Five Weird TV... Things...

I love television. Especially when I can go, hey, that guy looks familiar. Oh yeah, he's on so-and-so! XD

5. Katy Perry: On How I Met Your Mother as Stella's cousin

4. Neil Patrick Harris: Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother on Glee as Bryan Ryan

3. Neil Jackson: Sasha Belov from Make It Or Break It on How I Met Your Mother as Robin's surgeon date (Or vice-versa. HIMYM was first)

2. Geoff Stults: Walter from The Finder on How I Met Your Mother as Max, one of Robin's boyfriends (Again, vice-versa).

1. Michael Clarke Duncan: The basketball coach from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on The Finder as Leo Knox

Eight delicious desserts

Summer time!

8. Soda floats: I'm a Coca Cola girl, but with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, any soda will do.

7. Pie: Not cold, but tasty nonetheless

6. Almond Milk: So it isn't a conventional dessert. I always have this after dinner!

5. Gelato: Not fatty enough for my taste, and too lukewarm

4. Peach Cobbler: And other pie-like things. Yum.

3. Ice Cream: Classic creaminess that everyone loves.

2. Italian Ice: Super cold and crisp!

1. Popsicles: After-practice or after-dinner snacking. Cools you down and gives you lots of sugar!

What I'd really like to try is "grunts." Apparently, it's like cobbler except better...

Five Exemplary Websites

5. Twitter: Blah blah social networking. This site is on here because you can stalk people with it. I no longer use Facebook because of the amount of information I could uncover about other people through it. I find twitter does the same, so if you ever need to do a research project on a modern-day young person...

4. Tumblr: Tumblr is an addicting website. There's just so much on there, so many subcommunities and fan-cultures within the large network. I personally browse the tags gymnastics, Sherlock, and Doctor Who most often.

3. FanFiction.Net: I love reading stories on this website. The only thing that bugs me is the format. However, there are mountains of talented, creative amateur writers out there that can imagine so much more into a previously created fictional premise.

2. PostSecret: Talk about Community. The PS Community is huge, expansive, and almost completely open. It's a beautiful thing. I like Secret Sundays very much.

1. DeviantArt: This is my personal favorite because of my involvement in it. I like to display my photography here. Artists get criticism, which, because it isn't censored, isn't always clean or constructive. Also, there are quite a few instances of art theft. However, these blunders can be overlooked to discover an online community that can help you grow as a sketcher, writer, photographer, whatever.

Facebook has been left out because unlike these other sites, you absolutely have to have an account to access most features. Youtube has been because it's assumed that everyone has heard of the awesome-ness of Youtube. That and I don't personally like it so much.

Nine Intriguing TV shows

With absolutely no justification or system for ranking, here are just some awesome TV shows:

9.  Touch: Numbers are simply awesome.

8. Detroit 1-8-7 (Cancelled): This was a quality cop show. Why'd they cancel it?

7. New Girl: While sometimes a bit inappropriate, this show is funny.

6. Torchwood: Slightly sexualized British sci-fi. Spin-off of Doctor Who.

5. The Finder: Walter is this awesome maniac who finds things.

4. How I Met Your Mother: Funny funny funny!!

3. Bones: Who doesn't love a show filled with corpses?

2. Sherlock: BBC's interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's meticulously crafted classics, a beautiful show with amazing actors.

1. Doctor Who: Amazing Science Fiction. Great picture quality, awesome stories, awesome characters.

... I'm such a Doctor Who fangirl. My rankings here are extremely biased. Oh well! :)

Also, I really really love this screen from Sherlock:

Awesome ABC's: Animals

Aardvark

At practice the other day, Lucy, one of my 5th grader teammates, asked me: "What's an animal that starts with an N? A U?" It got me thinking. And thinking. And dang it, I couldn't think of anything! Another teammate got newt for N, but we were stuck with the U. Therefore, a list!

A: Aardvark, Anteater, Alligator

B: Bear, Boar, Baboon

C: Cat, Chimpanzee, Chameleon

D: Dog, Dolphin, Donkey

Impala

E: Elephant, Egret, Emu

F: Falcon, Fish, Fox

G: Gorilla, Giraffe, Gazelle

H: Horse, Hyena, Hippo

I: Ibis, Impala, Ibex (small mountain goat thing that's apparently awesome) 

J: Jaguar, Jellyfish, Jackal

K: Kangaroo, Koala, Kookaburra <-- The Laugh, Kookaburra song was on a very creepy episode of Doctor Who called "Fear Her."

