Word Clouds II

I have a serious headache. Anyway here are some of the word thingys. You can click on them to make them bigger. This is Beowulf.













Some of the bigger words (really exciting ones, too, even after I took out really boring ones like "the"):
ofer - over
æfter - after
æt - at
ær - before
syððan - then, as in "then this happened"
hæfde - had
wolde - would
nu - now
fela - many
bearn - child (like in Scottish!)
Oh and Geata is "of the Geats". Like they would say "King of the Geats" or "Beowulf of the Geats" or whatever. Then it would be "Cyning Geata" or "Beowulf Geata".

Words I like in it are ymb (around), geong (young), dryhten (lord - I've always liked that one), maþelode (spoke), rice (kingdom), ænig (any), hwile (while). I only had to look up 2 words! Lots of them are exactly like Icelandic. By the way, I got my second level disploma yesterday, even though I didn't really finish because the teacher dropped off the face of the planet. They sent a letter and a sticker thing "to remember us by". :D


Here is Cask of Amontillado. Notice how I made it foreboding and wine-colored.














P.S. IT IS 63 IN MY CUBICLE!!! >:-(

Word Clouds

I was just surfing around and saw this:

 

http://www.wordle.net/

 

You just put in a bunch of words and it creates a thing. It's cool, I'll put one of mine up later. I tried my blog but it came out weird with some weird words and URLs. I love the internet. I have become pretty good at surfing around, too. Well, I'm off to TG for lunch because I want to get a few things there.

Question

Tom Cruise: Why is he still famous?

2008: The Year In Ornaments

Since I didn't do an advent like Emily, I'll just do a faux countdown of ornaments. I realized these pictures are giant. Whoops. I'm going to take the lazy route and HTML-reduce the size. It doesn't look right in Chrome, but the other two look ok on my computer so I hope it looks fine on a Mac. Also, these are randomly assigned to months, so don't make anything out of that part. Unless you really want to.

January: Here is my tree topper.

February: In honor of my birthday, here is my mom's favorite ornament, from when I was in kindergarten or so.

March: A clip-on rose.

April: A snowman-enframed picture of Daniel.

May: Fuzzy penguin.

June: Leaf.

July: Snowflake.

August: Pink thing.

September: Cardinal Snow globe. I tried to get a picture of it with the snow flying, but it settled way too quickly because it's so small.

October: This is a pinecone. It's really pretty, but the picture is way too up close and I am too lazy to take another one. This might actually be my favorite.

November: An "inside painted" dove.

December: Dress.

Bonus decorations: Daniel's stocking with a mouse toy.

Some pinecone confetti that I had to buy for some reason.

I forgot the Maggie one, which I will do in a later entry.

This Onion bite expresses my feelings exactly

America fell in love with celebrity impersonator Frank Caliendo or whatever his name is and the show they saw advertised about 150,000 fucking times, but never actually saw, if it ever even came out. Did it?

Crime in the family!

I was talking to my mom tonight and she goes "Did I tell you about Joel's theft?" I laughed and laughed because Joel is a golden child in my family. He is my second cousin - aka my grandma's brother's grandson. He was in Up With People for a while, which I thought was hilarious. Anyway he was caught stealing from Best Buy, where he worked.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=529036&catid=2

My favorite line: Authorities say a Bloomington man scored no points when he allegedly took other people's points.

I think that it's a fairly tame crime...but hey. I wouldn't do it. I can't wait to tell my friend Joel (not the same person) about it tomorrow because he worked at Best Buy and talks about it all the time.

It was hilarious hearing about it from my mom. She said that my grandma is "obsessed" with it and talks about it all the time.

Another funny thing about my grandma is that she is also obsessed with red beads. My mom and sisters were telling me about it on Saturday and I thought I was going to die laughing.

Lamb Bhuna

Last night I had my radio show on before I went to sleep and was listening to it in and out when I heard their new parody, which is on "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley/Leonard Cohen. I thought it was excellent. Here is a video I was able to download from an online spot. I was really, really excited because the official BBC video isn't available for US. Dave, my favorite guy on the show, is the one singing and Mark Ronson (my new music obsession and Samantha Ronson's brother) is standing in the middle and plays the tambourine/jingle bell stick at the end.

Anyway I have no idea what lamb bhuna is. They eat a ton of Indian food all the time and they say so many words for it. Chicken korma and salmon tikka are two others they mention a lot. I am realizing slowly that living in Minnesota equals not very much food diversity.

New blog, new robot

As you can see, I got a new design. This is because I signed up for Twitter and in order to put it on my blog I had to get a new design. I like this one. HOLY SHIT Twitter is addictive. I've only had it for like 20 minutes. It's the crack of wireless apps. You guys should all get it. It's free and for mobile updates it's just sending a regular text. I love it already. I don't know what made me think of it - I must have seen it on some website or something and I thought I'd check it out.

