Is this heaven? No, it’s The Brendan Leonard Show

The summer of 2003 was kind of rough for me. I was getting ready to start high school, and I needed some way to cope with all the stress. I found comfort in two ways: by taking up blogging, and by watching The Brendan Leonard Show on ABC Family.

For several years, this kid named Brendan Leonard and his buddies had been producing a silly little TV show that was broadcast on Chicago-area cable access. In May of 2003, when Brendan was 19, ABC Family picked up The Brendan Leonard Show for national broadcast while allowing him to retain total control over the show’s production.

The show applied silliness and surreal humor to real and imagined situations, with Brendan’s friends and family members making regular appearances. Some episodes had a plot or theme; others just consisted of Brendan and pals horsing around the way 19-year-old guys do. Some episodes were made up of sketches or vignettes; others consisted of single takes, with the screen freezing before commercial breaks and unfreezing after as proof to the viewer. Each episode’s soundtrack consisted of indie rock tunes from the “band of the day.” There was nothing else like it on TV.

I mentioned BLS quite a few times during the early days of this blog. (Here was the first mention.) A reference to the show even made its way into the local newspaper article about me and the site. So, when the show ended in October 2003, I was sad to see it go. (I even tried to start a campaign to send spatulas to the network, referencing a classic sketch about clever uses for them.) Later, new episodes appeared on the Web under a different name (ABC owning the rights to the original), but it just wasn’t the same.

During that summer, the show had developed a small cult following. Fans clamored for a DVD release, but to no avail. So you can imagine how surprised I was when Brendan Leonard recently started uploading clips from the show on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites out of the ones that have been posted so far:

• Brendan hears an ice cream truck coming and tries to borrow enough money from his friends before it gets away. The sketch consists of a single take.
• Brendan and friends take a yoga class that devolves into madness. There are a lot of great lines (and facial expressions) in this one; I could still remember some of them after seven years.
• The gang spoof those morning shows on network TV with a show-within-a-show. In this clip, you can also see BLS‘s super-cool opening credit sequence.
• Brendan and pals discover random objects in the bushes and try to find out what they can do with them.
• To promote the show Switched, ABC Family has swapped one of Brendan’s friends with a girl from Texas. The rest of the guys assume their boy-band alter-egos and record a ridiculous song about her.

I think those clips make a good introduction to the show. You can check out more on The Brendan Leonard Show‘s YouTube channel.

By the way, the title of this post is a quote from a portion of the “Under the Bushes” sketch that hasn’t been posted yet. Soon enough, I hope…

Tour de Gainesville

Last weekend (as in, not yesterday), my friend Andy got a visit from his friend Scott. They first met up with me when I was down at home at the end of my spring-summer break. We went back up to Gainesville together; Andy wasn’t about to start classes like I was, but he wanted to show Scott the area.

After my first day of classes on Monday, the three of us watched Avatar at the apartment. We hooked up Andy’s gigantic stereo to the TV for a huge sound that was sure to annoy our neighbors (if they were even there for the summer, which I hope they weren’t).

I had been looking forward to seeing Avatar, but I was pretty disappointed by it. All the CGI got to be distracting, which I suppose was good because it distracted me from the predictable plot. The nickname “Pocahontas in Space” is well deserved. I might watch it again if I could see it on a huge screen in 3-D. Maaaaybe.

On Tuesday night, the three of us went to dinner at Satchel’s Pizza, a local restaurant that’s renowned for its eclectic atmosphere. The decor is eclectic, the pizza toppings are eclectic—even the plates are eclectic. In front of the restaurant is an old van that has a couple of tables in it. Eating in the van at Satchel’s can earn you some serious bragging rights. (Well, maybe not, but I like to brag about it anyway.) After dinner, we went to the junk shop out back and got some Satchel’s swag.

Andy and Scott left on Wednesday, and I’ve been alone in the apartment. It hasn’t been so great, but not for the reasons I would have expected. I’ll go into that later.

A star-studded Funny or Die video: Barack Obama gets a surprise visit from ex-presidents. (Via The Consumerist)

Here’s someone’s list of The 12 Biggest Ripoffs in America. And before you ask, college textbooks are indeed on the list. (Via The Presurfer)

From The Big Picture: aerial photos of New York and Las Vegas at night.

