monkey nonsense

so after my last post (perhaps because i said little mary sue smith), google adsense posted this as one of the ads on my webpage:

last week, i drank nearly a whole bottle of passion fruit green tea.  i think tina had a cup and there was enough for 2 more cups…

i ended up having an restless night… i don’t think it was the caffeine, maybe just too much liquid.  when i have restless nights, it’s when i can remember my “dreams” (they might not be dreams, but i guess what i’m thinking about at night)

last week’s dream involved mcdonald’s.  i went to mcdonald’s with my coworkers and after much deliberation (which is unusual, because if there’s ever a place i’m decisive, it’s mcdonald’s!), i ended up ordering 4 20 piece chicken mcnuggets… yeah, that’s EIGHTY mcnuggets.  apparently it was quite normal or something because the cashier didn’t think anything of it when i placed my order.  and my coworkers, who all seem quite health conscious, didn’t react at all.  and i didn’t seem to think it was obscenely large number of mcnuggets…. i think the dream was trying to tell me i eat too unhealthily

last night, i had more passion fruit green tea and my dream was much more wacky.  apparently, it was a documentary about the movie titanic.  so there was this narrator mentioning all the changes that the movie made to what happened in actual life.  he was saying something like “the movie mentions little mary sue smith [or some quaint name] as one of the babies saved from titanic, but took artistic liberties to overdramatize how she survived.”  then they cut to a clip of a floating red convertible being pushed by michael keaton in a batman costume towards a whale!!!  when the convertible finally reaches the whale, batman collapses from exhaustion/hypothermia.  but the whale puts the red convertible on its back and swims to england.  i was soooo confused by that time!  did i fall asleep that long during the movie??  i know i was eating a hot dog (a delicious one!  i still remember!), but i didn’t think it was that distracting!!  that james cameron…

i’m a curious person. (i think that’s why george and i get along so well )

i like to read a lot of random things… i read nearly all the sections of washingtonpost, cnn, and msn. i randomly like to wikipedia/google topics that i’ve just seen – the Munich Olympics after seeing the movie, curling after watching the Olympics, WTC after seeing the movie, fresh prince of bel air after watching it on tv (see previous post on where that led me), etc etc.

Just last night, from watching a Red Soxs vs. Yankees game, i started reading up on: the Boston Red Sox manager after thinking he might be bald under his baseball hat (he is), sideburns after seeing a Yankee player with sideburns, Elvis because i was thinking about sideburns, Civil War generals after seeing this picture, then Jeb Bush because there’s a Civil War general named J.E.B., then Elian Gonzales (remember him?) ’cause Jeb Bush is the governor of Florida, then (because Fidel Castro’s first name reminds me of fiddles) Fiddles and Violins to figure out if there’s any differences between the two (seems to be nothing but the purpose for which they’re used for. fiddles are used as a folk instrument), and then finally what became of Peter, Paul, and Mary.. i remember Mary being sick (they’re all 3 still alive).

anyone else ever go on wild tangent internet searches like this? i find i do it quite often! so i’ve accumulated a wide knowledge of thoroughly useless information. particularly because at my old job, i had nothing to do besides browse the internet to the point that i’d run out of things to read…

junior year of college, my friends and i went on a road trip through VA. (don’t laugh… VA has many scenic routes and historic sites and i had no idea at the time that i’d be back in the area after college).

we were planning to go through the shenandoah, follow the appalachian trail for a bit, see some historic sites (stonewall jackson’s arm!), and some quirky roadsite stops (dinosaurland, world’s largest man-made illuminated star, world’s largest cured ham, etc. etc.) also on our list… midgetville, vienna va!

i had read about it off of roadsideamerica …people reported angry midgets tossing things at gawking passer-by-ers (naturally, if you’re being gawked at)… but i felt safe because i knew that they’d be welcoming to one of their own. we had our own personal ambassador to the midgets, chubacca! jk

after a mostly disappointing trip (shenandoah was closed because of snow!! dinosaurland wasn’t nearly as impressive as we thought. world’s largest apple wasn’t even a real apple… stonewall jackson’s arm didn’t disappoint though!), we were all tired and weary and on our way back to my parents’ house.

when i saw a sign for vienna va.

i was driving so i cut across multiple lanes to try to make the exit. (it was a left exit)

i missed the exit, just barely.  fortunately, I-66 off of I-495 has 2 chances to exit… one on the left, one on the right.

i cut across multiple lanes to try to make the right exit. i would not be denied my chance to see midgets.

