Fun Fact #50: Palin is from Alaska? Really?!

Today was a big day in politics. Now, thanks to Palin becoming McCain's running mate, getting either McCain or Obama into the White House will be a historical event. A lot of people have issues with Palin considering her stances on abortion and off-shore drilling. Personally, I think it's an obvious ploy to try to get the disgrunteled Hilary voters and I hope those voters will realize that though Palin is a woman, she might not be the best person to push a lot of the "women's" issues forward. And while it's always nice to see a woman "break the glass ceiling", it's also kind of uncomfortable to realize that the main reason Palin got her position is due to her gender. I don't see how a man with the same experience (or lackthereof) would've even been considered by McCain.

McCain's choice of Palin seemed like it took a lot of the media by surprise. The NYT.com seems to have been going through all their footage of Palin to try and find one that conveys the proper image as their main picture has been changing constantly. They seemed to have settled on one and it's certaintly an intersting choice:


I love how Palin is dwarfed by both the bear carcass she's sitting on and the giant crab in front of her. It's really just such an awkward picture for the NYT to chose, though I guess they could be trying to showcase her Alaska roots. I'm not a fan of Palin, but I think a lot of their earlier picture choices were more appropriate. Maybe, if we're lucky, tomorrow's picture will have her frolicking in the Alaskan wilderness with some huskies and polar bears while wearing an Eskimo outfit!! Because what could get more Alaksan than that?!

Fun Fact #49: I thought "Contact" was the deepest film ever

When I was a kid I loved the movie Contact. I thought it was deep and profound film, I remember having little debates with my friends about the possibility of life on other planets and other thrilling topics. I don't remember if I ever actually took my friends' opinions into account since I was always kind of headstrong regarding my opinions. As my dad put it, I always liked to be able to declare myself the winner (even in cases where I obviously wasn't)

Anyways, I recently watched Contact again and was horrified to discover that it's not nearly as thoughtful I remembered it to be.In fact, it's a pretty bad film all around. The plot is slow and the twists are fairly ludicrous. Of course, I also thought Armageddon and Titanic were the epitome of great films, so my opinions from that age probably don't hold much weight.

Ten years from now, I hope that I won't look back on my current favorite films and be embarrassed by my tastes.

Fun Fact #48: Karl Marx and Dan Brown are totally easy to confuse!!!

I'm someone who constantly needs to be occupied. For example, it's almost impossible for me to just watch TV, so often I'll be online looking at various websites. I don't really absorb what I'm reading but at least it keeps me from getting too fidgety and shredding whatever paper is nearby (a lovely habit that almost anyone who knows me can attest to).

Anyways, I was watching the Olympics and looking at the Freakanomics blog on NYtimes.com. One of their more recent posts was discussing the fact that some author of one of those "Greatest Quotes of the Twentieth Century" books was having problems finding a lot of exemplary quotes from novels published after the 1950s. So, the author of the post asked the readers of the blog for some suggestions. There was a lot of Cormac McCarthy, Dave Eggers, David Sedaris, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Adams... basically the usual suspects.

But one lovely individual, by the name of "Frank", suggested the quote, "Religion is the opiate of the masses" and cited Dan Brown's Angels and Demons NOT Karl Marx as the origin of the quote. I actually burst into laugher and then was quickly embarrassed for poor "Frank" since he must either be really young or have had a horrid education to attribute what is arguably one of the world's most famous quotes to Dan Brown.

I may shred paper when I get too fidgety, but at least I don't confuse the words of Karl Marx and Dan Brown.

Fun Fact #47: I think I'm nostalgic for "I Love the 80s"

Is it weird to be nostalgic about a show that was based solely on a sense of nostalgia for a certain era?

I was came across VH1's "I Love the 80s" in a moment of utter boredom and decided to watch it for a little bit. I definitely remember watching it with my friends/siblings and discussing how humorous it was. And while it's still funny, it now feels weirdly dated which is random since a lot of humor from the show comes from how dated things from the 80s have become. There are a lot of "celebrity" figures who were obscure then and are now totally off the radar.

