went pretty well. His family was so chatty and sweet to me and his little sister like the little sister I never had. The only bummer of it all is that the Canadian himself came down with a wretched cold/flu thing. At one point, his temp was up to 103, though I wasn't able to tell that at first since I was unable to read the thermometer in Celsius. Doh! I'm happy to report that he's doing fine now once the fever broke. Anyhow, since the Canadian was out of commission for a few days, we didn't really get to go anywhere in Toronto until the 3rd day of our visit. Therefore I was pretty psyched when we were able to venture out. We hit up the mall in actual good stores, something we don't have here in S.C., and walked downtown a bit. Then we headed to a sweet brewery/restaurant called C'est What? (you can read more about their brews in my latest post on the 365 Beer blog) There we met up with one of his college buddies and his girlfriend for a while. So it was good times all around. We decided to head back to the States the next day, but not before stopping in Buffalo, NY at the Anchor Bar, home of the buffalo wing. Survey says--> excellent wings, though overpriced. Anyhow, we got in super late at night on Monday and I was pretty much tapped out the next day. Since we've been back, it's been back to the grind, though we may go to NYC this weekend to visit some friends. I do so love spending St. Paddy's Day in the City.

Oh, just a reminder, if you haven't signed up for the second annual NOSE/Red Red Rine March Madness Tournament Challenge, you can still do so before noon tomorrow when the tourney starts. Okay, to register yourself in our group you can go to this website:

Group Name: NOSE/Red Red Rine
Group ID: 548
Password: beer

Hammer Time

Here's a morning pick-me-up courtesy of XKCD Enjoy!

I heart The Chieftains

Hello friends! Now that I've been posting to 2 different blogs, I've found that I've been neglecting my primary blog again. Sorry:( February was an okay month for me. I finally picked a dissertation topic (woohoo!) and am now in the process of writing up my ideas in the proposal.

Additionally, I've been joining in with my boys at NOSE trying to have a different beer every day. As I told my buddy N8 though, I'm gonna hate when we hit day 360 or so because the only beer that's gonna be left is shit beer. I hope not though because it defeats the purpose of what we're doing. While it may appear that we're just trying to foster alcoholic-like tendencies for a year a la college style the purpose of the 365 Beers challenge is to really broaden your horizons when it comes to beer and get to try new good beers that you may not have tried before. I like a good beer but if you're like me, you order the same 2 or 3 types of beer when you go out. The challenge is to try some new beers that you wouldn't normally try. So anyway, that itself is going well. I forgot to start on Feb. 16th (N8's bday) so I'm a few beers behind everyone else, but it's been cool so far.

Finally, I got to see one of my favorite Irish bands on Tuesday night: The Chieftains. For those of you not familiar with The Chieftains (and shame on you;), they are Irish music legends who have like 6 Grammies, 19 Grammy nominations, and Oscar, etc. They're pretty much bad-ass in Ireland and have a standing gig playing at Carnegie Hall in NYC every St. Patrick's Day. Anyhow, imagine my surprise when I find out through the grapevine that The Chieftains are going to be playing at a small venue on campus that only hold about 2000 people and tickets are only $30. Sweet! Anyhow, I ended up going with 2 of my friends on Tuesday and they did not disappoint. The core members of the band have to be in their mid-60's by now but they can still rock out. Plus they have a great sense of humor, and broke out some Cotton-Eyed Joe and some Rolling Stones on the Irish pipe from time to time. Anyhow, that night just reminded me how much I love Irish music and if you haven't listened to The Chieftains before, you should:)

It's also been a while since I've posted any music recommendations, so I thought I'd add a few songs and albums playing in my iPod recently if you're looking for something to listen to.

Music I'm Listening to lately:

1) Le Tigre - Deceptacon
This is a hella catchy tune with an even better video. Her voice can get a little shrill but she's British so it works for her.

2) Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Another great song with an awesome video.

3) Blue Rodeo - Lost Together
4) Blue Rodeo - Hasn't Hit Me Yet

I love this band! The Canadian introduced me to them, as they are also Canadian, and I really dig how they've got this folk rock/not-scary-country vibe to them. Lost Together is particularly beautiful:)

5) Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
I never thought I'd love to see the day I'd have a Christina Aguilera song on my chart, but I really dig this song. It's really catchy and funky and great to listen to.

6) U2 - One Tree Hill
Not a new song, but the recent trip to Ireland and upcoming St. Paddy's Day has made me fall in love with old school U2 all over again.

