Oh, the irony!

Another piece of Strange News:

Man fleeing police near Cleveland jumps fence _ and lands in yard of state prison

03-30-2010 07:09 PM PDT

CLEVELAND (Associated Press) --

Police say a motorist fleeing officers in Cleveland abandoned his car and jumped a fence _ landing in what turned out to be a prison yard.

Garfield Heights police say the chase started in that suburb early Monday over a traffic violation and reached speeds of 90 mph.

Police say that after a race through several communities, the driver and a passenger bolted from the car and headed for a fence.

They apparently did not realize it was on the outside of the state women's prison in Cleveland.

They were arrested along with two other passengers who also tried to flee.

http://ww2.cox.com/myconnection/orangecounty/today/news/strange/article.cox?moduleType=apNews&articleId=D9EPATN80

Just a few comments:

*If it's that easy to jump over the fence, what kind of prison is this?!?!

*Bonus points if you can think of an instance in a TV show where the bad guy lands accidently in a prison. (Hint: I really only watch Disney....)

Back from Hiatus

So, I just came back from Spring Break (which is why I haven't written anything. Too busy relaxing & doing fun things like going to the mall...). Here are some semi-random notes:

1- So, Expedia lied to me. I was supposed to be flying on United the whole way to VT, but that is not how it ended up. My first flight ended up as a United flight operated by Continental Airlines, which was annoying for several reasons. 1) I couldn't check in online because my confirmation code didn't work and so I had to wait in line at the airport which I otherwise wouldn't have had to do because I didn't check any bags. 2) The Houston airport. Pretty much the worst place to have to transfer from Continental to United. After landing, you have to walk a while to get to the tram-thing to take to terminal B. Then from the tram thing you have to do even more walking to get to the bus to terminal A. And the bus is SUPER slow. By the time I got to my gate, it was about time to board, and I had started off with almost an hour! So, I didn't have time to get any food. Hmph. Houston.

2- Aren't lay overs-transfers interesting? I find it super weird that it's cheaper to fly through 2 airports than to take a direct flight (doesn't 3 take-offs & all that's related take more gas or whatever than 1 flight? I don't know. It's just silly). Anyways, it's even weirder when the lay over makes no sense. When I was trying to check on my Continental flight, I first asked it to find flights going from my home airport in SoCal to TX (before I realized there's a special check flight status section). So, one of the available flights was to fly from Southern California to Houston through NEW JERSEY! Tell me how that makes sense? Airlines are silly. Another less weird but still silly one is one that someone on my plane apparently had. Texas to LAX through Chicago!

3- I watched Bambi today! (In the library because I wasn't allowed to take it out of the library. Hmph). It was pretty cute, but I don't know. It's plot-line, so to speak, is really just his life from a newborn to becoming the new prince of the forest (or so it would seem). Anyways, here are some interesting notes from the movie:

*Is it just me, or does child Bambi seem to have a country accent?

*I didn't know that Bambi was born a prince (just not the chief prince or whatever). I wonder if he ever wondered why he was called "little prince." I mean when he see who we presume to be his dad for the first time, he doesn't know who he is, so...?

*Awww, the little baby animals are so cute!

*Wow, Disney must not have liked hunters at all. Between The Fox and the Hound and Bambi, hunters are kind of represented as the root of all evil. In Bambi, the hunter (or hunters. You don't see any humans in the film, but there's likely more than one, I'd guess) is responsible for killing Bambi's mom, terrorizing all the animals in the forest with their guns and vicious dogs, and being careless (which leads to his/their campfire to spread to the forest and send all the animals running for their lives).

Here's a Bambi shirt I got in Spain....(technically a PJ shirt, but nobody knows...but you...now)

On the other side

So, I think that I've mentioned that a lot of people guess that I'm 14, and that I find it annoying. I don't look 14 to myself, but whatever. Anyways, I recently had the opposite experience. There's a girl who has class in my French classroom before my class who seriously looks like she's 12. No, seriously. But apparently she's 20 (she said so in her conversation with her teacher, so I didn't find this out by being sketchy or snoopy). Now, I see!

May I take a moment...

...to further complain about school books? Yes? Thank you, I appreciate it. Well, remember when at the beginning of this semester I showed you a picture of the many books I have to read this semester? (No? See this blog post) Well, I got the two other books I have to read that hadn't come in yet. Here they are:

"Umm...those look like pretty slim books. Why are you complaining about them again?" you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Because these two skinny books (both about 150 pages) were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Seriously. Guess how much they were together? $30....$40...$55...? Nope. $77.20!!! For these two super slim books. It's highway robbery, seriously. And, of course, as this isn't a class that's taught every semester, the bookstore likely won't buy them (or most any of my books) back. So depressing. I guess being a language major really is as expensive as being a science major. You see, these books wouldn't be so expensive if I were in Europe. It's the import fee that raises the price so high. Seriously. Were these books THAT important to the class? Hmph. Oh well, going home tomorrow!!!