after forcing everyone on a wild goose chase for midgetville (the website listed very little information on where in vienna, va it was located and i didn’t know the area that well!) and wasting nearly a hour driving around in traffic, i gave up. no midgets to see here

… until, 3 years later, when i moved to vienna! i forgot all about midgetville til i met up with chubacca this weekend. so i started to google search it again.

again from roadsideamerica…

I can confirm that Midgetville exists, as I was just there on June 1st. If you want to see it, you might want to look soon. There is a proposal from a couple of developers to demolish the half dozen tiny houses and replace them with about 20-something new houses. Some local residents oppose the re-development. You can view a couple of the tiny houses off of Wedderburn Lane in Vienna, which is near the Washington and Old Dominion trail and Cedar Lane. I have only looked at the houses from afar from the public street, because the dirt and gravel road that leads into the heart of the little enclave is off-limits and is posted “No Trespassing.” It is an interesting little enclave of homes, and they are a piece of local history and folklore. [Anne, 06/25/2004]

(Midgetville: Vienna, VA Directions: East of Vienna, Washington and Old Dominion trail at Cedar Lane. )

[RA: September 2004 - Six tiny Spanish style cottages comprise the community known by locals as "Midgetville," in an area of wooded dirt paths and gravel roads. The property is scheduled to be cleared to make way for housing developments for regular-sized people.]

Vienna, Virginia – Midgetville

The place is real. It’s across from Thoreau Middle School off Cedar Lane. Going north on Cedar, take a left on Wedderburn and you’ll see some weird trees and two dirt roads that lead back, with some vandalized mailboxes out front. Story today that they’re thinking of tearing it down. Very weird place. [Mike, 06/20/2004]

i know where this is!!! but have i missed my chance at seeing midgetville??? all those posts mentioning it was being teared down were dated in 2004 and i know there’s a lot of new developments popping up in that area! some time this week, i shall try to find midgetville!

too bad chubacca’s not around to be my guide

last week, cindy left for san diego. boo fortunately, mariam was back in town so we were able to all get together right before she left. mmm, chipotle!

i became friends with shruti and cindy in 5th grade; mariam in 6th grade. (they had all met in 3rd or 4th grade or something) though really, i should’ve known all of them much earlier. shruti was apparently in my kindergarten class. both shruti and mariam were in mr. smith’s class, the class which i would go to for science in 2nd grade. cindy came to the US in 2nd grade and both her brother and she were tutored in english by my sister. sadly, my sister was able to help them master english so fluently that my english appears fobbier than theirs

mariam and shruti came to visit me once senior year of college (so did cindy, but at a different time!). someone whom i respected a great deal at the time got to meet mariam and shruti. i remember her reaction to meeting them. she actually said something to the effects of “wow, i was really surprised by how your friends were. they’re so different from you.” at first, i was pretty upset. what the heck did that mean?? what was so surprising about them? how were we so different? from just a car ride with them (literally 5 minutes), you think you’ve figured out who i am and who my friends are?! maybe i was a bit too defensive, but it was the tone in which she said what she said that made me feel like judgements were being made about my friends and i. (notice how earlier i described the person as someone whom i respected a great deal at the time. i know it’s messed up… but after that, i just couldn’t see her or respect her the same way i used to.) anyways… i’d like to think she was picking up on my friends’ coolness!! shruti’s sweetness, cindy’s stylishness, and mariam’s weirdness? … er, let’s call it charm

so thanks cool friends! thanks for letting this dorky idiot hang with you all these years. hopefully, we’ll still see each other even though cindy’s sooo far now

i went exploring today!

i went on a bike ride around the neighborhood. it’s kind of cool… there’s this neighborhood near my apartment that has streets named after colleges. i think only PA colleges… i saw villanova, bucknell, and drexel.  there’s even a carnegie (no mellon though) drive! haha

according to gmaps pedometer, i biked 4.4467 miles today! woo, so tired!

speaking of which, gmaps pedometer is kind of cool! i want to learn how to be nerdy enough so that i can program cool things with google maps’ API!

so i was watching nick at nite’s marathon fresh prince of bel air

i got curious on whatever happened to ashley… they were showing that episode where she tries to become a recording artist? i vaguely remember that the actress who played ashley actually did release an album.

so i found out that ashley was a smart cookie (she went to harvard) and is in the process of recording her 2nd album. so then i started reading up about will. did you know that he’s been the same height (6′2″) since 13?! he was a freaking giant!!

another interesting thing was that for a future role, will had to learn how to solve a rubik’s cube… so he enlisted the help of tyson from beauty and the geek!

