FAIL. FAIL. Fail?

For lack of a better term, I've been training for the Shamrock Shuffle in March. You can either walk 3 miles or run 5. I usually walk with my mom but this year I decided to run with my dad. For those of you who know me, I am a dancer, not a runner. Dancers are built differently. So running has been hard for me to get into. I still don't like it. But I do it. I even have new running shoes so now I feel official.

As I was running on the treadmill today, about 10 minutes into my run the treadmill stopped and started flashing FAIL at me in bright red letters. I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. What? I'm failing at this run? My own treadmill is yelling at me? I shook off the shock of it all and restarted my run. About 10 minutes later my treadmill shouted FAIL at me again! This time I just had to laugh.

I finished the rest of my run without any more signs of failing, but as far as I know, no one else in my family has ever been judged by our treadmill.

Two more

Here are two more videos that have made my list: the cutest whistling dog ever & something that no one can help smiling at.

The song in the second video is called Praan by Garry Schyman. The words are actually taken from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore called "Stream of Life."

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Enjoy.

Dance dance dance

My friend just posted a YouTube video of old clips set to the Passion Pit song "Sleepyhead," which got me thinking about some of my favorite videos from the Internet. Here is the Passion Pit video:

This next video immediately came to mind. It's old footage of men doing the Charleston set to a

Daft Punk song. Pretty sweet. Click here to see it. I never knew the Charleston could look so cool.

Brave New World vs. 1984

I just finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I remember some of my friends reading it for a class in high school, but I never got to read it. So it's been on my list for a while. I thought I would like it because 1984 by George Orwell has the same futuristic utopian setting and it's on my list of favorite books. But, in fact, I did not like Brave New World.

Huxley's utopia was very creative and I'm sure hippies of the '60s were fans of his idea of sleeping with as many partners as you liked and taking soma tablets to "get away" when you started feeling anything but happy. So in that regard, his utopia has some future reality to it, especially because it was published in 1932.

1984 was published in 1948 (pretty easy to remember since the last two numbers just switch) and I think I liked it more because it focused on rebellion of the main character who was trapped inside the utopia. BNW has a main character whose thoughts somehow survived years of mental conditioning, but he is not the one to rebel. It is an outsider of the utopia who is brought inside and rebels. Not very surprising for an outsider to rebel to the backwards ways of the utopia. I thought Huxley lacked creativity there.

Who knows, maybe I liked 1984 more because I read it first. Maybe not.

Woops.

I value the sake of my well being, and the well being of those around me. Therefore, I will not be giving up chocolate, sweets or cheese for Lent. Believe me, you will thank me later.

Anyway, I subbed yesterday for my mom's third grade class. Cute kids. The highlight of the day was in Religion. I read the Creation Story to them and had to ask them how they would take care of God's creation. Little Paddy raises his hand. This is the conversation that followed:

Paddy: Well, first you take care of Number 1. Then, you take care of Number 2 and-

Me: Paddy! I don't think that is appropriate for Religion class!

Paddy: But, wait, no I didn't mean it like that - I meant first you take care of Number 1 meaning yourself. Then you take care of Number 2, which is other people. Then you take care of the Earth.

Me: Oh. Right. Yeah that's a great answer...

All the other kids to me: You thought it was about the bathroom! You thought it was dirty!

Woops.

Necklaces, bathrooms and crocheting

Is it just me, or has anyone else ever noticed in movies when someone tears a necklace from someone else's neck that it just comes right off? In countless movies I've seen this done. But never in real life. So I tried pulling off a necklace I was wearing to see if it really is that easy. It's not. It doesn't work at all. It just hurts your neck so I'd advise against trying it yourself.

I saw this in the movie Wolfman today. It was pretty good. I jumped a lot. But it doesn't take much to make me jump. And the movie was really loud so I plugged my ears to make it seem less scary. And I squinted a lot to avoid seeing tendons and whatnot being pulled out of people as the wolfman attacked them. I guess you could say I wasn't seeing or hearing most of the movie...but I still liked it. Overall it was a semi-predictable story with a couple twists and turns that kept your interest because a wolfman was on the loose. Anthony Hopkins sure does know how to play a creepy role.

