Happy Galentine's Day!

Last week I threw my first annual Galentine's Day party.

Galentine's Day, for those of you who don't watch Parks and Rec (I know I said I hated it but good god am I glad I got over that), is a Leslie Knope-created holiday. Every February 13th, she gathers her lady friends for brunch and...celebrates them! She does thoughtful things like create a mosaic of each attendee's face made out of crushed bottles of her favorite diet soda, and everyone pretty much hangs out sans significant others.

My Galentine's Day was a little different, but no less awesome. I had 20 awesome women in a private room at a bar, drinking and snacking and being merry.

I put together super cute goody bags, which contained fun things like bubbles, heart-shaped straws, and flavored condoms. They also contained candy and cards, a few examples of which you can see below.

And yes, I did write a haiku for everyone.

We had decorations, my friend made waffle cupcakes in honor of Leslie Knope's obsession with waffles, and everyone brought gifts for a Yankee swap.

It was kind of amazing. And I'm so excited to do it again next year.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

A big thanks to everyone who was so wonderful and took my quiz. I'm proud to say that Julie, my one and only wikipedia student, did better than everyone else. She made momma so proud. But the official winner of the contest, the person who did the best out of all the entries (there were 6, FYI, all from very smart people) was...

Kate!

Happy Chanukah Kate, you've won a prize! Email me your address and I will send you something awesome. Also you should maybe go on Jeopardy because you know your shit.

Anyway, here is the full quiz again, along with some of Julie's original answers (blue), some of my original comments below that (red), and occasionally, some additional commentary (green).

1. Who won the Franco-Prussian War? Choose France or Prussia.

NO IDEA! I'm guessing France because I feel like prussia is not a country right now. But then maybe prussia is right because it seems wrong (multiple choice mind fuck)..I DON'T KNOWWwwwwwww. France.

The answer was Prussia. WOMP WOMP.
Anyone who answered Germany got bonus points for being smart.
 

2. The person who knew of the Senate’s plan to murder Julius Caesar and unsuccessfully tried to stop them was...

I want to say brutus, but I know that's not right. Oooh marc antony, j lo's husband!
Correct! Marc Antony! Brutus was the person who actually did kill him.

3. Mata Hari was a Dutch stripper who was arrested for ESPIONAGE!

4. Use one word (any word of your choosing as long as it’s at least remotely accurate) to describe dub-step music.

I still don't know what dubstep is. "autotune" and/or "trance" and/or "kanye."
Okay, none of these words appeared in that lesson but I’ll allow “trance” because it’s close enough to “electronic” which would have been correct.

Aside to Julie - I was wrong, the word "Kanye" did appear in that lesson because there's a song on Watch the Throne that is kind of dubsteppy. Sorry for lying!
 

5. Joe Frazier was temporarily the Heavyweight champion of the world. Name either the boxer from whom he took the title OR the boxer to whom he lost the title. Specify which one you’re naming.

He took the belt from Ali and lost it to George Foreman.

6. Name 2 countries known for exporting blood diamonds. BONUS QUESTION: Name the person who sings a song about blood diamonds.
You could have answered any of the following: Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The person who sings the song “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” is Kanye West.

Note: I also accepted Zimbabwe from the people who answered that even though Zimbabwe diamonds are not technically classified as conflict diamonds according to my very official research.

7. Give me 3 facts about Liechtenstein. Any 3 facts.

Thank you everyone for all your awesome facts. Truly. I want to be appalled by those of you that said "It is in Europe," but one of Julie's facts was "It isn't in the United States," which is even worse. 

8. 8. What is the miracle of Chanukah (ie why do we celebrate this holiday)?

The oil lasted for 8 days even though there was only enough for a day or two...
Ding ding ding!

9. Quarks, a form of subatomic particle, come in 6 different what? (Hint: vanilla is not one of them)

Flavors!

A few of you even named them. Smarty pantses. Smarties pants. Whatever.

10. Levi Strauss sold the first pairs of blue jeans to _____________? 

Hippies?
California gold miners.

11. Say something funny about curling.

If we got married and legally changed our last name to woberwifer and then one of us decided to start a curling team, the team name would be Team Woberwifer.

+2 bonus for the awesomeness of that answer

12. The cornucopia is seen as a symbol of ___________. BONUS QUESTION: When reading this wiki article, I skipped over a part of it because it started talking about the cornucopia’s significance in a certain book I happened to be reading at the time. What was that book?

