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Experiment 2: Strengths Finder 2.0
Those Zombies...they're so HOT right now!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Zombies. Have you noticed them a lot in the media too?
Every undead has their day. The vampires have been frolicking insistently and annoyingly through media for the past season. But move over bacon! Here comes something better! That’s right...ZOMBIES.
Zombies have been steadily making their presence known in the media with movies like Shawn of the dead and books like The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.
Zombies often appear in video games. It’s the only guiltless violent game I can play. I mean, come on! They’re already dead! I’m just putting them out of their misery! My favorite is Typing of the Dead.
Then there’s Zombieland the movie, which comes out tomorrow. Looks hilarious.
And finally we’re back at the book where I left you oh so many months ago--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I’m actually reading it now. It’s pretty entertaining. Who knew that going to a ball could be just as normal as slashing zombies in half? I have to say that the character development is the part that throws me off. I’m so used to the way the girls are normally portrayed. It’s hard to accept the idea that all five sisters are trained killers who have learned Western defense/weaponry and studied with a Shaolin master and now live by the warrior code. It evokes more of Batman Begins than Pride and Prejudice (the non-undead version). For example, Mary almost guts Mr. Collins for suggesting that the girls cooked a lovely dinner--something she took great offense to as she is a warrior and would never be caught doing such unwarrior-like activity.
I’m only part of the way through, but it should a fun read. It’s nice to be reading for enjoyment again! I’ve been through an intellectual drought and this seems to be a nice habit to reinstate. (Though it may be argued that the book above does nothing to help my intellectual drought situation!) It started by finishing off the Harry Potter series, moving on to Malcolm Gladwell’s books Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers, and then recently finishing Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
So what o fearless reader (if there are indeed any of you left) are YOU reading these days?
A New Twist for Pride and Prejudice Lovers
Friday, February 13, 2009
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
That is the first line of a new novel to come out in June of 2009 called, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” That’s right. ZOMBIES.
Sometimes fact is just stranger than fiction. According to the co-author (the other co-author being Jane Austen), Seth Grahame-Smith, stated: “I hated her when I was forced to read Austen in school, but when I started rereading I realised she was a brutal, but very funny, satirist. I can only aspire to be as mean-spirited as she could be.” I guess he decided to make that brutal satire a little more literal.
The best part is that the five Bennet sisters are zombie slayers and Mr. Darcy is a ninja expert. They rove the countryside fighting zombies and falling in love. 80% of the text is Austen’s original work, and the other 20% is...well, zombified.
You can read a review at The Cornell Daily Sun’s site or hear a little about it on NPR’s hilarious game show, “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me” that aired on Feb. 7.
Doesn’t this cover make you wanna go out and pre-order this book?
Word of the Day
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ever have a random word pop into your head and then decide to take up residence for awhile?
Every so often, I’ll get words that do just that. Pop. Into my head, that is. They don’t even have to be words I know. They’ll just bubble up from my subconscious and float to the surface of my conscious mind. They’ll just come out of no where. I’ll end up just repeating the word over and over again in my head for at least a day. Sometime they last longer.
One time it was a phrase in Cantonese. I had no idea what I was saying, but it kept going round and round. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any Cantonese speakers that day, and by the next day, I could barely remember the phrase. Honestly I don’t think I could have pronounced it correctly anyway. I definitely tried, and boy did I get some crazy looks!
Today’s word (well, actually the word for the past three days) is Weimaraner. I couldn’t even spell it. I thought it was wiemereiner. Guess I was wrong. It turns out to be this silver-gray hunting dog that I’ve seen in this one photographer’s work. That took me on a search through all kinds of random stuff, but ended in finding that photographer’s website. His name is William Wegman.
There I found the cutest picture of a weimaraner puppy EVER!
Take those flights of fancy and follow up on things that pop into your head. You never know what you’ll find or never realize how much you already know. Oooh the depths of our cognition! (Doesn’t that send chills up your spine?)
Aging Before My Time
Monday, February 09, 2009
My life has become like the Curious Case of Benjamin Button...except in reverse! Wait...isn’t that just normal aging?