Interfaith forum

Regular readers probably have forgotten that I attend meetings of Gator Freethought, the campus organization that’s friendly to atheists, agnostics, and all others who question religious beliefs. We’ve had our last meeting of the year, but that wasn’t the end. Blake, the outgoing president of the club, was going to be representing freethought at an interfaith forum on campus.

The event was held on Wednesday evening, the last day of classes, in the smaller ballroom in the student union. There were a lot of empty seats, probably because people were at home studying for their upcoming exams. I guessed that most of the audience members were there to see their guy or gal take part in the discussion; not many people looked like they were genuinely disinterested. I have to admit I was in the former camp. I sat with a group of Freethought members.

(Derail: People always seem to say “disinterested” when they mean “uninterested.” I’ve also seen an excellent clip from The Rachel Maddow Show [which I otherwise don't watch, by the way] in which Ms. Maddow says “uninterested” instead of “disinterested.” If you’re uninterested, you don’t have any interest—you’re bored or you don’t care—and if you’re disinterested, you don’t have any interests—anything that could be considered a possible source of bias or prejudice. Paul Brians has an entry on this error in his Common Errors in English Usage web site, which is worth checking out. In the associated book, there’s a cartoon in which a man says to a woman something like, “Let me make myself clear: I’m not disinterested, I’m uninterested.”)

Um, right. So, the forum was emceed jointly by what appeared to be a Christian and a Muslim. Answering their questions, as well as some from the audience, were the panelists:

• Representing Christianity was a guy from Campus Crusade for Christ. He seemed ill at ease and spoke with thinly disguised contempt at the other belief systems that were represented. He must have said that Jesus “stepped into the pages of history” at least six or seven times. I was surprised they couldn’t get a better speaker, considering how many Christians there are.
• Representing Islam was a dapper local businessman. He had a good sense of humor and explained how Islam gives people advice on how to live their everyday lives. He used the word “brother” in referring to some of the other panelists and joked with brother Blake that only a freethinker was brave enough to sit between a Muslim and a Jew.
• Blake was the only student on the panel. His answers were short and to the point (giving him less of a chance to dig himself into a hole, he said later), and he was careful to represent freethought in general without mentioning the A-word. I liked his answer to the question, “Who is the most important figure in your religion (or lack thereof)?” He said, “Yourself,” because freethought is about thinking freely (hmm…) and not taking for granted the things that other people tell you.
• Representing Judaism was a local rabbi, who explained how Judaism also gave advice for everyday life. A kid from the audience, badly feigning ignorance, asked him some innocent-sounding questions to try to get him to link Judaism with Zionism. The rabbi didn’t fall for it. You could have cut the tension in that room with a knife right then.
• Speaking for all denominations of Hinduism was a distinguished Indian woman of a certain age. She explained how Hindu beliefs and practices vary greatly and called out some of the moderators’ questions as being specifically geared toward the Abrahamic religions. She had to dip out about halfway through, so she made a quip about avatars as another distinguished Indian woman of a certain age took her place.
• Speaking specifically for Hare-Krishna-ism while wearing Krishna robes and Krishna face paint was a young representative from the local Krishna House. She gushed with enthusiasm while getting all buddy-buddy with the other Hindu and quoting the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. Though she would get extra credit in the enthusiasm department, she used a lot of terms that were vague (like everyone’s favorite, “energy”) or not very clear to us laypeople.
• Finally, representing the Bahá’í Faith, whose name I had to copy and paste from the Wikipedia article, was a professor or something (what, you want me to actually read the program I took home?). The Bahá’í Faith (Ctrl-V) is essentially a greatest-hits compilation of the world’s major religions, but Ms. Bahá’í Faith didn’t do a good job of explaining what it was actually about. She talked a lot without saying very much.

It was a great way for Blake to go out as Gator Freethought’s president. He was definitely one of the better speakers on the panel, and even though freethought was the odd belief system out (as evidenced by the tacking-on of “or lack thereof” to seemingly every question), he did a good job of representing our club.

And this is what I do when I should be studying for exams. I’ll be glad to have them over with. By the time I write my next post, I’ll be home free… for a little while.