I looked up "I Love the 80s" on Wikipedia and discovered that premiered in 2002. It is one of those dates that doesn't look like it's that long ago but it's actually six years ago. I guess the show just reminded me of how quickly time goes by and, sadly, made me somewhat nostalgic 2002.

But I guess I'm not the only person because I learned that VH1 recently premiered a series called "I Love the Millennium"...

Fun Fact #46: Earthquakes and California go hand-in-hand

Today I experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, yet I really didn't think anything of it. Admittedly, it hit LA harder than it hit here but my friends in LA said the worst effect so far has been downed phone lines. I've spent the vast majority of my life in California and earthquakes are just another part of life here. Everyone just kind of assumes that a major earthquake will probably wreck havoc upon California's major cities eventually, but there's not much an individual can do to prepare for it. It's kind of scary when you actually think about it, which I tend to do at inopportune moments such as driving across a bridge...

I was living in Palo Alto during the big 1989 earthquake and, while I remember being afraid, my main memories of it aren't the earthquake itself... One of my most vivid memories involves me being yelled at by mom during the very beginning because I decided, in my infinite wisdom, that I knew how to the handle situation better than she did and figured that hiding under my bed would be the best bet. She eventually dragged me down the stairs but I remember being pretty resentful that she didn't trust my judgment because even back then I always considered myself to be right.

My second memory speaks more about my parents' hippie tendencies than it does the actual earthquake. After the earthquake, the neighborhood moms were going around giving the kids candy to keep calm. My parents didn't really allow us to have any sweets when my sister and I were kids (my first birthday cake was a bran muffin) and getting candy was a massive treat. Therefore, I was unbelievably excited when I was given a single packet of Smarties. In hindsight, the fact that this is one of the most vivid memories (not only of the earthquake but of that whole year) is a tad pathetic...

Today's earthquake was nowhere near the magnitude of the '89 earthquake and, while it was bigger than we've had for awhile, was far more similar to the various small earthquakes that I've become accustomed to. Yet, my lack of reaction still surprises me: It occurred when I was watching a movie and all I did was get up a few minutes after it ended to grab a soda and check on my littlest sister. But my reaction still trumped her response: she never even moved from the couch and continued texting as though nothing has happened. She casually asked me what happened about fifteen minutes after the fact; I've seen far more severe reactions from her when someone so much as threatens to take away her phone.

Fun Fact #45: 3-D Films Terrify Me

I can watch almost any film and read any sort of book without getting scared, I'll get disturbed if something is really horrific but usually not scared. Though there are exceptions, I'm totally terrified by 3-D films. I assume that my fear started after some traumatic viewing experience when I was an overly imaginative child, an experience so traumatic that it was entirely wiped from my memory. Either that, or I'm just a baby when it come to images leaping at me from the screen.I've only seen a few 3-D films and they were all at amusement parks (i.e. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience at Disneyland). I never even thought that they'd come to theaters since that seemed to have gone out of style in the '50s, so imagine my horror when I discovered that 3-D films have made a comeback. In fact, I was almost dragged to see the horrible looking (due both the the story and 3-D images) Journey to the Center of the Earth. Luckily, I managed to get out of the viewing but I can only assume that had I seen it my entire experience would've made up of me cowering in terror.

But perhaps I would've gone with my other coping mechanism, which involves me refusing to put on the stupid glasses they give you. I might have occasionally put them on for a minute, but they would've been torn off the minute something came flying toward me. Oh, and viewing a 3-D image without the glasses means that the film is weirdly colored and distorted.

If you've been privileged enough to never have seen a 3-D film, then you'll have to trust me that even a cute rabbit hopping towards you becomes horrific in 3-D.

