[flickr finds: blank]

[Weekly-Pick-Me-Up: Psychology Comics]

I know it seems like I've just been posting funny comics lately [because I have been], but I'll post other stuff eventually. This semester may just be my busiest yet... Alas, here are some funny comics relating to my major of choice, psychology.

Number one rule of psychology? Correlation does not prove causation. Say the word "correlation" to me and the rest of that sentence will automatically spew forth from my mouth - no joke.

Oh, developmental psychology. You were so last semester =P

[abandoned robot]

This is probably the most depressing xkcd comic I have seen - ever.

Its in regards to the recent decision of NASA to just abandon the Spirit mars rover, which is currently stuck in one position, until dust buildup on the solar panels cause it to shutdown. How depressing.

[dos equis]

Last Saturday was my 20th birthday. I had a great day: manicures with the girls [including Jen, who came down from UF!], dinner at Carraba's, and a party at concert-buddy Robert's. In holding with tradition, below is my birthday lexicon.

XX

1) I am currently learning Spanish and I love it
2) The more I learn about psychology, the more is fascinates me.
3) I love learning in general.
4) I have never been west of the Mississippi River.
5) I intend to change that this summer.
6) I greatly dislike horror films and scary movies.
7) I fear becoming obsolescent.
8) Lion King will always be my favorite Disney movie.
9) I can't sing but...
10) ...I love singing along with musicals as if I can.
11) I'm a dork/geek/nerd - all of the above.
12) My most played song in iTunes is Sick Sad Little World by Incubus.
13) I eventually want to learn how to play the bass guitar.
14) I'm finding that it is a lot harder to think of 20 random things about myself than I thought.
15) Favorite college class to date: abnormal psychology.
16) Least favorite college class: Western Civilization II - though that was due to an awful teacher, not the content.
17) I look a lot different without my glasses.
18) I believe a good time can be had anywhere if you have good company.
19) Pet peeve: unreliable people.
20) I have a running to-do lists and I love crossing things off of it when I finish them.

[obsolescent]

I've gotten back to doing crossword puzzles again, which is how I learned the word "obsolescent," which means 'becoming obsolete.' Winter break is obsolescent, seeing that is ends this weekend, but I am looking forward to the new semester.

Speaking of which, HAPPY NEW YEAR! [I was going to say 'Happy Belated New Year' but its still a new year so as long as I haven't spoken to you since last year, the phrase fits. Also, 'Happy Belated New Year' just sounds lame.] The fireworks photo here is from my New Year's Eve adventure that culminated in this spectacular fireworks display at Busch Gardens. DocteurRob [formerly known as Concert-buddy Robert] and I had intended to head from UCF to Ft. Lauderdale to spend New Year's Eve down there; however, en route, he got a text from his brother about a special year pass deal going on at Busch Gardens that night so we turned around and headed to Tampa and had a blast at Busch Gardens with his brother+his friends.

Actually, Robert's started a weekly Youtube video blog, so you can just watch our escapades yourself! If you like it, subscribe to his Youtube channel! I'll no doubt be showing up throughout its duration =D



Hope everyone had a great holiday season and is looking forward to the year ahead!

[Weekly Pick-Me-Up: MLIA]

Recently discovered the website "My Life is Average" - think the anti-thesis of FMyLife. I find it hilarious and below are some of my personal favorites from the site. Definitely a way to waste a lot of time but stay slightly amused throughout.

• Today, I realized that I am unemployed, live with my mother, play video games all day in my basement, and I am still a virgin. It's alright, I finish 9th grade next week. MLIA

• Today, I saw a commercial for the Snuggie. I thought it was stupid idea but I couldn't change the channel because I was under a blanket and I didn't want my arms to get cold. MLIA

• Today, I put my iPod on shuffle. I skipped most of the songs to get to the ones I like. MLIA

• Today, the whole world came crashing down on me, so I got some tape and stuck the map back onto the wall. MLIA

• The other day I learned that if you say 'beer can' with an English accent, you're saying 'bacon' with a Jamaican accent. Mind blown. MLIA

• Today, my boss passed me in the hall at work and asked me "Do you have a sec?". I was trying to be flippant and replied "I have tons of secs". We both pretended I didn't say that. MLIA.

• Today I was driving by the lake and I saw a Jeep full of guys pass me. They were hanging out the windows and the sunroof, paddling with canoe paddles, and singing "Just Around the Riverbend" from Pocahontas. It easily may have been the coolest thing I've seen, ever. MLIA

• Today, I got out of the shower and washed my hands. I still don't know why I did that. MLIA.

• Today, I realized the reason Dr. Seuss was so succesfull with rhyming is because he made up things to rhyme with. Brilliant. MLIA

• Today I found out that people from South Africa use the term "That's so legend" instead of "That's so cool." I will never be using "That's so cool" ever again. MLIA.