L: Lion, Leopard, Lemur

M: Monkey, Meercat, Moose

Quokka

N: Narwhal, Newt, Nightingale

O: Octopus, Orangutan, Owl

P: Parrot, Penguin, Panda

Q: Quail, Quokka, Quetzal

R: Raccoon, Rabbit, Rhino

S: Swan, Squirrel, Shark

T: Tiger, Turkey, Turtle

U: Urchin, Uakari

V: Vole, Vulture, Vicuna

W: Weasel, Wallaby, Wolf

X: X-ray Fish, Xyloryctes beetle, Xiphius gladius

Y: Yak, Yellowjacket, Yellowhammer

Z: Zebra, Zebu, Zander

Seven 100% Believable Excuses

For why I neglected the blog on Friday. It was only actually Friday since the weekend counts as one day in my world, but honestly, I just didn't get around to it. Whoopsies :)

7. I got grounded.

6. My internet crashed.

5. My computer flipped out.

4. I got burned on my fingertips so I couldn't type.

3. A horse trampled my laptop and I'm on a borrowed one.

2. My dog ate my battery and I needed to wait for the new one to come in the mail.

1. The power lines in my neighborhood were cut by burglars and we were out of power for the whole weekend.

Funny how they get longer as the list progresses, huh? :)

Six Beloved Childhood Friends

6. Caillou - This show about the four year old and his friends was a favorite of mine as a kid. The language is simple  and the picture, while also simple, is intricate. I especially liked his Chinese friend and their episode about chopsticks.

5. Clifford - I personally must own about 20 of the Clifford picture books. What little kid doesn't dream of having a dog they could ride to school?

4. Thomas & Friends - A beloved television series and book series about a tank engine and his hardworking little friends!

3. Elmo - Nanana, nanana, Elmo's World! Elmo's World is enjoyable for both little kids and their parents (and grandparents and big sisters). My little sister often will plop herself on my lap and demand to watch it. Like with other kid's show successes, the selling point for Elmo is his approachability and simplicity. Kids like someone they could cuddle and hug and do handstands with in their head.

2. Barney - Barney the purple dinosaur... who doesn't remember this loving, lumbering friend? I love you, you love me...

1. Scooby-Doo - Scooby-Doo and his crime solving buddies scares little kids but intrigues them at the same time. The fast, hyper, pumped-up activity of the characters make the show more suited towards older-than-toddlers-but-not-yet-tween kids.

My little sister's current favorites are Elmo and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show, but that wasn't around when I was a toddler, so it's been omitted from this list.

Ten Incredible Ways to Say Hello In Other Languages (Pronounce-able)

Everyone knows Hola! and Bonjour, so here are ten weirder ones!

10. Esperanto: Saluton

9. German: Guten tag

8. Norwegian: heisann!

7. Polish: cześć (chesch)

6. Hindi: Namaste

5. Portuguese: Oi!

4. South Welsh: shwmae! (shoe-my)

3. Latin: salve (sal-way) - one person, or salvete (sal-way-tay) - multiple persons

2. Russian: Privet! (Pree-vyet)

1. Swahili: Jambo!

If you want more, there are 140 others here. After learning all of those, if you wanted to talk to everyone on the planet, you'd only need to learn to say "hello" in 2,646 more languages! Bonne chance!

Seven Incredible Ways to Say Hello Without Saying "Hello"

7. Hey!

6. Hi

5. Yo!

4. Howdy!

3. Hiya!

2. Salutations!

1. Greetings!

Simply a list this time! :)

Five Phenomenal (Usable) Words 2

Five phenomenal words: email edition. Not those you can use in emails specifically, but those I received in emails today. In a friendly list-style chain email conversation, words one doesn't expect rising high school sophomores to dish out appeared. Kudos (that was one of them, actually) to C, L, and M for contributing unknowingly to today's list. The sentences are the quoted lines that my friends used the words in.

5.  Peruse 
pe·ruse/pəˈro͞oz/

Verb: To read thoroughly or at length

Translation: To browse with care.

Use it in a sentence: .I was perusing a pile of DVDs in the DVD section in the library when a lady came over, whisked the DVDs away, and tersely said, "Go away," to me.

