Dakota...awful. Nukorea...awful. I really did not enjoy either of them and just sat and prayed for it to be over. They both lasted too long so I never thought my prayers would be answered.

For Dakota, I do not like the fact that I couldn't read what was being shown to me. What is the point of writing something if no one can read it? I understand that he wanted to show the chaos of what was going on, but it was just frustrating that I could'nt fully understand the entire story.

For Nukorea, the details were a little much for me. Actually, they were probably the only thing that did interest me out of the whole thing. The point i was paying the most attention to was when he was describing the maggots and rats on the dead bodies. Another thing I didn't like about this was how he continuously used transition words to start way too many sentences. It seemed like he had never taken an English class before even though he obviously has experience in the subject. The idea was interesting but it is kind of scary to think that this could possibly happen. The whole thing was also wayyyyyyyyy too long.

One of the funny things is that I think that the music should have been switched for the two pieces. For the first one, i was more interested in the story but couldn't read it because the music was too fast and it was following the music. For the second one, the music was slow and there are a lot of things i wish i didn't read. If the music was reversed i think i would have liked them both at least a little bit more...

I'm not really an athletic person. Nor am I a slave to the gym and working out. In 18 years, I obviously haven't had any major issues, so I don't really feel the need to start changing that. However, I do exercise occasionally and feel better about myself by getting out and doing something somewhat physical. I used to play soccer, and I like to play tennis and ski.

I thought about joining a team/intramural sport here, but it didn't end up happening. Too much of a time commitment and not enough skill :) So I looked around the Campus Recreation website and found that the University offered various fitness classes. There was a weird type of yoga, self-defense (which I seriously considered), a few others, and then I stumbled across belly dancing. This was one of those things where I always thought it was cool, never had any exposure at all to it. So for $40 I decided why not-I'll give it a shot.

The class met for six weeks, and there were 10 or 12 of us in the class, depending on the day. Our instructor was really chill - she was very much into the dancing, how it's an art form, and very pro-female empowerment/getting in touch with yourself. It was really cool actually. We learned really basic moves like belly rolls, shimmies, and hip drops, and put together two different choreographies to help learn the moves. One day, the instructor brought in veils and belts that jingled so we got to play around with those. I really enjoyed the class and loved getting out once a week and doing something fun and stress free.

Here are a few videos of belly dancing courtesy of youtube. Generally, belly dancing is a solo dance for a woman...



...but men can do it as well...Personally I think the women are more impressive than the men...



for the record, I along with everyone else in my class, don't even come CLOSE to these people :)

I found this on another blog and thought it pretty interesting. This being the case, I am going to summarize what going on with Burger King Wallets. So it turns out that those cheesy, no pun intended, Burger King commercials where the King gives people money is becoming reality. Reportedly, Burger King decided to drop 5,000 wallets with, get this, between $1 and $100 dollars of actual cash and gift certificates for Burger King in them. Along with the nice surprise is a driver's license for the king, and note indicating what the wallet is, and a map to Chicago or Orlando's Burger Kings.



Although at this point only reports suggest that they will be dropped in major Urban area of Chicago, they could be headed this way. So next time you are a hungering for a burger, just look at your feet, and maybe, just maybe, you will find that magical burger wallet to guide your hunger.

So there are a fair share of science fiction movies, books, etc that depict a future where organs can be "manufactured" simply, inexpensively, and reliably. Think about all those patients that wait for years in an organ donor line, often succumbing to the failing organ before they ever get the transplant. But even if they are among the lucky ones that get the organ, they have to take heavy medications for a long period of time to subdue their immune system from killing the new resident.


But it seems that science and technology continue to trace our imaginations. It seems that Claudia Castillo, a mother of two, has undergone the first transplant of a synthetic organ created from her stem cells (attained from her bone marrow.)It was a team of British scientists that one the global race to create the worlds first organ from adult stems cells. This time, the organ was Castillo's windpipe and the surgery seems to be a brilliant success.

Are we approaching a future of endless possibilities? Where new organs can be created and implanted based of your own stem cells? It seems to good to be true, but in tomorrow's yesterday it seems that it is happening.

Source

So, the other day I stumbled upon Time's top 50 inventions for 2008. Like all things, some weren't all great, in my opinion, while others were simply fascinating. Take for instance a camera for the blind. That's right. A specially designed camera is held to the forehead of a blind person. After the picture is taken, a brail representation is created on the backside of the camera. Seriously.


Another fascinating invention was a Bionic lens. It works just like a normal contact but with one huge difference. Using LEDs that are powered by solar cell and radio frequencies, lol yeah all this stuff being beamed into your eye, the contacts can display information like maps, pictures, etc in the wearers view of vision. In other words, data and such will appear to be floating in front of you. It'll be like your very own video game.

