Who's been stealing boats?

I can't decide if this is helpful or just really bizarre...

Edit: looks like I was too vague in this post. It appears that a young John Waters has been stealing boats in rural PA. The victim helpfully included the film director's photo in order to locate the suspect. Perhaps he was upset about the new version of Hairspray.

More YouTubes

I promise not to only post YouTube videos all the time...but seeing as it's my life's work to explore the differences between world cultures, it's my duty as a citizen to share two gems from the fabulous world of Japanese television.

Many of you may already have seen the first example, Human Tetris. I love this game and I hope that it eventually makes its way onto our airwaves. Then, a colleague of mine who lived in Japan for a year told me about Silent Library, part of a TV variety show. The participants draw lots to see who has to participate in each "punishment"...but since it's in a library, they all need to keep very, very quiet. It's long, but oh, so worth it. Both of these made me laugh so hard I cried. Enjoy.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

As I was calmly sitting on my couch tonight, Daisy suddenly started freaking out in the next room. I went over to stop her from tearing the carpet to shreds with her claws, only to discover that she was chasing a MOUSE.

I don't know what it is about mice. I've had them in three different apartments in my life, and it never gets any easier. They are JUST. SO. GROSS. Now, I like to consider myself a pretty tough girl. In nature, I can deal with all kinds of animals--Snakes, spiders, insects and mice in their natural habitat are fine. But when they come inside my living quarters, it's an entirely different story. The flying daddy-long-legs things and the one Gigantic Death Moth that flew into my Lucerne apartment were pretty traumatic experiences. But with mice I get reduced to a cartoon caricature of a total wimp standing on a chair, shrieking. Literally. Also, I called my dad. God forbid I ever have a rat--I would probably have an instant heart attack.

Anyway, Daisy batted the mouse around a little while I stood on the chair worrying about bloodstains on the carpet. Then the mouse hid inside a box, which I was able to drag out onto the balcony and tip upside down (while crouching on another chair). The traumatized mouse fell out, ran to the edge of the balcony and then leapt. The fall was less than one full story, but the landing was on rocks, and the poor little thing died on impact. That's right...suddenly, I felt sorry for the little, disgusting, creepy rodent that moments earlier had me so totally paranoid that before I put my sneakers on (lest it run across my foot with its tiny little disgusting feet) I checked the inside of them to make sure there were no tiny little baby mice inside, waiting to bite me on the toes.

But that still doesn't mean I won't freak out the next time I have one indoors. But it's a good thing I've got Daisy. She's all excited now, and has spent the last hour staring at the kitchen cabinets, balcony window, and underneath the bookshelves, ready and waiting for her next victim.

Ridiculousness Part Four

I just saw the preview for Live Free or Die Hard. Justin Long and Kevin Smith are in it...does that mean it's really a comedy? Or is it the usual unintentional comedy?

Anyway, Ben Stiller's 1992/3 sketch "Die Hard 12: Die Hungry" has never seemed more relevant:

I'm #1 on Google Images!

For White Nun Orchids, anyway.

A denim-clad, water-soaked blast from the past

Today I accidentally (I swear) wound up watching a little of Inside Edition, which is really a blight on our society although every now and then it provides us with amusing pieces of trivia. Tonight I learned that Jennifer Aniston is apparently dating someone new, and the show's researchers (whose mothers must be so proud) dug up some early work of his--the role of The Drowning Man in the Underwater Love Levis commercial shown in Europe 10 years ago when I was studying abroad (although I think I became aware of it afterwards). As a result I also learned that the commercial was directed by Michel Gondry, who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I loved, and The Science of Sleep, which was just too odd to love.

So there you go.

A Week in the City

I had a great week in Minneapolis, although the two conferences I was attending kept me very busy. The first was for users of a software program we're implementing at work, and was small--about 35 or 40 people. That was very productive, and as a bonus it served as a kind of freshman orientation for the main conference, the national conference for the professional organization for people in my field. It was the biggest ever, at about 7,000 attendees and was therefore kind of overwhelming at times. But I had some productive meetings, learned a lot, met lots of people and especially, I ate lots of good food.

Minneapolis is a great city, and if it weren't for the killer temperatures in winter, I'd move there in a second. There are a ton of fantastic restaurants, where I ate the aforementioned good food. It's clean, the people are friendly, they have great art and a huge live music scene (on Thursday evening people started lining up with their sleeping bags to wait to buy Prince tickets, but there are other local artists and groups for all audiences), it's big enough to have all the amenities you need but small enough that you can easily cover the downtown on foot, with a comprehensive bus system and an ecologically-friendly light rail. It also has some very cool Art Deco buildings and random statues scattered throughout the city, including one of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air.

I hope to go back some time when I have a little more free time to see more of the sights. Click on the "Spoonbridge and Cherry" sculpture below to see all of my photos from the trip.