Everyone knew it was a symbol of harvest or plenty. Also, the bonus was clearly The Hunger Games.

13. J. Cole is a protégé of Jay-Z

14. Thomas Alva Edison is most known for the lightbulb!

15. The most prominent feature of the planet Jupiter is called the _____ _____ Spot.

Great red spot

16. Alpacas are related to LLAMAS

17. TWO PARTER. Contrary to popular belief, Sam Adams was not a beer maker. Contrary to Julie’s belief, he was also not a president! 

Obvs my favorite question so far...

18. The person whose picture appears on the wikipedia page for the popped collar is...

ERIK who you hooked up w and who I met at your silly hat party :)

19. The Coca-Cola Company has its headquarters in which city? 

Hotlanta!

20. Jillian Michaels is (choose one) ____ gay ____ straight ____ bisexual ___X__ unclear

21. The Great Sphinx of Gaza is missing 2 features. What are they?

Nose and beard, y'all

22. Describe the role that women had in 18th century French salons.

Women had a predominant and important role in 18th century French salons. It was one of the few places they could participate meaningfully in the socio-political sphere and interact with men in such discussions.

+2. Very elegant answer! BONUS.

23. In Scandinavia, “Saturday” is often referred to as “bathing day.” Why? 

Cuz gross people only bathe once a week. Ew.

Specifically, because the Vikings historically bathed on Saturdays.

24. Margaret Thatcher resigned from her post as the Prime Minster of UK during which term? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th). 

THIRD!

25. Describe the main difference between Mexican burritos and American burritos. BONUS QUESTION: What does “burritas” mean? 

The fillings! America is fat and shows like the biggest loser exist in the us of a because we-the gorditos- put delicious condiments like guacamole and cheese in ours, while mexicans simply have beans. Which are good for your heart. And make you fart. Burritas, besides being something I'm going to call my future baby daughter in a swaddled blanket, means little girl donkeys.

Julie is weird.

Thanks for playing, everyone!!!

Pop quiz!! And a contest

A few weeks ago I started a tradition, the backstory of which I won’t go into. Each day, I pull up the wikipedia entry on a random thing of my choosing. It could be a person, a place, an event, whatever. I read it and try to learn whatever I can about that subject, and then I synthesize it into a nice summary email and send it off to my friend/wifer Julie so that she too can learn about random things.

To commemorate the milestone of 25 wikipedia lessons, I gave Julie a pop quiz – one question for each lesson. The quiz appears below. If you dare, take the quiz and comment or email me your answers (arielleblogs at gmail). DO NOT CHEAT PLEASE THAT IS NO FUN. If you don’t know something, and I guarantee that you won’t know everything, be creative!

If anyone actually does this (doubtful?), I’ll send whoever scores the highest some kind of prize. Later on I’ll post all the correct answers, and possibly also Julie’s answers because they're awesome, if not always correct. Ready? Go!

1. Who won the Franco-Prussian War? Choose France or Prussia.

2. The person who knew of the Senate’s plan to murder Julius Caesar and unsuccessfully tried to stop them was___________

3. Mata Hari was a Dutch stripper who was arrested for_______________

4. Use one word (any word of your choosing as long as it’s at least remotely accurate) to describe dub-step music.

5. Joe Frazier was temporarily the Heavyweight champion of the world. Name either the boxer from whom he took the title OR the boxer to whom he lost the title. Specify which one you’re naming.

6. Name 2 countries known for exporting blood diamonds. BONUS QUESTION: Name the person who sings a song about blood diamonds.

7. Give me 3 facts about Liechtenstein. Any 3 facts.

8. What is the miracle of Chanukah (ie why do we celebrate this holiday)?

9. Quarks, a form of subatomic particle, come in 6 different what? (Hint: vanilla is not one of them)

10. Levi Strauss sold the first pairs of blue jeans to _____________. (Hint: they were in California)

11. Say something funny about curling.

12. The cornucopia is seen as a symbol of ___________. BONUS QUESTION: When reading this wiki article, I skipped over a part of it because it started talking about the cornucopia’s significance in a certain book I happened to be reading at the time. What was that book?