[Concert Review: Say Anything]

Say Anything is currently my number 4 most played artist on last.fm and I think that is a pretty accurate representation of how much I like them. (Top 3 played artists are Incubus, Bond, and Coldplay.) I had seen them once before in concert at the House of Blues back during spring of freshman year of college [April 2008] and it was my favorite concert to date [even better than Incubus!!!], but it has since then been surpassed. By this more recent Say Anything concert!

I saw Say Anything for the second time on Thursday, November 12 at The Social Orlando. I had heard about this venue many times before from fellow concert enthusiast friends, but I had never actually had a reason to go there as they mainly cater to small, up-and-coming indie bands. But Say Anything booked two nights there and sold them out way in advance and I was lucky enough to be able to attend with my concert-buddy Robert [who was also with me when I saw them back in freshman year and who introduced me to them!]

I will forever and always love the House of Blues. I have seen EIGHT shows at the House of Blues [Paramore was number 8] and every single one was made more enjoyable because it was in that venue. However, I think that The Social Orlando may just win as better place to see a concert because it is SO SMALL. Lost? Don't be. There is no back stage. There are no curtains blocking the stage off. There are no ropes keeping people back a set distance from the stage, so people at the very front of the pit [like my ever-present concert buddy Robert and I!] can literally reach out and touch/get touched by the performers on stage. Its amazing. Add a excellent act like Say Anything and its the right formula for the perfect concert!

There were two opening bands before Say Anything. I didn't catch the name of the first one and they were passable, though their rhythm guitarist had some insane dreads. The second band was Eisley. I had never really heard of them before, but they were pretty neat. I'll definitely be looking into more of their stuff. Fun trivia fact: Max Bemis [lead singer of Say Anything] and Sherri DuPree [of Eisley] are married!

Anyway. This concert officially became my favorite concert. The set list [which I was actually close enough to the stage to actually read!] was perfect, starting out with their ever-popular-but-nowhere-near-their-best-music "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" and covering a good mix from their various albums. Their live performance of their songs "Admit It" and "Walk Through Hell" are truly a must-see for any fan - or any music lover for that matter. I definitely plan on seeing them again in the future and I only hope I have as awesome a spot as this time at the Social.

[2009 in Review]

2009: a year of high highs and low lows

January
-Daddy passed away [+]
-Started second year as Director of Academic Affairs for Honors Congress
-Janus Frisbee Tournament
-Florida Winter Classic Frisbee Tournament

February
-Horseback Riding trip
-Mardi Gras Frisbee Tournament

March
-Started dating Spencer
-College Southerns Frisbee Tournament
-Magic Game vs Bulls at Amway Arena
-Spring Break/FIRST Robotics Regional
-Started watching True Blood - addicted!

April
-AccioCon (Harry Potter and Twilight Convention in Orlando)
-FIRST Robotics Championship Event in Atlanta
-Fall Out Boy Concert at UCF Arena (3rd time seeing them)

May
-London and Paris with Jen

June
-Started geocaching

July
-Dressed up for Chick-Fil-A Cow Day!
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in theaters!

August
-Incubus in concert at Bayfront Park in Miami!

September
-Stopped dating Spencer
-Chevelle in concert at House of Blues Orlando!
-Blink 182 in concert at Ford Ampitheatre in Tampa!

October
-got my DSLR! (Canon Rebel XTi)
-Flyfleaf in concert - kind of - at the WJRR Listening Studio!
-Paramore in concert at House of Blues Orlando! (2nd time seeing them)
-Kennedy Space Center trip

November
-Say Anything in concert at the Social Orlando! (2nd time seeing them and new fave concert)
-Homecoming!

December
-Elected 2010 President of Honors Congress!
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Amway Arena
-Impromptu New Year's Eve road trip around state with Concert Buddy Robert [henceforth referred to as DocteurRob - details to come]

Looking forward to 2010 and the new decade.

[Merry Christmas 2009!]

Noticed that I was being reflected in the ornaments while trying to take photos of them, so I gathered the siblings around and took a photo of the 4 of us in an ornament. I think I may give my Mom a high-res print of this for Christmas next year? Shhh!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Weekly Pick-Me-Up: Border Patrol?]

This video made me LOL [aka slightly chuckle] when I first saw it. Hope you find it a light amusement during this time of holiday insanity.

[Weekly Pick-Me-Up: Hey Ya]

I've decided to start doing a weekly pick-me-up post that contains something meant to cheer one up. I'll aim to do this on Wednesday, since who really likes Wednesday? However, since I just thought of this, I'm posting this one now. Enjoy!