Need to come up with blog post titles that are sure to draw readers in? Go to the Linkbait Generator for random gems like “8 Ways to Get Rich with Ninjas” and “10 Myths About Mustaches That Hollywood Wants You To Believe.” I was sure that “Sony DSC-H55 Digital Camera Review” would net me some intense comments from photography-loving Google searchers, but it’s nothing but the same old same old right now. (Via The Presurfer)

Get the best deal

I’ve been living in my apartment since August, and it’s getting to be (or has already been) that time when you’re supposed to renew your lease or find another place. Since I’ve been pretty satisfied, I decided I would renew my lease for next year.

Andy and Ryan, two of my roommates, were a little less sure; they both wanted to move closer to campus. Ryan ended up finding another place, but Andy is more likely to stay with me next year. (My other roommate will be graduating and moving out, I think.)

Last year, we signed early and got punished for it because the rates plummeted later. Our rate is $449 per month, but if we had waited a few months, it could have been $299. I was gambling that the same thing would happen this year, so I decided to hold out for the best deal possible. A few months ago, I could have renewed with a rate of $348 and gotten a Visa gift card that would essentially drop the rate to $299. But it wasn’t really $299, so I decided to wait some more.

The incentive program ended, the rate didn’t go down, and the renewal deadline (for keeping your same apartment) was drawing near. What could we do to get the best deal? I decided that we should bargain.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a pool-party-slash-barbecue to promote renewals. Uniformed representatives were going around, asking people if they were going to renew their leases. One guy asked Andy and me what it would take for us to renew. I mentioned a comparable place I had heard of that was within walking distance to campus and was $290 per month, so that would be the price to beat. I also thought it would be nice to get new kitchen appliances for free. He made a note of it.

Last week, the rate still hadn’t fallen, but they started another incentive program, giving out Visa gift cards that would essentially lower the rate to $330. Even if we couldn’t strike a bargain, I thought, it would be a good deal.

On Tuesday, Andy and I went to the office and talked to a manager about possibly negotiating a more favorable price. She refused, saying it was against their policy. So much for that idea.

Right after that, I renewed my lease to take advantage of the Visa gift card deal. $330 is pretty reasonable.

No matter what they end up doing, Andy’s and Ryan’s current leases expire in August, and they’ll pretty much be spending the summer at their respective homes. Our other roommate’s lease runs out very soon, I think, and he (and his girlfriend who’s shacked up with him) will be moving out.

That should leave me with the whole place to myself for a few months as I take summer classes. I’m not really sure how I feel about that. I’m not depressed by it, but I’m just kind of concerned about being bored. Any ideas on how to not be bored?

This video is a collection of infomercial clichés: a tribute to doing it wrong. The soundtrack is appropriate. (Via The Consumerist)

I personally find it terrifying that some people are this big into Jeopardy!, but here you go: an archive with details of every episode ever, including the questions and answers. (Via J-Walk Blog)

Here’s a look back at 20 years of Adobe Photoshop. Includes screenshots!

#9 for the month

It’s time for another privileged look into my strange, strange music collection.

I typically have Rhythmbox sort my songs in alphabetical order by title, and I’ve noticed some pairs of songs that have exactly the same titles. Out of 2,493 songs, there are 21 duplicates, which is more than I expected. (I didn’t count different versions of the same song.) As you might expect, the titles are pretty generic. You probably haven’t heard of all of the artists.

• “Because” (The Beatles, Dave Clark Five)
• “Changes” (Bridget Kelly, David Bowie)
• “Free” (Dubious Quip, Hobo Twang)
• “Goodbye” (Hootie and the Blowfish, Sean Fournier)
• “Holiday” (Persson, Weezer)
• “How Long” (Allison Crowe, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band)
• “Intro” (Ampiphy, WhiteRoom)
• “It’s a Beautiful Day” (MoOt, Persson)
• “It’s Over” (Harbinger, Persson)
• “I Want You” (Marvin Gaye, Savage Garden)
• “Learn to Fly” (Josh Woodward, Foo Fighters)
• “Like This” (Girl Talk, STEEP)
• “Low” (Coldplay, Silence Is Sexy)
• “Mary Jane” (Alanis Morisette, Fatblueman)
• “My Love” (Petula Clark, Junior Walker)
• “Solar System” (Depressive Art, Jamison Young)
• “Talk” (Coldplay, Silence Is Sexy)
• “What’s Going On” (Blind Mr. Jones, Marvin Gaye)
• “White Moon” (The Dada Weatherman, The White Stripes)
• “Woman” (John Lennon, Peter and Gordon)
• “You Can Have It All” (Yo La Tengo, Kaiser Chiefs)