However, I feel like now I'm completely connected to some unseen internet force, like those people in that one Stargate episode. I feel a little scared. I am really addicted to Facebook, for instance. Isn't the internet weird? The social networking part of the internet is something that I think nobody really predicted. I think it's great though.

Later...it's actually 2 here (here? Where the hell do I think everyone else is? Mongolia?)  and I need to get up kind of early.

Highway 52: The Worst Road In America™

The only big accident last night was on 52. That's because it's a horrible road!!! I really wish I could get to Rochester some other way (in a decent amount of time). Here is what's wrong with it.

 

1. No reflective paint for the lines on the road (This is my biggest problem with it).

2. No reflectors on the side.

3. No street lights. There is one spot where I swear I drive into a black hole. One time I had to stop because I couldn't see 2 inches in front of me because it was too dark. Even with my headlights. Part of the problem was oncoming traffic was really bright.

4. No guard rails except on the most precarious of bridges.

5. It's surrounded by miles of flat land. You can't see where the road ends and the land starts. It's better when there is snow there, but not when there is also snow on the road.

6. Nobody ever plows or salts it in the rural areas.

 

End.

Ornament Advent

I'm going to steal Emily's ornament advent idea, but I don't have enough to fill the rest of the days (I only have 12). So it'll have to wait.

Well, on Sunday I went downtown to the other Macy's. They had even less than they did in Roseville. I was really pissed off. I really like Christmas decorations. Then I went to TG and got even more pissed off there. I was in a pretty bad mood by the time I left. Then I drove home and I was really hungry. Plus, the roads were snowy. So not the greatest day, but whatever.

Today the roads were bad again. Someone suggested I go to Pier 1 for Christmas stuff so I did. I found the one thing I had my heart set on (which I can't describe because it is a present for a person that reads this). It's funny though. I'll talk about it after I give it to the person.

I had a mild nervous breakdown about something at work today. I sent something that I said was broken, and then I left at like 12:15.  Then as I was driving away I thought that I tested it wrong and it maybe wasn't broken. So I called Joel twice and left messages about it. Then I just said to forget it and I'd check it later because I realized it was dumb to worry about. I did check it later, and I hadn't done anything wrong. So it was all for naught. I worry a lot about that stuff though, for no reason really.

Sometimes I wonder why I have a blog. My life is so boring. Anyway I really want to finish up cleaning and decorating tonight. I wonder if I can do it. I don't have that much stuff left. Maybe I can make it a goal to post pictures of my holiday apartment. It looks a lot different than when some of you have seen it last, mainly because of a) the bookshelf, b) I rearranged my bedroom, and c) the decorations. It doesn't really take much. Since my apartment is like 2 feet by 3 feet, a bookshelf seems like a life-altering piece of furniture.

Later.

Help!

I'm listening to my radio show and can't stop laughing. You know that Toni Braxton song, "Unbreak my heart"? Someone on The X Factor (like American Idol in England) sang that and they played it on the show. They were like "This is so low!" Then one of the guys put on a super low voice filter and sang along. It was like Barry White x 3. It is soooooo funny. I should record it and put it on my blog later. I can't stop laughing.

Another "rage" incident

I went to Macy's today (rhymes with "tacky") and people are idiots there. I almost smacked someone. I was also extremely disappointed in their Christmas selection. I don't know if it's located somewhere else or what, but they had almost nothing. I think it has to be somewhere else. I was too tired so I left. I should try the one downtown Minneapolis if I ever feel like going there. My sister said it's closing. :(. Maybe I'll try tomorrow.

 

Anyway I got a wool coat there for about 50% off. I love it. It made up for the morons who walked 0.0000001 mph. I also walked around Mall Of America a little bit and got some presents. I had to get my ring cleaned. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as Macy's.

P.S. The cashier at Macy's called me "kiddo".

3rd post! I'm on a roll!

I just read an entire book in about 2 hours. It was a book by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross about grief. In the book there were some parts about God and the afterlife, since basically the book was about people dying. I realized while reading those parts that I don't believe in God at all. It kind of surprised me. It worries me a little bit as well. Believing in God seems really wrong to me. I guess that's the only way I can explain it. I don't see how it's possible at all.

I haven't thought about this for a long time because it just isn't important enough for me to think about. But it's come up a lot recently. All the other people I interact with at the hospital and in my family are really religious and I feel awkward about it. Honestly, I think it's stupid. I don't see why I should have to talk about religion when I don't have any kind of belief except that I don't have a belief. They don't really care, I don't think, but I feel weird about it.