so reading up on everyone’s favorite geek from beauty and the geek… they had some crazy details about his life (cousins’ names??)… and also the link to his blog!

now that’s just stalking… but curiosity got the better of me… so i started to read. some of his blog entries were entirely over my head… but one particular one stood out. noooooooo, not CGI!!! it appears it was originally another company that just got acquired (http://sms.ams.com) and seems to have maintained much of its original culture… but man! i can’t help but feel weary for him, and i don’t even know him!

so thanks to wikipedia… i went from

fresh prince marathon -> ashley’s recording history -> will smith was 6′2″ as a 13 year old -> his new movie involves solving a rubik’s cube -> tyson from beauty and the geek taught him how to solve it -> tyson has a blog -> tyson has a job offer at cgi, my favorite company in the world.

the kind of information you can find on the internet is crazy..!

i am normal. most people seem to think i’m weird when really, i’m the only normal one in the room. here’s just a brief (certainly not all-inclusive) list of things that other people (claiming to be normal and accusing me of being weird) do that i, because i’m normal, do not do:

• i am not obsessed with my state. i do not bake maryland-shaped cakes (unlike a certain someone who bakes texas-shaped cakes). admittedly, if there were a maryland-shaped cake pan, i would be amused to see a cake baked from it. but that’s just because i’d like to see how the chesapeake bay would turn out.
• i am not obsessed with a sport/team, such that i drive over a hour one-way three times in one weekend just to see this sport/team (that’s SIX hours in the car!!). i don’t schedule my evenings around their games, especially if they play nearly every night!
• i do not sing (heck, even know) the lyrics to the theme song for golden girls.
• i do not break out into song randomly.
• i do not have thumbs that are freakishly strong.  i do not practice finger exercises.
• i do not have toes that can move like fingers. i use my entire foot to keep rhythm when playing an instrument… not just one toe. i do not use my toes to pick things up.
• i have no problems with my toes touching each other.  i am not OCD about separation between my toes.  i do not sleep with my fingers in between my toes so as to create separation.
• i do not have freakishly small hands. i don’t drop things because my hands cannot grasp them due to their apparent large size.
• i do not get bouts of hyperactivity, whether in the middle of the night (say at exactly 12:30) or just randomly. i am actually quite calm and even keeled.
• i do not randomly hit/jump on/tackle/hug/crowd people. i give people space.
• i do not say anything weird on IM, unlike these people.
• i do not talk like “thaaaat.”
• i do not carry chopsticks in my purse to use when eating chips.
• i do not go to the office’s bathroom to take a nap. i go to my car. how can you nap when people are doing their business all around you??

and that’s just off the top of my head. there are certainly many more.

my sister – the one who was so lazy that she wouldn’t even get food for her starving self when she came back from college during winter breaks and instead would send me out to get her food – has gotten off her lazy butt and is doing a triathlon!

:-O i know!  the shock of it all!!  no, but really… it’s really quite inspiring to see her training for this big event.  so much so, in fact, that it’s inspired me to go home, dust off those cobwebs from my bike, pump the tires with air… and take my bike
for a spin around the block… a tiny block, but hey… it was still exercise!  litttle steps… litttle steps.

the race is for a great cause and she needs more support!  so please take a look.

here’s her letter:

—————————————————————————

hi everyone!

Hope the summer has been treating y’all well. I’m headed back to NY
soon after a really wonderful month working in Chicago. But in other
news..

As some of you may or may not know, I am participating in the 2006
Westchester Triathalon in September with the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society’s Team-In-Training (TNT). This is my first ever endurance
event and training has been quite challenging but I’m grateful for the
opportunity to do something that is good for my body and that helps a
worthwhile cause at the same time.

I am hoping you will join me in supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society’s mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and
myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their
families as they bravely face serious illness. If you have any doubt
about how big of an impact you could possibly make, please consider
the fact that the society’s contribution to research has directly
resulted in the increase of the survival rate of children with
leukemia from 4% less than 50 years ago to over 85% in the present
day. Our efforts together do make a difference!

If you could make a small donation at my site (linked at the bottom of
this email) and/or pass the link along to your friends and family
members, it would mean so much to me. Thanks for your support and
encouragement! Drop me a line and let me know what you’ve been up to!

leslie

http://www.active.com/donate/tntwhv/leslieh

p.s. If anybody in the NY area would like to volunteer on the day of
the triathalon, the society definitely needs help with the event.
Thousands of people show up so its a huge high-energy crowd!! Let me
know and i’ll pass on more info : )