4. Victual

vict·ual  /ˈvitl/

Noun: Food or provisions, typically as prepared for consumption.

Verb: To provide with food.
Translation: FOOD!

Use it in a sentence: ... at awkward times during the day when people are usually eating foodstuffs and random victuals, so...

3. Emulate

em·u·late  /ˈemyəˌlāt/

Verb: to match or surpass in imitation, to imitate

Translation: to copy.

Use it in a sentence: Please tell me you emulated Gollum; that would make me happy to no end.

I personally prefer using plain old "imitate" because emulate reminds me of emus.

2. Recalcitrant

re·cal·ci·trant    /riˈkalsətrənt/

Adjective: having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority
Noun: A person with such an attitude.

Translation: Disobedience

Use it in a sentence: Kyle, in my opinion, microwaves are more recalcitrant than toaster ovens.

1. Whimsicality

whim·si·cal·i·ty    \ˈhwim-zi-kəl, ˈwim-\ <-- for whimsical not whimsicality.

Noun : flightiness, the state of being whimsical

Translation: quirks.

Use it in a sentence: On a scale of Caillou episodes to your dutchie-passing whimsicalities and then onto Lady Gaga music videos, how would you rate the...

I'm not even sure if whimsicality is a real, real word. Princeton says so, but the Merriam Webster dictionary disagrees. I couldn't even find the notation thing for it. Whatever. :)

Ten Epic Movies: Animal Films: Horses

Another movie list! I had this period from around 5th grade to 7th that I was absolutely, head-over-heels, in love with... horses. I went around telling people that I was a horse. Seriously, no joke. Naturally, I still own a ton of horse DVDs and have a seen a ridiculous amount of horse-related movies, so picking ten will be easy:

10. Moondance Alexander (2007): This movie, while really well-made, is quite a cliche. A troubled man finds himself haunted by his past when an eccentric teenager shows up. He overcomes his personal troubles to help her achiever her dreams. There is a spectacular ending, which is why this film is even on the list.

9. Misty (1961): The movie had the real Misty in it: awesome! She didn't play herself, though. The movie is a film adaptation of Marguerite Henry's book about a pony on a Virginian island, Chincoteague Island, titled Misty of Chincoteague.The actual Misty has something like 80 descendents still living on Chincoteague!

8. Two Bits And Pepper (1995): This is more of a film for horse-people, particularly horsey kids. It's about two girls and two ponies who act incredibly brave when faced by some very bad criminals.

7. War Horse (2011): I actually haven't seen this whole movie. Didn't get to watch the last half hour or so, but the beginning and middle were definitely amazing. The book was awesome, and the film was a Spielberg film, practically guaranteeing awesome-ness.

6. Secretariat (2010): As a horse-racing film, it was dramatic and suspenseful and pretty much awesome, but it still doesn't trump Seabiscuit (2003).

5. Breaking Free (A Leap Of Faith) (1995): I personally am absolutely in love with this film because it combines my two loves: horse-jumping and gymnastics. The blind gymnast's story is inspirational and awesome, even though the origin of her blindness gave me nightmares about a particular balance beam dismount for weeks.

4. Black Beauty (1994): Because it's such a beloved story, there are naturally something like six film adaptations. My favorite, however, is the one from 1994, I think. I can't be sure because 1. The internet provides poor descriptions of them and 2. I have no idea where my personal copies of the various versions are.

3. Dreamer (2005): While Dreamer at first seemed like a Seabiscuit copycat, it was far from being so. The horse of Dreamer overcame his own obstacles. The movie showed a heartwarming bond between a horse and his person, a relationship every equine-obsessed kid craves.

2. Seabiscuit (2003): Seabiscuit, the horse, the book, and the movie, are three American legends (haha, get it? Probably not). The horse was it's own 1930's racing star, the book that chronicled its life inspired and continues to inspire mounds of jockeys and trainers to be, and the movie was the pioneer of horse-racing films.

1. Flicka (2006): Seriously, just watch this movie. It's got everything: family and horses. What else could you need?

I get that not everyone likes watching multi-ton, smelly animals lumber around chewing hay. But I think each action (except for cleansing their bodies of waste) of the horse is majestic and beautiful, even tasks as simple as eating. Obviously, the above movies do more than show horses eat. They highlight the things that make horses amazing even to those not completely in love. The ones made in 2003 and on are the best for a wider range of audiences, but they really are all great!