I wish my high school were this awesome... One high school's video production class' interpretation of the Outkast song "Hey Ya".

[Concert Review: Paramore]

Semesters over! More details about that in an upcoming post, but now I am posting things that have been sitting around as drafts for a while... >.>

Talk about a late concert review; better late than never? I saw Paramore at the House of Blues Orlando on Monday, October 26. The Swellers and Paper Route were the opening bands. They were okay, but enough about them.

This was my second time seeing Paramore in concert, the first time being back during freshman year at the Hard Rock Live. This was also my...7th(?) House of Blues show. [I'll figure out the actual number sometime.] Without a doubt though, this was the most packed I have EVER seen the House of Blues. I knew the show was sold-out, but there was NO maneuvering possible on the pit floor because there were just so many bodies packed onto it. It was insane! No worries, I still managed to get front and center =D

Paramore blew me away. Hayley [lead singer] has a fantastic stage presence and still managed to hit her ridiculous high notes while jumping around and rocking out on stage. I highly recommend that everyone see them in concert, but even more so if you are a fan. Below are some of the photos I took on my phone. Personally, I cannot wait until the day when camera phones make banning real cameras from concerts obsolete. But that's another post...

Songs Played that I Remember:

Careful
Ignorance
Playing God
Brick by Boring Brick
Turn It Off
Looking Up

Where the Lines Overlap
Misguided Ghosts [acoustic]
Conspiracy
Decode
I Caught Myself
Misery Business


They played most of the songs from their newly released album "Brand New Eyes", but that was expected and perfectly fine with me, as I believe it to be the best of the three albums they currently have out. I definitely plan on seeing them in concert again and hope you do too! What an amazing concert.

[texting tirade]

Clarification: this post is a tirade about texting, not a tirade via texting.

Now, I love to text. Sometimes you are in a situation where information is needed but you cannot talk on the phone, so you text. Maybe you need to share a quick tidbit of information, but its not so overly important that you need a response immediately, so you text. Sometimes you just feel like texting, so you text. I am perfectly fine with that. What I am not okay with though is the current trend I see in my fellow college-aged peers of using texting as an excuse for good manners. For instance, that image on the left is one of the top shared bumper stickers on Facebook at the moment. Since when has an awkward situation ever been alleviated by texting? Not only does it make it more awkward since one person is now actively ignoring the other, but the situation will still be there once you're done texting. The beauty and the curse of texting: it usually takes a short amount of time.

Another example of this, the one that really bugs me and I try my best to not ever do myself, is when you are having a face-to-face conversation with someone and they start texting mid-convo. This usually results in the texter not paying attention to the person in front of them and having to ask for whatever was said while they answered their life-or-death important text message to be repeated. I understand that texts are important and should be checked as soon as they can upon arrival, but at least excuse yourself from any live conversations you may currently be involved in so that you don't appear like a self-absorbed jerk.

Maybe its just me, but I think that my generation, THE texting generation, needs to figure out how to balance real life interactions with those fed through their QWERTY keyboards...

[a peck of characters]

Halloween this year was one of my favorites to date. I personally love dressing up as much as I can, whether its in business attire for the copious number of job/graduate fairs at UCF, fancy attire for the random nice night out with my friends or costume, which is unfortunately basically limited to fan conventions or Halloween. So I tend to go all out costume-wise around this time of year.

Conveniently, Halloween fell on a Saturday this year - which means parties were being held starting on Wednesday [welcome to college]. I attended 3 parties: my job's annual  Halloween party on Friday and two parties different parties held by friends, one Friday, one Saturday. Over the course of the weekend, I was a Slytherin student [my fall-back, fall-back costume that I where any time I possibly can], a geisha [my fall-back costume from 2007] and a jester! My jester costume was made from scratch [bar the leotard] by my lovely roommate Christine and yours truly. To the right is the only full-length photo of me in my costume with the face paint on; my friend Stephanie went as a PETA poster, haha.

The best part of the weekend though? Gaining an extra hour of sleep Saturday night. YESSS! I'm already staying up late and wasting the few days I have of actually feeling the effects of that extra hour, but alas.

Nothing specific in that entry title, other that I like the unit of measurement known as a peck and the world is full of characters, but more so on Halloween. And there it is.

[Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife]

Being that I spend an unhealthy amount of time in bookstores and libraries, I had seen the novel 'The Time Traveler's Wife' around plenty of times since it was published back in 2004, but I never thought to pick it up and check it out because it didn't seem like my kind of book. Then I saw the preview for the movie being made of it back during the Spring and it seemed like a very interesting premise of a story.

