Psh! Education Smeducation!

I learned something not too long ago that I thought was pretty amazing. The English language contains roughly 600,000 words (although apparently no one can agree for sure on the exact number, mostly because new words are constantly being added--'Truthiness' anyone?). The average educated person, however, only knows about 20,000 (around 3%) and only uses 2,000 (around 0.3%) in a week. It left me speechless. (Ba dum, ksh!)

Anyway, it inspired me to get on the proverbial ball and start learning. There are 580,000 words in my native language that I have yet to discover. I feel like...an intrepid explorer!
**Cue Personal Theme Music (if I had any)**

So, being the cheapskate that I am, I went searching the internet for a free Word of the Day calendar (actually, I did look for a real, physical, bought-in-the-store desktop calendar, but it seems they aren't big sellers...because I couldn't find one. Anywhere).

If you want to join me on my fearless quest to learn words that I will probably never be able to use because no one will know what the heck I'm talking about, go sign up for dictionary.com's Word of the Day e-mail. It's good times. And then, in the words of Inspector Clousaeu, we'll be able to "engage in a lee-ttle verbal jousting".

C'mon, I know you want to.

Well that's not good...

Even though painters and sculptors and composers and writers have a romantic reputation all over the world, in my opinion they are worthless as ex-husbands, or as husbands, or as anything else you may have in your mind to do with them, except if you want to have a beautiful nude statue made of you. Honestly, no woman, even if she is the most alluring creature that ever existed, can win out when she is competing for a man's attention with his precious muse. Artists spend all their time thinking about imaginary beauty...

--Zsa Zsa Gabor

Glen! Glen Glen Glen!

This easily fits somewhere in my top 2 favourite commercials of all time list.

Glen!

I so badly want my own theme song. Like Gob in Arrested Development. Any musicians out there wanna write me one?

6 Bits of Useless Information + 1 Joke

In lieu of the big, long post on the one big, long topic I was going to write about, I'm just going to share a bunch of itty bitty things that don't deserve their own big, long post.

1. I have fallen in love with Frasier. The TV show. I realize that the show has been canceled for awhile now, and I realize I have a bad habit of falling in love with shows after they've been retired. Example: Arrested Development (one of the greatest shows ever made); NewsRadio (another one of the greatest shows ever made); FireFly (maybe you saw the movie-based-on-the show, Serenity? That's how I discovered it); and Seinfeld (and I know I don't have to tell you how great that show was).

When I was visiting my family at Christmas, my little sister had bought the first season of Frasier. I knew nothing about it, really, except having seen a bit of one episode a long time ago (though I remembered thinking it was really funny), so I was kind of surprised she liked it. Anyway, having nothing to do for a couple weeks, I watched it. And now I'm addicted. What a great show. I also discovered that up until Ray Romano took the title, Kelsey Grammer (ie. Frasier) was the highest paid actor on TV (he was making $1.9 million per episode). And I also learned that Moses (ie. Eddie, the dog) received the most fan mail of all the actors on the show. (To tell you the truth, he makes me want to have a dog...)

2. A friend from school lent me a couple DVD's that have completely altered my perception of what comedy TV can be. Maybe you've seen the movie Shaun of the Dead? Well, I love it. And so does my friend. So when he was in Europe last summer, he discovered this little show called Spaced, an only-aired-in-Britain creation of the comedy genius that is Simon Pegg. Actually, to be more specific, it is the comedy genius of all those responsible for Shaun of the Dead. Directors, actors, producers, all of 'em. And it is amazing. It has the look and feel of a British soap-opera (Coronation Street, anyone?) but the funnyness of nothing else I've seen. I almost had to punch myself in the face to stop laughing so hard. Thankfully it only took a couple of broken fingers.

3. I recently finished reading a book that changed my life. Or really, it affirmed my life. My dad bought it for me before I left to come back to school. And let me tell you, it was beautiful timing. It's actually the topic of a much longer post, so I'll hold off talking about it. Something to leave you with, though: taking into consideration my deep loathing for self-help/motivational books, it might surprise you that this book is called "Success Built To Last: Creating A Life That Matters"--and it is amazing.

4. I've been listening to a lot of new music lately, and I've found some really good stuff (which, translated into Japanese and then translated back into English, reads: I've also found some really bad stuff). One band that I just heard a couple days ago that's worth checking out is called Future of Forestry. Go their myspace and listen to the song Twilight (do it now, damnit!). It's pretty great.

5. Someone just told me that when you get brain freeze, if you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth it will go away almost immediately. I haven't had the chance to test it out, but if any of you do, let me know if it works. I'm hopeful, though somewhat skeptical. But if it's true it could revolutionize the ice cream industry.

6. A quote worth quoting (and yes, I like quotes. And yes, I realize I quote a lot):

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

--Helen Keller

7. A joke I've told way too much in the last couple of days, but that I need to publicly tell once more (before I store it away in my internal catalogue of horrible jokes that, delivered with the right intensity, will make anyone laugh):

Q: What do you call a bee that gives milk?
A: A boo-bee!

(Note: I should probably admit to you that I stole it from The Megan Mullally Show. I wish I could take credit for that bit of greatness, but I can't. I'm sorry.)

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.

--Golda Meir

Mar-cos! Mar-cos! Mar-coooos!

Here I thought the idea of a Fraggle Rock movie was un-top-pably fantastic (well, it is)...

...but today I read some even more amazing, great, fantastic, wonderful news -- Marcos is back with P.O.D.! Oh my. I am so happy. I'm sorry. I can't help it. I've been a P.O.D. fan since...well, since a long time. And when Marcos left the band, well, I was crushed. A little piece of me died that day. Many nights were spent crying into my pillow, screaming "Why God?! Why?!" and "Why do bad things happen to good people?!" and "Smite not thy servant, O Lord!" (although I think the last one had more to do with indigestion than anything else.) But finally, God has heard my plea.

On a similarly wonderful note, I added one of their new songs, Going In Blind, to my radio.blog (to your right. Or left, if you're reading this upside down. In which case, you shouldn't. It's bad for blood flow and hairstyling. And it's creepy). It's a good song. Oh, and you can watch the music video here.

That is all.

iHappy

While mankind/womankind loses their collective minds over Apple's newly announced iPhone, I am losing mine for a completely different reason:

They're making Fraggle Rock: The Movie!!!

Let there be dancing on rooftops and kissing of strangers. Today is a good day, my friends.

The Emptiness of Empty People

Why is there a hierarchy of emotion? Why do we feel comfortable showing happiness or anger or pride, but sadness is taboo? Why is vulnerability viewed as weakness? Who made these unwritten and usually unspoken laws about what is or is not acceptable for a man to reveal to the world of himself?

We are born into a culture of sterilized emotion. We live and die on the surface of things. There are very few who choose to spite political correctness and social acceptability and live a life of outright passion, in happiness and sadness, anger and pain, fear and hope.

To live in the deepest parts of life is to choose a martyrs death. In a world of shallow people, people who exist only in the image they live to create, substance is terrifying. It shows no concern for appearances. It gives no shelter to laziness. It refuses to let up when the pain of truth seems to rip one's heart to unidentifiable pieces. Yet without it--to chose a life of superficialities and show--all is meaningless.

Who has the strength to choose a life of honesty? To cry when they are sad, smile when they are happy, yell when they are angry, without embarrassment or fear of offense? To move to the actions of their heart, not the dictation of their neighbors shallowness?

Who are we if we can not be allowed to feel without shame? We are empty people.