It kind of worries me just because of the massive amounts of people that do believe in God. I don't really know how I can be "right". But reading the stuff in the book was just ridiculous to me. To me it seems like people are expecting their refrigerator to cure cancer. It's that ridiculous. I don't get it. Or that they're counting on the ladybug on my ceiling to give me a million dollars. I don't know. I just think it's dumb and I don't get it, and it worries me.

At the same time, I don't really want to get it. I don't want to be one of those God-y people. They annoy me.

Otherwise, I think the book was good. A bunch of people at the hospital recommended books lately so I got about 4 and this was one. I think it was good. Another one I have is also a little religious so I'm kind of iffy on that. But, at least the recommender did say that as a disclaimer and understood my misgivings.

A dumb thing

I saw this on facebook, it's just itunes on shuffle and the first line from the song that comes up and then people have to guess the song. Whatever. I just like crap like this for my own amusement, because I doubt even I could get more than like 1 of these and they're my own songs.

1. Waiting, waiting by the phone, tonight waiting for an answer

2. where were you in 92, where were you in 92, where were you in 92, where were you in 92

3. Everything is lost, oh oh

4. Blond girl I missed you

5. Poor little rose, beaten by the rain 

6. The first flush of youth was upon you when our eyes first met

7. I am my mother's only one, it's enough

8. Welcome to suburbia, welcome to the rest of your life

9. And I will flail under these lights

10.I cannot remember my own sanity

11. I lost myself on a cool damp night

12. Last week i had the strangest dream where everything was exactly how it seemed

13. On the field I remember you were incredible

14. On, it's on I declare my room a scene

15. Gray light, new day leaks through the window

16. Bakvið skýjabol vaknar sól ur dvala

17. Oh brother I can't, I can't get through

18. I came back on the trail of a man

19. You were a child crawling on your knees toward it

20. If I could open my arms and span the length of the isle of Manhattan

Here are the answers

1. Ladyhawke - My Delirium (Emily, you should try this song because it is by a Kiwi named Pip. And it's a great song that I'm obsessed with)

2. MIA - XR2

3. Sufjan Stevens - Perpetual Self

4. Jens Lekman - Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song

5. Ryan Adams - I Taught Myself How To Grow Old

6. The Darkness (Laura's Favorite Band) - Love Is Only A Feeling

7. Bon Iver - Flume

8. Jeremy Messersmith - Welcome to Suburbia

9. Saves The Day - Nightingale

10. The Vines - Amnesia

11. Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine

12. Postal Service - Sleeping In

13. The Killers - Andy, You're a Star

14. Jimmy Eat World - Here it Goes

15. Bright Eyes - Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)

16. Sigur Rós - Hafssól

17. Coldplay - Talk

18. Long Winters - Bride and Bridle

19. MGMT - Kids

20. Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan (aka Pinhole Camera)

Christmas comes this time each year

Every time I hear that Beach Boys song I laugh. It's like saying "My birthday is always on the same day."

Lately I've been experiencing a lot of 'roid rage. Kidding....I actually mean road rage. I get so angry at people. Today I got really angry at 4 people just on the way home from the grocery store. One was a biker who went through a red light. WHY do people do that?? I screamed at the top of my lungs at that guy. One was a guy who was going 45 in the parking lot. One was a guy who cut me off. One was a woman who drifted across 4 lanes of traffic with no signal, and no attempt to go slightly faster to get over. I just can't deal with idiot drivers. I'm sure I do some things that P people off, but I just can't deal. I get SO mad. I need to go to road anger management or something.

I saw Ryan Adams today at the hospital. :D Really though it was some doctor. Wouldn't that be awesome, though? He is going to be in town next week I think. Maybe he was checking it out.

Well I don't really have anything else to say. Later.

College Years

I was just rearranging my room, which is a big task for me, and I located those notes that Emily, Sarah, and I wrote to each other to be opened in a year (on 2/9/02). Here is what my best qualities are/were, according to S.

a "wiz" at computers

amazing at memorizing lyrics to songs

a good e-mailer

good @ filling out surveys

good @ playing the ukulele

good at making your voice sound like annoying instruments

always on time

soft hands

a very witty writer

soft hair

the perfect height

has a good sense of smell.

My favorite part of Emily's letter (despite the fact that she wrote Happy Halloween and it was February)  is when she mentioned the "You Better!" that was on their computer as the warning noise. I'm laughing a lot remembering that. "You better!...click on this." God, that's funny. And when the computer started up, it said "Name this continent! ASIA."