13. J. Cole is a protégé of which famous rapper?

14. Thomas Alva Edison is most known for which of his inventions?

15. The most prominent feature of the planet Jupiter is called the _____  _____ Spot

16. Alpacas are related to what other animal?

17. TWO PARTER. Contrary to popular belief, Sam Adams was not a _______. Contrary to Julie’s belief, he was also not a ________.

18. The person whose picture appears on the wikipedia page for the popped collar is _________ (note: you, blog readers, can go look at the page for this only because it won’t give you the answer but you can guess anyway and no, you do not need to guess at the person’s actual name).

19. The Coca-Cola Company has its headquarters in which city?

20. Jillian Michaels is (choose one) ____ gay ____ straight ____ bisexual _____ unclear

21. The Great Sphinx of Gaza is missing 2 features. What are they?

22. Describe the role that women had in 18th century French salons.

23. In Scandinavia, “Saturday” is often referred to as “bathing day.” Why?

24. Margaret Thatcher resigned from her post as Prime Minster of the UK during which term? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th)

25. Describe the main difference between Mexican burritos and American burritos. BONUS QUESTION: What does “burritas” mean?

Answer away! I love this kind of stuff.

Goodbye, Harry Potter

It all started nearly 10 years ago. It was the fall of 2001, my very first semester of college. Some hallmates and I were sitting in my dorm’s common room, chatting about whatever and probably avoiding our respective papers and problem sets, when someone started talking about Harry Potter. I was only vaguely familiar with Harry Potter at that point, and so, as I am wont to do in situations where I’m clueless about the subject matter at hand, I voiced my indifference loudly.

"I’ve never read any Harry Potter books. I mean, if someone were to like, HAND me a book and go, ‘Read it,’ I would probably read it, but I don’t care enough to go out of my way for it.”

My friend Tim got up from his seat on the couch and disappeared into his room. He reemerged a minute later, strode across the room, and handed me a book.

“Read it.”

I looked at it. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I was less than enthused, but I’m a woman of my word. When everyone adjourned for the night, I opened the book to page 1.

The next afternoon, I knocked on Tim’s door.

“TIM!”

He opened it. I promptly shoved the book back at him.

“Give me the next one.”

He smiled.

And that was how it all began.

I plowed through the first 4 books with a fervor I can’t say I’ve given to many other things in life. I was completely, totally, unabashedly hooked.

To say I’m maniacally obsessed with Harry Potter is an overstatement. I’ve never seen a midnight movie showing. I’ve never read fan fiction or discussed the books on message boards. I faired pretty poorly on this Sporcle quiz that asks you to name the top 200 most mentioned characters in the Harry Potter series. I’ve never dressed up as any of the characters for any reason, save one drunken night when my friend put on my snuggie and thought she was Albus Dumbledore, so I put on my Hannah Montana wig and pretended to be Fleur Delacour.

I would be lying, though, if I said the Harry Potter series has had no impact on my life at all. I’ve accumulated more than enough great memories over the years.

When the first movie came out in November of 2001, I was there on opening night, my friend Brian and his older sister wearing matching glasses and lightning bolt stickers.

When the fifth book came out in the summer of 2003, my friend Jenny and I patiently waited for our turn to receive a book at Barnes and Noble in the middle of the night.

There was Harry Potter Festathon, of course.

Earlier this year, when my friends and I got rush tickets to see Daniel Radcliffe sing and dance (excellently and adorably, might I add) in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, we never referred to the show by its real name. Only by “Harry Potter Musical.” Because Daniel Radcliffe was Harry Potter before he was J Pierrepont Finch. But even further than that, the other cast members have ceased to be actors in my mind. No matter what else they do, Alan Rickman will always be Snape and Ralph Fiennes, as indistinguishable as his real face is from that of the character he plays, will always be Voldemort.

When the seventh book came out, I hadn’t yet gotten around to rereading the sixth, and I was committed to doing so before diving into 7. After a weekend in Boston, I sat down on the Greyhound bus back to New York and opened up Half Blood Prince. The girl next to me promptly opened up Deathly Hallows. We spent the entire 4 hour bus ride with our heads buried in the books, save the one or two times when I found it impossible to contain my curiosity.

“OH MY GOD YOU’VE READ SO MUCH HOW IS IT!?!?!”

“IT’S SO GOOD! But so…surprising!!! You’re going to love it.”

And then we would keep reading.