Finally, one other invention that both mesmerizes and invokes fear is the synthetic organism. J. Craig Venter, who helped map the human genome, spliced together man made compounds to create a genetic organism. Although it was one of the smallest genomes known to man, it is still an amazing feat, with about 582,000 pairs needed to be spliced. Although the organism has not been proven to be alive yet, Venter believes it will be by the end of next year.


Source

This was such a cool idea for a way to tell a story. First of all, Google Earth is probably one of the coolest things that has ever been thought up. It's so easy to use, unlike Mapquest, which just sucks. I love the fact that it gives you actual satellite images of the place that you're looking up.

Using Googe Earth in this story added a whole new level of interacting with the story. Instead of having to visualize all of the places that the guy (sorry forgot his name) went to, you could see it mapped out on the screen. The red and blue lines that showed him moving and where he was going really helped me to see what was going on, instead of just reading about it. I tend to get confused when I read about places and distances, so actually seeing him riding around London in a taxi, or flying on a plane to Edinburgh was quite helpful.

It reminded me of a few different books I've read and movies that I've seen where the main character has no idea what is going on, but he/she has to do these various things. Sounds kind of vague, but I really like stories with this type of plotline-action, suspense and a little bit of mystery. Reminds me of James Paterson/John Grisham/Dan Brown....

I really enjoyed watching Craziest. I think it might have been my favorite thing we have watched in class all year. I like things that are funny and I was laughing throughout this entire video. It was extremely clever and smart, and i almost didn't want it ot end because I was so entertained by it.
It kind of reminded me of a documentary i watched one time called Wordplay. It was about crossword puzzle fanatics who do competitions and basically live for crossword puzzles. It was hilarious at time when it wasn't even supposed to be just because of how crazy the people were. This video definitely reminded me of that. I also saw another documentary about kids who enter spelling bees. These kids let spelling and studying take over their lives, kind of like how the woman in the video let scrabble take over her life. Fanatics can be kind of scary and that definitely came through in Craziest.

When i came to school my roommate introduced me to a show called "Flight of the Conchords".  I had heard of it before but i never had any interest in watching it.  Now i can't get enough of it.  It's actually one of the funniest things i have ever seen.  If you have never seen it, it is basically about two guys from New Zealand living in NY because they are trying to become famous as a band.  During the show they will randomly break into song.  This one is one of my favorites...

but this one is actually probably my all time favorite



Basically this is the first thing my roommate and i every did together. We went in our lofted beds and watched flight of the conchords. We were basically crying with laughter the whole time so it was a good ice breaker and now i am officially addicted.

Thank GOD that I get to go home for Thanksgiving break this Friday. My mom is coming at 2 and then my roommate and I are peacin' out! Everyone I talk to is so excited to be going home for Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because we're all sick of campus food, which isn't all bad, or sick of our roommates, or just want to be home to see friends and family. Whatever the reason, it's very exciting. I know that I have little to no attention span to do anything lately...all I want to do is be home for a week. I miss my friends from home and I can't wait to see them all. There's going to be some big get-together, but I have no idea what (pretty typical for my friends).

Plus it doesn't help that this is really the first break we've all gotten since classes have started...I suppose it's a trade off. No Columbus Day off for a longer Thanksgiving break.

As far as food goes, what's not to love? Turkey, stuffing (my personal favorite), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie...I'm sure everyone has their own family specialties. What is kind of cool about mine is that for the past few years we haven't done a traditional turkey. Instead we've done different turkey recipes. For instance, last year my dad made turkey breasts wrapped in prosciutto...it was soooo good. I really like that we do something that's a little bit different from everyone else.

Anyone else have unique little family traditions around Thanksgiving?

I absolutely LOVE the TV show Scrubs. I really don't get into TV shows and follow them religiously, usually because I forget about them, I'm busy, or they're on at a weird time. So when my friend sent me the link to all of the seasons of Scrubs that I could watch online, I was pumped!

Within the last couple months, I've been watching episodes and I love it. I think it's better than other medical shows on TV because it's more relatable, because most of us don't understand some of the crap that happens on House or Grey's Anatomy unless we're in advanced med. classes. And I don't know about you, but that's definitely not a class that I'm in...anyways, Scrubs combines humor and a little bit of drama without it being too heavy. You get to know the characters so when something happens to them, you feel more involved. There are heart-wrenching moments as well, just like any TV series, but the way it's done makes it unique.

So if you don't watch Scrubs, I highly recommend it. Elliot is one of my favorites---she reminds me a little bit of myself. Here's a funny clip/series of clips about Elliot. She can't say the words for penis or vagina so she makes up her own...