Additionally, I have a couple of threebies (triplicates?):

• “Time” (Hootie and the Blowfish, Persson, Pink Floyd)
• “Wake Up” (Alanis Morissette, Josh Woodward, Smoke Fish)

If you have some time to kill, this may be fun to check out. How many duplicates do you have? Do you have more than three completely different songs with the exactly the same title? (My predictions: no one will answer, or people will include similar but not identical titles. Prove me wrong!)

And, while we’re at it, here’s some Ask Jordon.

Kate: What do you think about vegetarianism? Could you give up eating meat for some reason (and what could be this reason)?

I don’t mind if other people are vegetarians, but I don’t want it forced on me by anyone. Let me eat whatever I want, and I’ll let you do the same. I don’t care if the animals are mistreated or anything like that. If other people do care, then good for them, but I’m more concerned with human welfare.

I would give up eating meat if my life depended on it, but I can’t imagine a situation in which that would happen.

From the American Museum of Natural History: a video that zooms out from the surface of the earth to the edges of The Known Universe. Watch it in HD! (Via Pharyngula)

A voice actor does a really good impression of Morgan Freeman: Morgan Freeman Talks About… Toilet Paper.

It happens to the best of us: Why It’s Better to Pretend You Don’t Know Anything About Computers. (Via Lifehacker)

Git-r-carded

For those of you who don’t know, I volunteer with Get Carded, a student group that promotes organ and tissue donation. (The name comes from the organ donor cards we used to hand out, but these days there’s an online database for that sort of thing.)

Anyway, I’ve always been good about going to their events until recently, so when they asked for volunteers for their next event, I obliged. With this one, they decided to branch out from their usual target group of students at the university. Instead, they were going to have a table at a charity concert in Levy County.

Today, three of us went out to Bronson (which, despite having less than 1,000 residents at the last census, is the county seat). The concert was the third annual “Bark-N-Purr” Charity Concert, put on by the county humane society on some field. We had received a map showing us where exactly to set up. We were shown on the map as “Get Corded!” In fact, the letter and everything else they sent were made out to “Get Corded!”, including the exclamation mark.

It was raining a bit, and we didn’t have our tent, so we called one of the co-directors of the group and asked him to bring it. He did after a little while, but he didn’t stay. Then we set up. We were near booths for the Army, the Future Farmers of America, and a John Deere dealer. We were next to the Tupperware booth.

In general, there was a carnival-like atmosphere, with some bounce houses for kids, a sort of choo-choo train, and a few games. There was also a stage that had been set up, for the actual concert. They started with a prayer, I think, and then the national anthem.

Oh, and there was food. Hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, wings, pulled pork sandwiches, french fries, other kinds of french fries, and… fried Oreos. I had to try some. They were surprisingly delicious: warm and breaded, with the Oreo inside kind of melted. I liked them so much that I got some more. That wasn’t actually a good idea.

I spent most of the time manning the booth. The other two spent some time checking out some dogs that they had doing tricks in an area near the stage. The police also showed off their dogs, apparently. I didn’t see. Ironically for a concert to benefit animals, pets weren’t allowed, but I could see where they were coming from. I wouldn’t want to have to clean up the field.

What we were really there to do was to talk to the people about organ donation. They were people with trucks, people wearing various types of camouflage, people with Confederate flags, people with American flags sticking out of their pockets. They were old, middle-aged, and young. One was even a beauty queen, the Clay County Miss Outstanding Teen or something like that. (She had a sash thing and a tiara.) They were also nice, for the most part (the Tupperware man helped us set up our tent).

We ended up giving out lots of swag. We even gave some to the Future Farmers of America for them to use as a door prize at their upcoming dinner. And before the headliner, some country singer, came on, we packed up and left.

I had been thinking of staying here after I graduate, but I’ll have to think about it some more.