A Tale of Two Alices

So, yesterday I re-watched Alice in Wonderland, the animated version. [Side note: I thought Alice in Wonderland was in the vault, and I think technically it is, but I found it at FYE so I bought it. But, FYI, it is coming out on March 30th. Anyways, I don't understand the vault. My DVD is from the 2004 release. Aren't movies supposed to be in the vault for like 10 years? Why does it seem like only Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King actually abide by that period? Others have been released within the past 10 years. oh, the vault. Anyways, because I have an older version, I didn't get a code for Disney movie rewards so i get no credit for it. Bummer. Guess I should have been patient and waited 2 weeks....] Personally, I like the newer version better. Why?

1- It has a plot. The animated version's plot is Alice simply trying to find the rabbit, then trying to get home. Which is kinda a plot, but more of an exploration or an adventure than anything else. The new version actually has a legit plot. On a similar note, the characters in the newer version have more of a point than the ones in the animated version. They are more there to help and move the story along than the ones in the animated version.

2- I like the characters better. The Mad Hatter, for example. In the new version, he is more of a character (which makes sense. Why pay who knows how much for Johnny Depp to be the Mad Hatter and then have him be a somewhat pointless character?). He's "mad" but still more sane than the original one. [Side note: Am I the only person who did not know that the Mad Hatter is called that because he makes hats? In my defense, in the animated version, he doesn't make any hats. And I thought the hat store at Disneyland came as a secondary idea, not because that's what the character actually did. Hmm. Yes, you see, if he'd been the Mad Milliner, I would have gotten it. That's the word I more commonly find in historical fiction and stuff. I know, no excuses...]. Although the Hare is much weirder in the newer version...

3- Alice herself is less annoying.

Anyways, re-seeing it did bring some "aha!" moments because there are some things that were brought over like the falling scene, the "why is a raven like a writing desk," and a few other miscellaneous things...

Totally Random Other Note:

I noticed that tomorrow (Monday March 15) is a New Moon. Wouldn't it have made SO MUCH MORE sense for the New Moon DVD to come out tomorrow instead of Saturday? I'm sure they had their reasons for releasing it on saturday (which is totally not normal for a DVD. DVDs generally come out on Tuesdays. Like the Princess and the Frog! This Tuesday! Yea!!!), but wouldn't it have been really cool if New Moon came out on the New Moon? Eclipse would be a harder one...

Touch Screen Tech

I was just thinking about how different my two touch screen technology things are. I have an iPod touch and an LG enV touch screen phone. Do they both respond the same way? NO! With my iPod, it absolutely must have finger/skin contact to do anything on the screen, which I like. When my iPod is locked, it won't suddenly unlock itself and turn itself on and start playing music at an odd time and drain it's battery or anything. I appreciate that....at least until winter when I don't want to take my hands out of my gloves to change the song. Especially as in the cold it responds slower. (I discovered with my older iPod (which needs touch for volume), that using my nose works. It's exposed to the cold already anyways). My phone, on the other hand, responds to touch but not as well as it responds to my finger nails. When I use my finger tip, it might go where I want it to, or it might not pick up on it at all. Not sure why. But if I use the tip of my fingernail, it works like a pro. I think it's really more the technology used on the PDAs which come with little pen-like sticks. I doubt it's touch technology. I want an iPhone for this reason (and others, but my blog post is not on why I want an iPhone). Unlike my iPod, my phone has a tendency to turn itself on and do weird things. I had turned my phone off when I got on the plane like a good passenger. When I got to the baggage claim, WITHOUT doing anything to it personally, it had turned itself on and called my sister! You see, my iPod would never do such a thing! Now, I keep my phone on silent when I fly because who knows if it will turn itself on and take a call or beep or make some obvious cell phone noise on a plane. *sigh* Phones...

Luck o' the Irish...

So, I was looking at music on iTunes when I saw a St. Patrick's Day list:

I don't know about you, but if I were Irish, I'm unsure how I would feel about this list. I am not Irish, so I can't really speak for them, but I'm unsure if I would like my country and my culture to be represented by songs such as "Beer, Beer, Beer," "Drink the Night Away" or "Drink it Up Men." Even if it's true (and I really don't know. I've never been to Ireland at all, let alone on St. Patty's day). I mean, really. Sometimes I think it's one of those "I can say it, but you can't" things, you know? I can make fun of Americans or Californians all I want because I am one, but when someone who isn't does, it's like "who do you think you are?!?!" Maybe that never happens to you, but I tend to be like that. And so if I were Irish, I wouldn't want all of America only associating me and my country with nonstop drinking. Just as I don't like all of the WORLD associating us with hamburgers (seriously, many Europeans think we eat them every day. Thanks, McDonalds, for being the face of America. Not that I have anything against McDonalds, and there are also a fair amount of Burger Kings in Europe too, but still. I'd rather be associated with a frappuccino...let's get that going)

NB: I just noticed the little paragraph under "The Basics" (the upper right of the picture). Read it. Further fuel if I were an Irish person.

iHola! Ciao! Bonjour!