Fun Fact #44: Family vacations lead to a lot of "fun facts"

Family vacations have made up a significant portion of my life. I've gone to various countries but the majority of them tend to take place in California and usually involve a thrilling road trip on the 5 (or Interstate 5 for everyone outside of Southern California). This summer's family vacations mixed up the formula a little as we went to Atlantic City and then flew, not drove, to the annual Yosemite camping trip. Neither of the trips proved to be hugely memorable, but there were a few "fun facts" that arose from them.

Atlantic City

1) Atlantic City, which I went to for a family reunion, lived up to every preconceived notion that I had about it. I know that I've mentioned that Pittsburgh had more obese people than I'd ever seen before, but Atlantic City surpassed it by leaps and bounds. As one of my aunts put it, "I've never felt better about myself..." Our hotel was basically just a casino and beyond all the lovely noise, flashing lights, and constant smoking, one also had to deal with the risk of being mowed over by some overly enthusiastic casino-goer on a Rascal scooter.

2) I was involved in a rescue attempt at the Jersey shore. No, I didn't finally get to put my superb lifeguard skills to use. Instead, my cousin, my siblings, and I ended up getting stuck in a rip tide. We were all swimming out but I guess we didn't look very graceful because this poor lifeguard came racing out to us with his rescue tube because he assumed we were drowning. Luckily, we had survived the rip tide and were perfectly fine. I think my brother, being the only boy, was slightly humiliated. But it doesn't end there since a few hours later one of aunts actually had to be rescued. I'm sure the lifeguards all hated my family.

3) I went Savage Men, a male revue, with my some of cousins and my 87-year old grandmother. It was just as awkward as it the website makes it out to be. I was hoping it would some choreographed show, like Chippendale's, but it was definitely not up to that caliber. Instead, the show consisted of super beefy men (as in their arms could not touch their sides) humping and simulating sex with "lucky" audience participants. We had went because my grandmother had seen "Thunder Down Under" in Vegas and is basically their number one fan, but even she was disappointed with this show. The most surreal part was one guy came out dressed as a soldier from 300 and began to strip while the movie played in the background. So, while this lovely young man was gyrating all over these wasted girls, images of men being decapitated were flashing across the screen. I left early with one of my cousins (after she was basically accosted by one of the dancers in an attempt to get a tip) and we ended up eating our leftover dinner in some creepy alley on the Boardwalk.

Yosemite

1) As anyone who knows me would guess, I'm not a fan of camping. I'm obsessive about showering and keeping things neat. Camping and I just don't really mix. My last "true" camping experience was in Ashland, OR and it was a disaster. I woke up the first night floating in a puddle of water and the second night was spent sleeping in the back of someone's car. Therefore, this camping trip catered a little more to someone like me as I was able to have an air mattress and hot showers whenever I wanted.

2) I adore white water rafting, it's probably one of my favorite things to do. We spent a day rafting the Tuolumne River and, beyond getting severely sunburned, I had a great time. My family took up the whole raft which meant that my littlest sister actually had to paddle, a task at which she epically failed at. She would basically just dip her paddle in the water and then stare at scenery.

3)I was able to finally finish one of my new favorite books, Blindness by Jose Saramago. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants an engrossing and challenging read. It takes awhile to get into because there is scant punctuation and sentences can take up a whole page.

4) I'm not a huge fan of rodents. So, I was horrified to discover that I had brought a mouse back from camp. I reacted in a totally adult manner, throwing the suitcase at my youngest sister and demanding that she take care of the situation. She ended up trying to nurse the mouse (Tiny Tuolumne or "TT") back to health; she gave him bird food to eat and tried to make him drink out of a little dropper. It was a pretty cute sight, but TT tragically passed away. He shall probably be buried in the massive pet cemetery at our house, next the various pet rodents that have passed away before. There were plans to have a ceremony for TT, but I was busy this evening and my absence would have made the number of attendees drop to one. So, the ceremony for a mouse we knew for a total of an hour was postponed. As of now, TT creepily is sitting right outside my bedroom window in a little box....