When I finally got around to reading HP7, I was torn. On the one hand, I was sneaking out of work for extended Starbucks runs or lunches, settling myself into a table and trying to read as much as possible, hoping my boss wouldn’t walk in and catch me. But on the other hand, I would reluctantly pull myself away from the book at the end of a chapter, not wanting the end to actually arrive.

That’s sort of how I feel now. I don’t want the end to arrive.

I haven’t seen the last movie yet, not because I’ve been avoiding it but because I’ve been busy. But in a way I want to push it off as long as possible. If I haven’t seen the last movie, it isn’t over. Not really.

This movie represents the last Harry Potter related thing I can truly look forward to. Sure, I can reread the books (and I will), and sure, I can rewatch the movies (and I will – can we say Harry Potter Festathon REDUX??), but it won’t be the same.

Since the end will likely come in the next few days, the last time any Harry Potter book or movie will ever be new to me, I feel the need to express my gratitude. To Jo Rowling, to Dan and Emma and Rupert, to the rest of the cast, and to everyone else who will never read this but who had a part in making this franchise the insanely addicting thing it is today.

From those of us who have debated which house the Sorting Hat would put us in (Ravenclaw).

From those of us who know that the original crush-worthy character was not Harry or Ron or Neville (RAWR), but Oliver Wood.

From those of us who have been a fan of Robert Pattinson long before he put on some sparkles and became known as “RPattz.”

Thank you. We’ve lost countless hours immersed in your books and movies, and we don’t regret a single second of it.

The night I found the future

Where to begin with the Find the Future experience? I’ve already explained how the game worked, but the actual night was so much more than scanning QR codes and writing essays. It was crazy and inspiring and collaborative and something that I am still so honored to say that I’ve done (5,000 people applied for these 500 spots!).

From the time the doors opened at 7 PM until they were locked behind us at 8 PM, we milled around, dealt with the first of countless tech problems (many of us couldn’t log in to the app on our phones), shared excitement over our VIP badges, and connected with faces new and – for those of us who had met up at happy hours or library tours in the preceding weeks – old.

I was overjoyed when I Twitter stalked ran into fellow Tufts alum Jen, and she informed me that there were 2 additional Jumbos participating in Find the Future. This only confirms what I already knew about Tufts being a haven for all people awesome and nerdy. Look for our picture in a future edition of the Tufts Magazine, y’all.

When the game started, we were asked to self-select into the Patience or Fortitude teams. As the least patient person I know, I obviously selected Fortitude, and was happy to end up on a squad of the Best. People. Ever. Ian1, Ian2, Amanda, Seth, Nazary, Julia, and myself. We called ourselves The Posse and I CANNOT EVEN EXPRESS HOW AMAZING WE ARE. Okay, caps lock over.

This fabulous Posse picture courtesy of Ian2

For the first hour or so of the game, there were often lines to unlock artifacts because certain sections of the library were closing early and there was a rush to get those items completed. The jokes that flew around about all the Patience people getting to the back of the line since us Fortitude players hated waiting never got old. Seriously. Never.

I mentioned earlier how amazing The Posse was. I mean, every team thinks they’re amazing, and they’re all probably right. The small subset of the 500 people that I got to meet contained some of the brightest, most ambitious, completely hilarious people I’ve ever met. But one thing that made The Posse stand out was our unique way of finding each other when we got separated. There is something sinfully gratifying about repeatedly making a high-pitched dolphin call in a library, a building more typically associated with silence and decorum.

Oh hey, did you know that you can't embed a wav file in a blog post on Blogger? Apparently not. But believe me when I say that I made a lovely recording of me doing our team call. It went something like...OOAH OOAH! Heheh.

Much of the game was as I described it in my last post – running around, unlocking artifacts, delighting in completely dorky glee when your phone vibrated in your hand, signaling that an artifact’s power had been transferred to you and its story was unlocked. The Posse sat at a table, a veritable mass of laptops, chargers and power strips between us, and discussed the stories we wanted to write, bounced ideas off each other, and got to work.

Much of the game didn’t happen as planned – when the app stopped syncing so items you had scanned weren’t actually unlocking on the website, or when one of the tech guys ran around saying, “Please copy and paste your work from the website into a Word document, the website is about to crash!” and other difficulties. But to say this sullied my experience in the slightest would be a lie. The point of the game was collaboration, and we got around all the snafus somehow.