Do you guys remember when I volunteered at the Daily Cardinal for a semester? How interesting to think about. I hardly remember it, except that it was when I first started dating Kyle and when I first got into Bright Eyes. There was one day when we must have just started dating because I was really happy about that, and I was walking to Vilas and listening to this one song and it was snowing. Every time I hear that song I think of that moment. That was kind of a cool job, if not really mundane. I guess it's not the worst job ever, though. I think what I did was upload that day's stories and photos to the website. I had to do something in Quark, but I think it was just getting the text from the pages. I didn't actually edit anything.

I also saved two of the lecture hall bingo(e)s from the Daily Cardinal. I always thought they were hilarious and they still are, to me. Here are some of them. Feel free to add some if you think of any. :D

Student falling asleep

TA doesn't show up

Obvious member of a frat

Obvious member of a sorority

Football player attends class

Cell phone rings

Prof. can't work mic

Clock moves backward

Girl leaves way too early

Prof can't work power point

Bored looking hipster

Student writing on desk

Guy attending for first time

Girls won't stop talking

Prof gets chalk on him/herself

Girl picks hair off sweater

Entire issue of Onion read

Guy listening to headphones

Prof runs out of handout

4 UW shirts in a row

Weekend plans overheard

I want to try to think of some myself.

Girl who can't breathe through her nose

Awkwardly long, horrible silence (after a teacher asks a question)

Students pack up backpacks 10 minutes early

All the aisle seats are taken first

Someone kicks your chair repeatedly

Girl flips her hair onto your desk

Someone smells really bad

You have to cough really badly during a test

You have to pass a paper to someone sitting 100 feet away

Someone has a really bad muffin top

Guy wearing shorts in January

You have to walk from Memorial Library to Engineering and you only have 10 minutes! Go!!!

Idiots!

I was driving up Cleveland today and experience the worst run of traffic in a while. Actually it wasn't just that road. Several times today people just walked across the road wherever they were, not even looking. Ok, that's fine in a crosswalk. But these weren't. I think that pedestrians generally forget what it's like to be a driver. It happens to me occasionally too, I'll admit.

 

I submit that people forget what it's like being a driver the second they turn off their car. This follows from the 2 near-doorings that I was a part of on Cleveland. Not one but two people drove to the side and just got out of the car (door open wide). Without looking. One was right after a busy and chaotic intersection so that was really close. It's like, I think most people just notice themselves, when they don't realize that it might be hard to see them. I'm aware when I'm trying to cross a street, but the cars aren't necessarily, especially if it's dark.

 

Another issue. Changing lanes in an intersection. Don't do it. Weaving in and out of lanes to avoid people turning left. Turning in front of me really quickly, causing me to brake suddenly, when there is nobody behind me. Not using turn signals. Tailgating. All these things cause ire.

 

Turn signal omission is something that drives me up the wall. I HATE it. Rage from incidents of turn signal non-usage stay with me for a while afterwards. It's one thing in a parking lot or something, but in regular driving it's just idiotic. It causes me to sit there like a moron waiting when I don't need to, or it just makes the other person look like a lazy jerk. Ahhh, nonchalantly wandering over to this lane now. Now I'm just gonna go over here. Ugh.

 

The KARE 11 newscasters were just having a really dumb conversation. It sounded like they were trying to stall. Anyway...I think I'm getting a cold. :( My sinuses have the pre-sickness ache.

 

No way. I just saw a guy talking about the economy and his nametag said "Mr. Crapo". No way!! Is it just me or does Henry Paulson look and act like a wrestler?

Oh yeah

My dad told us today that he got laid off. Luckily (or not) he got 30 days notice. It really sucks for a bunch of reasons. Anyway my family is in crisis mode. Within the span of a week or two around Halloween, almost everyone in my immediate family had a giant catastrophe. I won't go into it now, but man. I keep thinking "When it rains, it pours". I actually kind of wonder how we're all basically functioning normally. That's all for now. The kitten just made a funny face at me.

Review this record, warden

Every time I see this clip, I laugh hysterically. Check out around 35 seconds in. You won't be sorry.

Coldplay

I get to see Coldplay tomorrow! (With Laura). It's been a while I think. I don't remember what the last show was. It can't have been the one in Milwaukee? 3 years ago or something? No way. Now I'm curious. I just looked at my website and it was - 03/19/06. It's been a while...........since I could hold my head up high. NO! Get out of my head, Staind. And while you're at it, spell your name correctly.

We have good seats, so I will take my camera and attempt to get good pictures.

Today I met a girl named Jamie who used to work at my work. That was weird. She worked in a different area, though. She said she wants to be a web developer so she's going to start taking classes. I was so excited for her! She has Meniere's (sp?) so she can't hear very well, but she is really nice. And really pretty too.

Bye! Good (Bonus points if you know to what that is a reference)