With Google phasing out support for the horrible Internet Explorer 6, a mock funeral is planned for Thursday. (Via Lifehacker).

Yahoo! Answers is full of stupid people asking stupid questions. Here are 20 of the dumbest. (Via J-Walk Blog)

And finally, a parody of Rachel Ray’s show 30 Minute Meals.

No place to study (except in the study area and everywhere else)

It’s student election time again. In the spring, we vote for Student Body President, Vice President, and Treasurer, along with representatives for freshmen, sophomores, colleges, and grad students. Sound exciting? Oh, it is.

At UF, one political party controls most of Student Government. It’s the party that all of the fraternities and sororities happen to support, and these days it’s known as the Unite Party. They always win.

There’s also one or several opposition parties. The past few semesters, there have been the Orange & Blue Party and the Progress Party, but after cannibalizing each other’s votes last semester, they’ve decided to (ahem) unite as the Student Alliance. Their presidential candidate is Ben Cavataro, whom I mentioned around this time last year. He used to represent my dorm in Student Government, and I have a high opinion of him.

One of the big issues this semester is the student union. The university wants to increase tuition so it can raise funds to expand the building. The majority party, which basically always does whatever the university administration wants, supports the plan. The issue is now on the ballot for students to vote on (albeit in a non-binding manner).

This week, I’ve seen official-looking signs posted in the student union that list so-called problems with the current building and the benefits of jacking up our tuition to fix them. One of the “problems” is that the building has “no place to study,” even though a large study area was just built about a year ago. Today (well, yesterday, since I’m writing this after midnight), I wrote a letter to a student newspaper expressing my outrage at the university for creating these signs with false statements.

Then I read today’s issue of the paper and found out that the signs had been created by a student-run campaign, not the university. Oops. By the time I was able to send a correction to the newspaper, they told me that my letter had already gone to press. Tomorrow, a lot of people might realize that I’m not technically right. Boo.

In my defense, the signs were misleading and were placed very prominently, as if the university had endorsed their message. In fact, that’s actually likely because I’ve never seen any other student group’s signs placed at the entrances of the building for all to see. As if that weren’t enough, some university departments actually have officially endorsed the campaign.

Also, my letter can pretty much be read as though I’m criticizing the university for allowing the signs to be put up, so all in all, I guess I’m still right. I just hope no one nitpicks.

Here’s an old video about how they make food look good for TV commercials. (Via The Presurfer)

This compact calendar is pretty clever. (Via Lifehacker)

I knew I’d seen this cliché in about a million TV shows and movies: Let’s Enhance. (Via waxy.org)

Mr. Kalilich goes to Washington

Last week, I mentioned that I’d be going to Washington, DC for the weekend to attend Free Culture Conference 2010 with other members of my school’s chapter of Students for Free Culture. Well, I’m back, and here’s how it went.

On Friday, I had to skip my classes and go into work early. It was raining, and I had brought a duffel bag with some warm clothes (and a camera) borrowed from my parents. As I waited for the bus, a pink Porsche SUV limo pulled up to the bus stop. One of the other people at the bus stop turned out to be in on it; she said our apartment was giving free rides to campus in the limo, presumably as a gimmick to get people to renew their leases. I was expecting to see a camera crew at any moment, like I’d end up in one of those commercials where they surprise random people by going to their house or whatever.

Anyway, we all got inside the limo, where they had granola bars, Rice Krispies treats, and bottles of water for breakfast. I expected to be lectured to about the benefits of renewing my lease, but nobody said much. It was kind of awkward, actually. The limo followed the route that the bus would have taken and dropped us off at the usual bus stop on campus. I thanked them for the ride.

After working at my job on campus, it was time to go. Kris, Jennifer, and Mark picked me up, and we drove to the airport in Orlando. It was the same airport that Mark and I flew to Europe from last year, so it brought back some memories. I didn’t have much time to reminisce, though, because we were almost late. We hurried through everything until we made it past security, when we had a few minutes to get some food.