I think that I've mentioned before that we have language tables at lunch. All of the major languages that we teach here -French, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese -have a language table. Yesterday, I discovered another language with a table...Sign Language! I didn't know that there was an ASL table until the Italian table was right by it (normally we're by Spanish or French). That's pretty cool. I was facing them, so I could see them signing and everything. I think sign language is really interesting, partly because I don't really fully understand how it works. Is there a sign for every word, or do you have to spell out a lot of things. It seems like spelling them out would take forever, but I'm unsure of if it's possible to have a sign for every word in the dictionary, even for just the most common ones. But maybe there is. They had two huge sign language dictionaries at their table...if you know, please feel free to comment. I also heard that there might be a Swahili table (taught as a J-term class this year), but that has neither been confirmed nor denied (to me) yet...but likely not. There isn't a Latin or (ancient) Greek table for classics majors (the only people who learn those languages), so I'm unsure if a one-time J-term class is likely to have a table...but at least Swahili is currently spoken, so who knows. Anyways...we at Middlebury like languages.

Six Impossible Things...

I went down the rabbit hole today...and I actually really enjoyed it! You see, based on the trailers, I thought it might be scary. And parts of it may have been in 3D (I saw it in 2D, which I liked. I don't really like 3D movies for two main reasons: 1) As I already wear glasses, my vision becomes more restricted with the 3D glasses. It's pretty irritating 2) I don't like having things flying at me, which is what generally happens in 3D movies ). Anyways, it was really interesting. The people at Disney are SO imaginative...the scenery, the creatures, the costumes...that's one visual companion I'd be interested in reading! But yeah, you should see it. And I really need to re-watch the original movie. I don't really remember it...I remember seeing it, but not any details and so I likely missed some references? maybe? But alas, it is in the vault (but coming out on the 30th! So I can see it soon and add it to my Disney Classics collection), and therefore could not watch it on iTunes or anything before seeing the movie (because, in case you don't know, it's not a new version of the same story. In this movie, Alice returns to Wonderland and she's twenty-something). It's also a mini Harry Potter reunion...the actress who plays Beatrix LaStrange is the Red Queen and the voice of the blue caterpillar is the actor who plays Snape...magical. =D

This is my 70th Blogpost. This blog now has the same number of posts as my Study Abroad blog! And I've been blogging for less time on this one...interesting

Now you see me....

...now you don't.

That's how it goes with me, apparently. My suite mates don't seem to notice when I've left or returned or gone down the hall or gone anywhere at all. (not sure why. Sometimes one or two of them are sitting on the futon or the chairs that face the doorway/hallway, and I don't try to be sneaky, so I don't know why they think I sneak by...) Anyways, they call me a ninja. So when I saw this:

on my Facebook as an ad, I thought it was really interesting...

P.S. I don't think I ever gave an answer about the Thin Mint ice cream. So, it's really good! It's a lot like mint chocolate chip, but I like it better, actually. The chocolate pieces aren't as hard as chocolate chips (because they're not chips, but cookies)

It finally happened

In the dining hall, it's relatively common to see someone trip or lose balance or something and drop their bowl, plate, cup, etc. It's pretty funny. Sometimes the food (depending on the food, of course) will go flying or something, and it's not that unusual for a cup to break into pieces (the cup is glass, so it breaks more often than the other items). More often than not, it seems to happen when the dining hall is pretty full and it generally makes a loud sound, so everyone stops talking and looks that way. Sometimes the dropper gets applauded. Well, for over 2.5 years (I'm not including my year abroad, obviously), I have always been on one side of that -the viewer. This morning, I finally dropped something. I had just spent FOREVER getting cereal (the cereal dispenser is not particularly made for dispensing Frosted Flakes, so it seems. It always takes forever getting a good-sized amount of cereal), when I turned to go get some milk and I don't know what happened but down goes the bowl and all the cereal. Fortunately, it was a plastic bowl so it didn't make all that much noise (all though it did bounce and roll around a bit), and in the mornings at Atwater there really aren't that many people, so it wasn't that embarrassing. But still. It has happened. It was only a matter of time...

Also, GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! I twittered and facebook-ed about this, but I'll tell you too. I went down to dinner Tuesday like normal, when I saw the girl scouts and their COOKIES! Fortunately, my dorm is attached to the dining hall so returning to my room for money was really simple. So I now have 4 boxes of Samoas (my favorite, obviously) and 1 of Tagalongs. yessssss!