New Blog --> 365 Beers

Good morning friends! As I sit here sipping my morning java and avoid the -10 wind chill outside, I thought I'd promo a new blog that I'm writing for. It's called 365 Beers and was started by my boys over at NOSE to chronicle the attempt to drink 365 different beers in 365 days. I think this is a fantastic idea and as such, I have joined the contest and am now also writing about various beers on the new site. Apparently, the rules of the contest were originated on another site called 365-Beer. Anyhow, I just added the link to our new blog under the heading "Blogs I Heart" if you want to check it out or and any beer wisdom and/or recommendations for brews.

Diss in a Box: The contest

Step 1...cut a hole in the box
Step 2...put your diss in the box
Step 3...make your committee open the box

My problem right now? Step 1.5...find a diss topic to put in that box.

I thought the worst was behind me with Comps, but it turns out that once you're done with comps and all that pressure is (you thought) behind you, they actually want you to keep going and pick a dissertation topic and then actually write about it. Who knew?! As my completely work-free Xmas vacation has extended a little longer than I'd planned and I have no topic in site, I'm going to have a contest for best potential dissertation title as a way to inspire me.

Here's how it works: For the next week, I'm going to be accepting nominations for the best/most creative/funniest potential title for my dissertation. Winner will receive a as-yet-unnamed gift from me:) Leave your suggestions in the comments section and next Monday I'll pick a winner. As most people have no freaking clue what it is I do (Applied Linguistics), I'll leave a few buzz words below referring to things I might actually use in a dissertation title. Feel free to use them for inspiration:

repair, SLA, computer-mediated, Conversation Analysis, micro-analysis, ethnomethodological, ideology, exegesis, epistemology


And just for fun, and in case you didn't get the original reference, here's the original SNL skit "D!ck in a Box" for your viewing pleasure:)

Vicky the ladies man meets Pan the freaky Faun

Good morning friends! Like force feeding myself vegetables a la New Years Resolution-style, I'm trying to force myself to blog more so I can get back into the groove. I thought about blogging some about my Europe trip, but that'll take too long, so I've decided to share about the most twisted "fairy tale" I've ever seen: Pan's Labyrinth.














Baby eater monster thing


While you digest that image, let me just say that no children should ever be allowed to see this film. Granted it's touted as a horror film officially, but I thought I was in for something like The Dark Crystal or whatever. I didn't know it had an R rating to begin with. I expected such depressing gruesomeness from the Finns or Icelandanders (?), but not the Spanish. This is not to say that I didn't like the film, because I did. It's highly original and well shot, but definitely not for the faint of heart. My buddy Jon and I went to see this film a few days ago because it's been getting all this Oscar buzz and love from Rotten Tomatoes. There were more than a few scenes in which I had to cover my ears or eyes. Afterwards, I turned to Jon and sighed "Well, it ain't Disney". I'm not sure if it was the man getting his leg sawed off or the girl getting shot by her stepfather or the various torture scenes with hammers that tipped me off, but I'm just saying that next time I'm definitely going to read up on a film like that before I see it.

Because of all the darkness I've thrust upon you with this movie, I thought I'd leave you on a lighter note. As you know I teach ESL at the university as part of my assistantship. And I really like my job. Well, most of my students for some reason end up being Asian. And while that's cool, you should know that it's the tendency of many Asian students to use Western names while studying in the U.S. Granted there is more than a fair share of "normal" names like Mike and Michelle, but every once in a while you get some fantastically out-there names that you have to refrain from busting out laughing as you take attendance every day. I was talking to one of my friends the other day who taught EFL in China and she shared a few gems of names that were too fantastic not to share. Here are some of my favorites to brighten your day (picture the roll call for this class):

Celery
Apple
Watermelon
Cinnamon (notice a pattern yet)
Germany
England
Fat Boy (Runner up)
and...... Vicky the ladies man!!!!!

New Years Resolution

...to blog more. Yes, it's been like 2 months since I've posted to or read anyone else's blog, which is a damn shame because blogging is one of my favorite things to do. See I've been preoccupied with this little thing called "Comps", which made me its bitch for the last 2 months. But luckily (sound trumpets), I passed!! Woohoo!! As such, I have begun to decompress and become a human again, which of course, includes blogging more regularly.

So what have I been up to, you ask? Lots (though mostly studying). Actually, I just got back from 2 weeks in Europe a few days ago, so a new post full of photos and stories will be coming soon. I also started seeing someone, which takes up a lot of time (in a good way), and I've been watching a lot of football as always. And no, I will not be commenting on the exercise in pain that was the National Championship Game.

However, I have lots of stories or randomness to share, so bear with me as I attempt to fill you in on what I've been up to over the next few posts. For now, all I can say is I've missed you blog:)