The flight was slightly delayed, but we got on eventually. I was seated between two people in the emergency exit row. It wasn’t very comfortable, but I didn’t mind much. I spent most of my time thinking about the trip and reading that day’s issue of the Alligator. I didn’t even get to finish it before we started our descent into Baltimore. I strained to look out the window. The clouds parted, revealing an endless, twilit landscape of barren trees and little neighborhoods covered in white. I had never seen snow before, and there it was—lots of it.

We landed at the airport. The runways had been cleared, but everything else was covered with a thick layer of snow. I became giddy. I didn’t have much time to be giddy, though, because we were almost late. We hurried out of the airport to catch a bus to the nearest train station. We made the bus with a few minutes to spare, and then we made the train with a few minutes to spare. In the meantime, I did notice that the cold was a different, more tolerable kind of cold than what I was used to in Florida. It just felt like being inside a freezer. I guess there was no humidity.

The train took us to Washington’s Union Station, where we took the DC subway out to Arlington, Virginia, where we met up with Gavin Baker, the founder of our chapter. He had graduated and moved to the DC area, and he let us stay in his apartment for the weekend. We made our way to the apartment (I also tried to run around in the snow and throw snowballs) and got settled in. Then Gavin took us back into DC to have dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant called Lalibela. Apparently there are a lot of Ethiopians and Ethiopian restaurants in the city.

It was a small place, and a lot of the table/booths were right next to each other. I was sitting on a bench next to another group of people. Still, it was pretty cozy, and Gavin had a suggestion for what to order. We got a communal dish consisting of some portions of various meats and vegetables served on a type of flat, doughy bread. We each had our own piece of flat, doughy bread, which we tore pieces off of and used to pick up the meats and vegetables. It was fun and delicious.

During the meal, Gavin surreptitiously showed us a Wikipedia article on his iPhone. He was almost certain that the guy I was sitting next to was Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer of the United States. I had read about him on some of my nerdy news web sites, so I was pretty pumped. I couldn’t help but try to pick up on the conversation he was having. His friends were talking about his past job as CTO of DC and how he had been on the cover of a magazine. Definitely Vivek Kundra. We decided not to talk to him, though. More often than not, public figures want to be left alone.

We went right back to Gavin’s, where we wound things down and went to bed. We had a couple of big days ahead of us tomorrow.

Speaking of going to bed, I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to continue this story next time. Soon, probably. In the meantime, here are some links:

Here’s a spectacular NSFW animated short in which almost all of the scenery and characters are logos and mascots: Logorama. (Via waxy.org)

The webcomic xkcd is pretty funny, but I don’t think anybody ever gets the punchline every time. Fortunately, we have Toby, Dave & Ian Explain XKCD, a blog in which the humor behind every comic is explained.

Kate’s visit, part two

Let’s continue this story.

Sunday, January 10, got off to a slow start. I hadn’t been online much in the past few days, so I was surprised to hear that Ocala and other relatively nearby cities had recorded snow. Gainesville didn’t get so much as a flake.

On my list of places to visit was the Florida Museum of Natural History, located next to the Harn Museum of Art, where we had gone the day before. This time, we made it a group thing, with Andy’s dad driving Kate, Andy, and me to the museum.

I had been looking forward to seeing the museum’s butterfly garden, which is probably the star attraction of the whole place. I hadn’t been there since 2005, before I even considered enrolling at UF. I remember my first visit fondly, but apparently I didn’t actually like it that much. I noted at the time that I

could see butterflies flying around everywhere and stuff. Some were small, some were big, some were bright, dark, old, young, whatever. But there were a whole lot of them. I wasn’t at ease with the whole situation. Butterflies and colleges scare me.

This time, the weather meant that our trip to the butterfly garden was kind of a bust. The plants were all covered up due to the cold. Also, the butterflies were going into quasi-hibernation, said a random worker who was so bored that she decided to act as a tour guide for us. They were just lying around on the ground. She would pick one up and open its wings to show us, but some of them broke when she did that. They were dead.

To make up for the freezing-cold walk through the covered garden with dead butterflies lyin’ all over the place, they let us go into the Rearing Lab, where the butterflies (and moths, to be politically correct) are reared. It was there we encountered the mighty Atlas moth, the world’s largest. I remembered seeing one during my last visit, but I think it was a specimen. In the lab, there were a few just hanging out, and one was flying around. You could hear its wings flap. It was intense.