Which brings us to now, with me just finishing the book [borrowed from the library] and immediately buying my own copy so I can reread it at leisure in the future. I was very pleased with the book overall: it had a unique narrative style, literally jumping through time to slowly reveal the intertwined stories of Henry and Claire, the two main characters of the novel, and their interactions at various points in each others lives. The supporting characters are just as interesting as the main ones, but the main captivating concept that truly had me absorbed in this book throughout and even now was the author's concept of time travel and all the philosophical, physical, scientific, and even genetic aspects of her created 'affliction.' At first it seemed intimidating that the story would be jumping around through time, but the reader quickly catches on and is quickly taken for one of the most thrilling novel rides I've had in a while. I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Now I'm afraid to read anything else, having read two ridiculously good novels [The Book Thief, now this] in such proximity of each other, haha. Just kidding, I'm always reading - ever on a quest for that next great novel!

[Happy Autumn!]

I feel like I can actually say this now that Florida has experienced some cooler weather these past few days. Its been lovely and I hope it continues for a good long while.





I'm considering starting another project 365, where I take a photo a day for a year. I haven't decided on a start date yet, but I'll make sure to post here when I do and post my favorites here as well. Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

[Book Review: My Soul to Take]

In an effort to level out my book reviews by including books I've read and disliked, I am including this review of the book "My Soul to Take" by Rachel Vincent. Based around the concept of banshees [or bean sidhes] in modern day society, this book is the first in Vincent's 'Soul Screamers' series. Protagonist Kaylee appears to be a normal high school junior - except for the fact that she starts having premonitions about people around her who are going to die in the immediate future and has the uncontrollable urge to scream when the premonition occurs.

Sounds like an interesting concept, right? It is... but the book is poorly written, with cardboard characters, unnecessary implied sexual tension [its published by Harlequin Teen - enough said], and a desperate out-of-nowhere ending that is meant to hook you into wanting to read the sequel [My Soul to Save, out Jan 2010], but failing miserably. I only finished the book because it was relatively short and because I have been happily surprised by books before. Unfortunately, not this one.

[Book Review: The Book Thief]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book first caught my attention a few years ago when I saw it was on the Barnes & Noble Top 10 list for weeks at a time. I didn't really look into it, but added it to my ongoing list [located in Gmail drafts =D] of books to check out. Fast forward to about 2 months ago when my roommate Jamie offered her copy of 'The Book Theif' to me to read when I asked for reading suggestions. It sat on my shelf for a few weeks, but I finally got around to it about 3 weeks ago - and haven't been able to stop thinking about it until just a few moments ago when I finished it and I know it will be mind fodder for quite a while.

Without giving too much away, the novel is narrated by Death and he is telling the story of Liesel, a young German girl during World War 2. It follows her life during this historical period, giving a unique view of life in Germany at this time and introducing the reader to her unforgettable foster parents, her ever-present neighborhood friend Rudy, Isla Hermann and her vast library and to the reason why Liesel becomes known as the book thief. I'm not sure how to explain the draw of the book, other than that Death is a fascinatingly quirky narrator and your find yourself being drawn into the story and into the various characters' stories in such a way that you're actually sad when the book has to end.

I highly recommend this book to everybody who likes a compelling and unforgettable story, even if you don't like reading as much as I do.

Noteworthy Quotes:

--Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.
--Whispering adults hardly inspire(d) confidence.
--Humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.
--Proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.
--Competence was attractive.

[seasons]

I miss having seasons. Especially right now when autumn, my favorite season of all, is in full swing all over the country EXCEPT Florida. We need a permanent cold front to just park itself over the state until May - seriously.



"And I could replace you with older pictures of you, from back when you looked happy."

[Concert Review: Flyleaf]

I was part of a lucky group of people who got to see Flyleaf perform in the WJRR AT&T Listening Lounge on Monday. It wasn't officially a concert since there were only like 30 people in the lounge, but there was live music being performed and people listening to it, so its close enough to warrant a review.



When I first heard about Flyleaf, it was relation to their song "I'm So Sick", which I was not initially impressed with. It was screamy and got irritating by the 2nd rendition of the chorus. But then I heard more of their music, particularly "All Around Me", "Cassie", "Fully Alive" and "Breathe Today". These are hands down my favorite songs by them and quickly turned me into a fan.



At the WJRR session on Monday, they were sharing about their sophomore album, Memento Mori, which is set to be released on November 10. They (lead singer Lacey and guitarist Jared) played two songs from the album: "Again" and "Arise". They also shared the music videos for the songs "Again" and "Beautiful Bride". All were fantastic, though 'Again' was my hand-down favorite. They answered a few questions from the audience and the radio DJs, then hung around for an autograph/photo session.

Overall, it was a great afternoon event. I am really looking forward to Flyleaf's second studio album and I cannot wait to actually see them in concert sometime!