10 posts tagged “random musings”
I am 31 years old and I have yet to learn to close drawers, cupboards and doors. I also spill food upon myself with alarming regularity and never make my bed.
WTF, me?
Pet peeve: people who use "excuse me" in a tone of voice that implies "get out of my way, bitch, or I will cut you". Hello? You're meant to be excusing yourself, i.e. apologising for getting in someone else's way! It doesn't mean "coming through!" It doesn't mean "move!" It means "pardon me, I'm moving past you, or otherwise inconveniencing you, and for that I'm sorry". Gah!
Because it annoys me so much, even hearing it gets to me now. When I have a need to excuse myself now, I say "pardon me" because I think it conveys more of an apologetic tone.
The joys of being an overthinker...
Yeah, I watched The O.C. I'm kind of defensive about it now, the way that I wasn't when it first started. Because frankly, after a stellar first season of cheese and soap opera cliches, fantastic acting and self-aware dialogue and smoking hot Ben McKenzie, it kind of... sucked. The second and third seasons were terrible, depressing and pedestrian, and I watched them, but I didn't really enjoy them. By half way through the 3rd season, I had pretty much given up. But then I saw the end of the third season - Yay! Dead Marissa, the worst character (and a terrible actress). So I gave season 4 a try, and in the first half of the season it was a lot of fun. I was sad that it was likely going to be over. But then (sigh) the second half of the season was rushed and silly and forced, so ultimately, I think it's good that it's over.
The TV writer on salon.com summed it up pretty well:
[We'll] try to remember you, "The OC," in all of your moody, magic-hour, strummy-indie-music-playing glory. You took "Dawson's Creek," subtracted the guy with the big forehead, added a little "90210," subtracted the guy with the big forehead, threw in a suicidal hot chick and a comic-book geek and a sullen pretty boy and a bratty popular girl, and you made it all seem vaguely interesting, an improbable yet heady pairing of terrible storytelling and reasonably snappy dialogue.
The one thing that The O.C. did very well though, was the
musical montage. And that's how the final few minutes of the show
played out, with a summary of how everyone ended up. Which is all you
really want to know when you're following a show like this, right? What
finally happened? And the last few moments were just fantastic,
recalling the show when it was actually good. Yeah, I cried. Shut up.
So I signed up for facebook. Just because, like, my friend puzza, the only friend from high school with whom I keep in contact, forced me to (forced me I say!)
But really. Facebook? MySpace? I just don't understand. You write down where you live, your interests, and then...what? I don't understand how people can be "addicted" to these sites. What's the point? They are boring. Something like this, vox, I get. Because it's dynamic. You read people's thoughts, creativity, recipes, whatever the fuck.
But anyway. One day one of my old friends might google me, and there I will be on facebook. Which is the only reason I signed up. Apart from the obvious narcissism of wanting everyone to know that The Graduate is my favourite movie.
Whatevs.
I grew up reading (of all things) lots of Enid Blyton books. The Magic Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair books, and especially The Famous Five books.
One thing that always baffled me was that as the Famous Five were rambling over the hills and dales, they always left gates as they found them. I kept thinking: "how are they going to get anywhere if they turn around every time they come to a gate?" It took me years to work out what that meant.
I was reminded of this today when I was waiting for an elevator and read the instructions on a fire alarm. "In case of emergency, break glass". My brain was all like: "so.... shouldn't the glass already be broken? In case there's an emergency?"
Obviously I'm not much good with concepts that leave out indefinite articles.
Ugh, I'm blanking on some scientific writing so I thought I would write something here to get me going, and I can't think of anything interesting to write. When blocked, write lists! 31 things off the top of my head because I am 31.
1. I like my green eyes. They are very green
2. My first cat was called Cassie. I got her when I was 5
3. She was run over when I was 19
4. I moved to the US on Jan 31, 2002, making it nearly my 5 year anniversary here
5. I secretly don't think I will ever be good enough to get a decent faculty position
6. I am surprised at how much I like to run
7. I am bummed that I have been unmotivated about running in the past couple of months
8. I wish I wore skirts more often
9. I am very bad at keeping my lab book updated. Remedying this was a NY resolution and it's going OK so far
10. I'm agnostic, because I genuinely think you need faith for atheism. That said, I really don't think there is a god or gods.
11. I am always surprised at my tolerance for what most people would call boredom. I could sit and stare at my feet for hours.
12. I am not actually tone-deaf, but I sing like I am.
13. I can't play any musical instruments
14. When I started university, I intended to major in French
15. I majored in neuroscience
16. I would give up chocolate before I gave up cheese
17. I used to secretly think that people who professed to be allergic
to cats and dogs just didn't like them very much. I once carried out a
mean experiment on my very allergic boyfriend that disproved this
theory.
18. I was the first one of all my friends to start having sex
19. I was the first one of all my close friends to get married. And that wasn't until I was 29.
20. I am the oldest granddaughter on my mother's side.
21. I have 3 half-siblings who I have never met.
22. I am an only child.
23. All of the photos in my photo albums must be in chronological order. Otherwise I twitch.
24. I take a fuckload of photos.
25. I am a pretty good bridge player
26. I wish I had time to read more
27. If I am neutral about an action, I will always take the course designed to piss the most people off.
28. I'm not really proud of that.
29. I work very well with others, very well for others and am an
excellent mentor. What I am not good at is being answerable only to
myself. This is not a good quality in a post-doc.
30. I loathe serialised television dramas. Except for The Wire.
31. I really hope I can get back to work now.
My mind went to wondering, as it often does, just how many gallons of
dog urine get pissed upon the streets of New York City on a daily
basis.
There are little moments in my day when I realise I'm not fully integrated into the USA just yet. Like when I call them "inverted commas" instead of "air-quotes" in speech. (I have no idea what you call them when you're writing). That got me laughed at during lab meeting a while back.
And then yesterday I had to go for a C-T scan and I wander back with the technician and he shows me to a changing room and says "you're just going to have to remove your pants and put on this gown over top of your t-shirt". There's a beat and I say "you mean my jeans, right?" Because my brain interpreted that as "take off your underwear" which... I don't think you really need to do for an x-ray.
Oh yeah, and then there was the leave-in conditioner. I'm reading the instructions on the back, because it always amuses me to read instructions for completely obvious things, and it says something like "put a quarter-sized amount of conditioner into the palm of your hand and then work into your hair". And I'm all like "quarter-sized of what, motherfuckers? Way to explain!" And then I realised they mean a quarter. As in 25 cents. Duh.
But at least I say toMAYto now.
You know how when you're hiking and the trail is a bit dodgy, so there
are red or orange flags to keep you on track? That's how I think of the
Starbucks in Manhattan. Like the flags, you have to be able to see the
next Starbucks from the one you're presently at. That way, you can rest
easy, knowing that you are always close to the coffee trail.
Every time we go to my husband's parents for a celebratory dinner that involves slicing meat (what a great start to a sentence), someone, usually my father in-law, has to comment on how they have had the electric knife since their wedding, nearly 40 years ago.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends as usual this year. And as T. was slicing the turkey, M. commented that she needed an electric knife, like her parents' one, that they got as a wedding gift.
Then the other day I was reading one of the blogs at nerve.com, and she mentioned that she was fascinated by her parents electric knife:
My parents got an electric knife at their wedding. It only comes out twice a year – Easter and Thanksgiving. I’m always fascinated by it, maybe because it’s one of the few things my mom has held on to. She still has the original box.
(it's the entry for 11/24/06).
Did everyone in the late 60s/early '70s get an electric knife as a wedding gift or what?