One of the guys at the rearing lab gave us some fun behind-the-scenes facts. He said they were keeping a lot of the butterflies and moths in the lab instead of letting them go out into the butterfly garden, where they might freeze to death. In lieu of fruit, many of them fed on sugar from Q-Tips soaked in—what else?—Gatorade.

After going to the museum, Andy’s dad treated us to dinner at Olive Garden. Kate seemed to like it, so that was good. I think it was a lot of food for her, so she took her leftovers home and I helped her finish them later.

The next day was Monday. Kate wasn’t ready by the time I had to go to work, so she decided to stay behind and meet me on campus for lunch. When lunchtime rolled around, she said she wouldn’t be able to make it (I think she was catching up on sleep), so she agreed to meet me when I got off of work. That would have been all fine and good, except I had to stay late because I’d just received the files for the new Multicultural and Diversity Affairs web site, and they had to go up that day.

So Kate met me at work while I was working late and got to see some of the typical things I do. She works with databases and programming and stuff like that, so it wasn’t unfamiliar to her. I was worried that she would be bored though, so we looked up things to do. It turned out that they were going to screen The Invention of Lying at the student union, so we decided to go to that. On the way there, I called my friend Natasha to wish her a happy birthday.

I liked the movie, and so did Kate. After that, she got an ice cream cone, and I helped her eat it while we were waiting for the bus home.

Kate actually posted this link on my Facebook page a while back. It’s a quiz called “Can You Guess Where My Accent Is From?” See if you can beat my score of 23.

Here’s a CPU-hungry but cool Flash animation about planetary orbits. (Via The Presurfer)

Thoughts on Russia

Christmas went well. My uncle came over for dinner with his girlfriend, whom we hadn’t yet met. I thought it was interesting to have a new person with us for Christmas dinner. I sometimes wonder what situations that are familiar to me would be like to an outsider, and I was pleased to imagine that an outsider would be happy with us and our feast. (Corollary: I worry a lot about what people think of me. Example: I shouldn’t have used the word “corollary” because people will think I’m a nerd.)

After dinner, my dad wanted to watch the video of the Christmas play that my sister and I were in a few years ago. Since our tapes weren’t labeled, we ended up going through (and getting sidetracked by) videos from our trip to North Carolina and the first youth group comedy night. Eventually, we did find the play, and we watched it. I forgot that everyone did a pretty good job with their acting (except for me because I played Santa Claus and had to wear a fake beard that kept riding up my face).

Yesterday, I went to the mall with my sister and our friend Kevin. I didn’t have a monthly calendar for next year, so I bought a calendar of vintage UF football game program cover artwork. I like UF football, and I like nostalgia. I didn’t even know there were programs for football games back in the day. Do they still have them? Are they only for the rich people in the boxes?

My friend Katja, or Katya, or Kate, who will be visiting soon, had a question for me about her native Russia. She wanted to know about my honest impressions of the country and how I imagine life to be like there.

The main thing that sticks out in my memory from what I’ve heard and read is that the police are said to be corrupt, and that they’ll stop your car and arrest you if you don’t give them money. Russia is also home to some illegal music downloading sites and some news sites with dubious stories. Vladimir Putin seems to be portrayed in the Western media as power-hungry, particularly since he’s become Prime Minister. So my overall impression is that Russia is a place where the rule of law is not taken very seriously. I think it’s also very cold.

I want to stress that I don’t have any ill will toward Russia or Russians. This is exactly the kind of answer Katja was looking for: maybe not factual but what I have been led to believe. I’m sure that Russia is a nice place to visit and that any of the bad things I mentioned, if true, are not too prevalent. If I went there, I doubt I would have to bribe the police, and it might even be warm. I know that some people have bad impressions of America (for example, South Koreans think our beef is all tainted due to maybe a single incident), but it’s really not a bad place to live (as long as you can get health insurance).

So, I’m curious. What impressions do my non-USA readers have about the USA?

Is it too late for a Christmas-related link? Read about Sweden’s tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve. (Via waxy.org)

This was pretty depressing to read. I didn’t realize that rape was so common and that women were so… aware of it. Schrödinger’s Rapist: Or a Guy’s Guide to Approaching Strange Women Without Being Maced. (Via mcgees.org)