I think I've seen too many horror movies. If I'm the only one in a large, public bathroom I get freaked out. There are just too many movies with bathroom scenes. The main character will go into a bathroom. It appears that they are alone. Then you hear a dripping noise like water falling onto the tile. The main character turns around and sees a little girl standing there in a nightgown with long hair, obstructing her face. The character thinks "Oh it's just a little girl" then BAM the little girl is evil and dead or a ghost and kills the main character. This is why I get scared when I'm the only one in a bathroom because, for a minute, I think maybe I'm not the only one in there.

I think I need to take up a new hobby. Something different to spice up my days. I was thinking calligraphy. But I'm not sure yet. My mom suggested knitting or crocheting to which I replied no thanks, I'm not an old cat lady. (No offense to anyone who knits or crochets, it's just not the kind of hobby I'd like to pick up at the moment.) Any suggestions would be welcome.

P.S. I love...chocolate

I forgot to mention the other way you could be spending your Valentine's Day: You could be bidding on spending it with Lindsay Lohan. Yes, she is, in fact, auctioning herself off for Valentine's Day. Apparently the bidding is expected to go up to $150,000.

I mean if she's going to steal my idea, she should at least give me some credit for it.

Ha.

I love...chocolate

I went to the store today to look at Valentine's Day cards. I like picking out cards. I'll stand there for 30 minutes if I have to until I find the card that's just right. My favorite ones are the Hoops & Yoyo cards.

If you don't know what these are, go to hoopsandyoyo.com. These cards make me laugh out loud. So yes, I was the girl in the busy card aisle today at Walgreen's opening up every hoops & yoyo card to hear what they said. (Oh yeah, the cards are talking cards.) I probably annoyed people but I didn't care because the cards were making me laugh. The funny part is that I didn't even end up buying one of the talking cards. I also realized that chocolate covered heart-shaped marshmallows are impossible to pass up. So I bought one for myself.

I saw the movie Valentine's Day today. It was your typical cute romantic comedy. Worth seeing though. And for those of you who can't stand Valentine's Day anything, there's a scene involving Jennifer Garner bashing in a heart-shaped pinata with an X through the words 'Happy Valentine's Day.' It was during an annual 'I Hate Valentine's Day Dinner' her friend throws. I thought it was pretty creative. I mean, who wouldn't want to sit around eating a bunch of chocolate then getting to pummel a pinata only to eat more chocolate? I know I would.

No matter what your views are on Valentine's Day, enjoy the day in whatever way you do. If you planned a romantic dinner for two, enjoy. If you are now grabbing your car keys to go buy a heart-shaped pinata and a baseball bat, have fun :)

What to do...what to do...

Well here I am. I've had the idea of starting a blog ever since my brother had one while he was home for an 8-month "retirement." Retirement is an option. Unemployment is not. Ergo, I have now replaced my brother as the retired child in the family. It just sounds better.

Anyway, I've been home for a while now and I've hesitated starting a blog. Why? Well, for those of you who used to read Bren's blog, it is a hard act to follow. For starters, I don't have an unnatural obsession with yogurt. Therefore I can't write an entire blog post about how I calculated the amount of yogurt I eat per day/per week/per year and then figure out how much money is spent on said yogurt. I do love cheese though...

Also, our dog Jazzy is no longer around. She provided some amusement for Bren. Well, actually maybe just someone to check on, seeing as she would sleep a lot and couldn't hear so she'd jump awake when you checked to see if she was still breathing. Plus, dogs are cute. Everyone loves dogs. Unless you're a cat person, in which case I strongly urge you to reconsider your animal preference.

I do not have a goal to slam dunk. So no, I will not be purchasing jump soles and videotape myself practicing. Nor will I take up violin lessons. And end up quitting after the first one due to a pinky injury.

So thanks Bren for providing me the intro to my first post. I'll probably mostly talk about books (I read a lot), music and whatever pops into my head. Like how today I realized that when I shop alone I talk to myself. For example, I'll pick up a shirt, study it, then say whatever I decide about it out loud. "No that won't go." "Ehh no." "Hmm this could work...maybe...meh...I don't know (sigh)." I also noticed that no annoying sales people approached me to see if I needed help or was "finding everything okay." No one wants to talk to someone who's already talking to themselves I suppose.

Plus side of this realization: No annoying sales people bother me.

Downside: I may have become "that girl."