Seven Silly Colors

Think periwinkle sounds weird? Fuschia or chartreuse? Compared to the rest of these, they're completely sane and normal!! The numbers correspond to the above chart,  which is called Hex Triplet and is used for HTML and HTML5.

8. Wenge: This color is mostly referring to furniture.

#645452

7. Zinnwaldite Brown: Named after a mineral called zinnwaldite.

#2C1608

6. Gamboge: A pigment from tapping gamboge trees.

#E49B0F

5. Coquelicot: Named after a French poppy. Often referring to leather or furniture.

#FF3800

4. Ciel: A handbag color, I think, and scrubs.

#92A1CF

3. Razzmatazz: A Crayola color named after a five year old in 1993.

#E3256B

2. Xanadu: I think I read a book with a character named Xanadu once... named after a plant.

#738678

1. Caput Mortuum: It means "dead head" or "worthless remains" and is a paint pigment.

#592720

Four Crazy Songs

Some songs are beautiful. Some are soulful. Some are amazing. Some are timeless, like Aerosmith's "Dream On" or Queen's "We Are The Champions." And then, there are the songs that disgrace music. Some in good ways (it is possible!), some in bad:

4. "One Time" by Justin Bieber

3. "Pants On The Ground" by General Larry Platt

2. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

1. "Friday" by Rebecca Black

I realize that some people really like Justin Bieber. And some people really like Carly Rae Jepsen's "flirty" and "cute" new song. But it is not one time when you say it 34 times. And just for laughs, I'd like to point out that in "Never Say Never," he said it 53 times.

"Pants On The Ground" is amazing. I love it. XD "Friday," well, do I have to say anything?

Six Spectacular Conceptual Photographs

A picture's worth a thousand words. So here: A six thousand and something worded post. The photographs can speak for themselves. In one word, they are amazing.

Numbers 1 and 6 are from here. When people ask me to define conceptual photography, I show them the photograph ranked 1.  It's pretty much the photograph the rest of us baby-photographers look up to and try to live up to.

6. Equal by Mustafa Celikel

5. Behind the Smile by B-Alsha3er

4. Shyness by Alin Petrus

3. Brainstorm by Dave Nitsche

2. It's Just A Game by Ibrahim AlRabeh

1. A Creative Mess by highverbalfan

Twenty Superb(ly Stupid) Laws in Four States

In New York:

5. The penalty for jumping off of a building is death.

4. It's against the law to throw a ball at someone's head for fun.

3. Slippers are not to be worn after 10:00 PM.

2. A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket.

1. Citizens may not greet each other by “putting one’s thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers”.

In Georgia:

5. It's illegal to use profanity in front of a corpse at a coroner's office or in a funeral.

4. Donkeys can't be kept in bath tubs.

3. No one may carry an ice cream cone in their back pocket if it is Sunday.

2. In Athens (UGA campus-town), goldfish may not be given away to entice someone to enter a game of bingo.

1. You cannot live on a boat for more than 30 days during the calendar year, even if just passing through the state.

In North Carolina:

5. A three dollar tax must be paid on all white goods sold.

4. Bingo games may not last over 5 hours unless it is held at a fair.

3. It's illegal to sing off-key.

2. In Charlotte, women must have their bodies covered by at least 16 yards of cloth at all times.

1. Elephants can't be used to plow cotton fields.

... more stupid NC laws... a lot of which are about sex... [facepalm]

In Alabama:

5. It is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church.

4. Putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death.

3. You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time.

2. Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.

1. Boogers may not be flicked into the wind.

 What's with the ice cream cone law? More dumb laws here if you can't wait for me to do this twelve more times so I can cover all the states and some international territory. :)

Eleven Incredibly Long Books

First thing: I've decided that I'm only going to post one of the two days on the weekend. This week it was Saturday; next it might be Sunday. How does that sound? 

Yay! Incredibly long book time. The Vortexavian mentioned in Five Phenomenal Words and I are reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, an absolute cinderblock that passes for a book. Shockingly, it's not alone. It's not even the king of cinderblocks. The numerical ranking of these are disputable; different versions have different page counts. I've cross-referenced something like five sources, and the page number is just the approximate word count divided by 400.

11. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: 530,000 Words, ~1,325 pages

10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: 570,000 Words, ~1,425 pages

9. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: 575,000 Words, ~1,437.5 pages

8. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth: 590,000 Words, ~1,475 pages

7. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: 645,000 Words, ~1,612.5 pages

6. The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil: 650,000 Words, ~1,625 pages

5. Women and Men by Joseph McElroy: 700,000 Words, ~1,750 pages

4. Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert: 850,000 Words, ~2,125 pages

3. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson: 1,000,000+ Words, 2,500+ pages

2. Mission Earth by L. Ron Hubbard: ~1,200,000 Words, ~3,000 pages

1. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust: ~1,500,000 Words, ~3750 pages (more like 4,100).

I believe Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann belongs somewhere between numbers 4 and 7, but I couldn't find a Word Count. Also, Mission Earth was published in volumes, but it was meant as one huge novel, hence its inclusion.

Other ones  you'd expect are on here but aren't: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (445,000 Words), Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (424,000 Words), Shogun by James Clavell, The Stand by Stephen King.

Ten Epic Movies: Animated: Disney Classics

First in a bunch of movie lists. 'Cause movies are almost as awesome as books. I defined, as Disney Classics, pre-Disney Renaissance animated movies. So before I get beheaded for neglecting The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, let me just explain that these are all older than 1989.

10. Sleeping Beauty (1959): Out of all the Disney princesses, I think Aurora's probably the prettiest. However, the movie freaked 6 year-old me out. The scene with Maleficient the evil fairy lady making Aurora prick her finger on the spinning wheel was just weird. 

9. Pinocchio (1940): While Walt Disney's ingenious classics teach us lessons on pretty much every basic moral a kid should have, they also instilled false hopes. Exhibit 1: there's no Prince Charming. Exhibit 2: there's no Pleasure Island. Ah, well, at least Pinocchio was finally a real boy.

8. Lady and the Tramp (1955): I frequently confuse this story with The Fox and the Hound from 1981 just because of the animals. This doggy love story is endearing, and who doesn't love a good meatball scene?

7. Bambi (1942): Seriously, this and Fantasia are probably the movies of the last three generations' childhoods. I can't even begin to count how many times at after school programs or sleepovers or summer camps I watched this. And the iconic death of Bambi's mother, embedded in our 1st grade memories forever.

6. One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961): Talk about another great animal movie. That mean lady Cruella de Vil was just creepy. Poor doggies!

5. Cinderella (1950): This movie was just enchanting. Period. The carriage, the glass slipper, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, and the birds flying in arcs around the princess as they fashioned here ball gown simply capture the attention of audience of any age. If I asked, my mom and grandmother would probably sit down with my 2 year old sister and I to watch this movie tomorrow. 

4. Peter Pan (1953): Wendy and Peter and all the Lost Boys capture your heart as they fight off Captain Hook. And there is Tinker Bell, of course, teaching children everywhere to believe in fairies, because everytime you don't, a fairy somewhere dies. A bit odd, really, but isn't that what animated movies are about?

3. Alice in Wonderland (1951): Lewis Carroll was a genius. Walt Disney was a genius. Put the two together and out come's one of the best movies the world of animation has ever seen. From the Cheshire Cat to the Dormouse to Alice's iconic bright yellow locks, Alice in Wonderland is a movie you can't tire of watching.

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): This movie is older than my grandmother. This movie is the first full-length animation in history, and just proves Walt Disney's continuously reiterated ingenuity. The seven dwarfs and the pale princess with whom they live are an integral part of every little girl's childhood. It's what puts the idea of a Prince Charming in most of our tiny heads.

1. Fantasia (1940): This movie is my musical background. It's what made me start loving to make music, to enjoy it. I've heard it's done the same for other classically trained students of all sorts of instruments as well. The dancing brooms and the Sorcerer Mickey Mouse are some things that are just so different that it's remarkable.

Wow, a nostalgic teenager. Is that almost a paradox? Oxymoron, anyone? Technically speaking, we're still children. We are until we're 18. However, gone are the days of snuggling under a blanket and watching Cinderella until we fall asleep. These movies were all present and probably extremely prominent in our elementary school and preschool years, and we'll carry with us the memories and experiences watching for the rest of our lives.

Honorable Mentions (a.k.a. the rest of them in order): Dumbo (1941), Saludos Amigos (1942),  The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), The Rescuers (1977), The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Oliver & Company (1988),