Well, it’s not normal aging. I’m only 31 but this past week has really thrown me under the bus. I knew I had hit a bad point when the medication I was receiving was the same as those prescribed to my 85-year-old fake patient I used to use to train an electronic medical record system.
It all began with allergies. Then it was followed by your average case of ear congestion. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for 4 days. On the fourth day, I was walking through the parking lot into the office and suddenly my right ankle gave out on me, and I slammed into one of the adjacent cars. Thinking I was just clumsy, sleepy, hungry or not caffeinated enough, I moved on. But by the time I had taken care of those needs, it became overwhelming apparent that the world was spinning around me.
At first I walked slowly. Then I called the advice nurse and also separately emailed two doctors. All reported back to me at different time: GO SEE A DOCTOR TODAY! After a quick trip to Urgent Care, some allergy meds and a bottle of meclizine for the vertigo later, I was driving home. Yes, driving. Oh well. I was pretty much over the dizziness by then…
So now I carry around a baggy full of meds. All I need now is one of those “days of the week” pill carriers, and I’d be complete. Oh and did I mention my ulnar neuropathy is coming back again? Curses! This is what I get for ignoring the needs of my body for a year and a half!
And didn’t I just say I wouldn’t get sick again in ‘09? Dream big. Fall gently. And preferably not into parked cars.
Winter Fashion Exchange 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
When the economy is tough and you want some new clothes host a Fashion Exchange!
Yesterday a group of 9 women met for an unprecedented exchange of clothing. A parallel group of men (some attached to the women that came) met up for a day of physical activity and skull smashing. After a large brunch of prosage (that’s right! Worthington Foods baby!), home fries, eggs, and chocolate chip waffles with fresh berries and cream, the men headed out to the park to play football and the women began to unpack their wares.
At first it was polite and slow-paced. People were laying out the clothes they had brought. Some showed off their clothing and brought them to specific people on whom they would look best. And then suddenly there was a shift in the mood and the searching became a bit more intense and a little more chaotic. We all gave up trying to organize our piles and just resorted to turning over piles and piles of other people’s clothes. We were running in and out of rooms looking at ourselves in the mirror, asking each others’ opinions, and eventually gave up and ran around in our underwear. At one point, someone picked up a t-shirt, only to hear someone say, “No wait! That’s the shirt I CAME here in!”
I have never felt so much like a girl in my life. I have spent mos of my life as a tomboy, and there are still things that make me cringe, like choosing a mass chaotic exchange of clothing over being in the park running around throwing a football. Oh well. I’d better get over it because I got some AWESOME CLOTHES! In fact, as I sit here in my cube writing this, I’m wearing a completely new outfit comprised of a dress shirt and slacks from one person and a new laptop bag from another person.
Even after more than an hour and a half, we were going over the piles and STILL found stuff that we hadn’t seen before! The clothing exchange took about as long as a complete football game. The men came back right as we had finished. Even the boys picked up some stuff! There were somehow men’s shirts in the mix and a pair of snowboarding gloves. Kids got things too. Gavin went home with an Elmo t-shirt and Zoey and Sophie got a bag of cute t-shirts and a purse.
And the best part is that the rest of the clothes went as donations to Salvation Army and PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). Fashion, food and helping others all in one day! Not bad. So if you’re bored of the clothes in your closet and want to fill those gaps in your wardrobe, host a Fashion Exchange. Seriously, it’s way more fun than you’d expect. 
Happy 1st Birthday, Josh!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A year ago today, Joshua Koutaro Khoo entered the world!
Seriously those little guys really DO grow up fast! I thought it was just something people got used to saying. “Oh they grow up so fast don’t they!” with tears in their eyes. I have to say congratulations to Kenny and Yasuyo for surviving a WHOLE YEAR of babydom. That appears to be no small feat. I think of that one solitary diaper i once changed, multiply that by 10,000+, add new and odd and more “adult” consistencies, and suddenly, I have no idea how they made it through. Well guys, this one’s for you!
Happy Birthday Josh! I hope and pray for your growth through this new year of life!
The first day he arrived...
...to now where he’s old enough to have a little personality!