Around 2 AM or so, it became apparent that we were going to complete all 100 stories with more than enough time to spare. The stash of Red Bull was depleted and motivation was waning. Many of us used this opportunity to explore the centennial exhibition leisurely, without the pressure of trying to locate QR codes to scan or running back upstairs to get started on a writing task. I cannot stress enough how truly amazing some of the objects are, and any time I encountered a pair of people standing in front of a glass case, deep in conversation about Dickens or Kerouac or Bronte, I tried to eavesdrop a little (hi everyone, the creeper in the black and red dress, that was me!).

But even the exhibition took only so much time, and eventually, we had to get creative. I stumbled upon this lovely 3 AM yoga class, for example.


Around 4 AM, we decided it was time to play freeze tag. Which morphed into the impending-Rapture-appropriate zombie tag.


Seriously. I played tag in the New York Public Library in the middle of the night. I CANNOT GET OVER THIS.

One part of the game which lasted throughout the entire night was, as I mentioned in the last post which you all so carefully read I’m sure, finding a random person’s postcard from the future and trying to deliver it. For awhile, people would walk up and down the aisles screaming someone’s name, hoping for a response. That was how I managed to deliver my postcard – after yelling “MEGAN! MEGAN! MEGAN!” a few hundred times, someone finally responded.

Sometimes though, that didn’t exactly work. People starting posting in the Facebook group or on Twitter. “John, I have your future!” People walked around with signs. They put up notes in random places. I walked into our break room at one point to grab a snack, and I found a napkin lying on the food table with my name and a phone number. I texted it: “Hi, this is Arielle. You have my future!”

Ashley took this amazing picture of my postcard still in hiding in the library stacks. I know I don't typically put my last name here so if you didn't already know it, let's just all agree to not stalk me, okay? Okay. And now that you DO know it, friend me on Facebook!

When this postcard delivery shenaniganery was explained at the start of the night, I saw it all going very, very badly. But in actuality, it added about 300 fun points to the game (the game contained a superfluous points system, so now I have one too). This was particularly true as the night wore on and people became desperate – someone FINALLY connecting with their note from the future would result in cheering and applause.

Technical difficulties and intense exhaustion aside, Find the Future was an experience that I wouldn’t have traded for anything. I met amazing people, wrote a few pieces that I really love (future post!), saw influential artifacts, read up on the past and thought about the future. I’m super grateful to the NYPL for hosting us in an event that not only allowed us, but FORCED us to break so many library rules (Running! Photography! Food! Drinks! Yelling!), to the brilliant Jane McGonigal, and to my 499 fellow players, even the ones I didn’t have the opportunity to meet. You can now find me in the NYPL’s online catalog as an AUTHOR. Boo. Ya. Ka. Sha.

We came. We saw. We wrote the book. =)

Adventures at the New York Public Library

In about 2 weeks, I am going to spend my Friday night at the New York Public Library, running around like a maniac trying to locate specific artifacts, a la From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Yet again I have spoiled a blog post by opening with the punchline. But seriously.

A month ago, my friend Britt sent me a link to this crazy game called Find the Future, hosted by the library in honor of their centennial. 500 people were being selected to run around the library in the middle of the night, using clues on their smartphones to locate 100 different objects and writing essays based on the prompts associated with those objects. By the time the game ends at 6 AM, the 500 people will collectively have written a book which will be available on library shelves. It sounded awesome, and I knew I couldn't move on with my life until my application was submitted.

When I got my acceptance email I pretty much died.

RUNNING AROUND THE NYPL OVERNIGHT! TELL ME THAT IS NOT THE BEST THING!!!

Okay, my inner (and outer) nerd are obviously excited. I'm pumped to play the game, to find out what kind of cool ish the library has within it (some examples are a draft copy of the Declaration of Independence and Charles Dickens' letter opener), to hopefully be inspired by the prompts to actually write something legit for the first time in too long, to meet other nerds, and...well I'm just excited for the whole thing, really.

Cool stuff like this doesn't typically happen to me so I am grateful and antsy and just SO ridiculously happy that I get to be a part of this, whatever it ends up being.

Hell yes.

Going daily deal crazy

I sort of thought everyone subscribed to as many daily deal sites as I do. Maybe I was wrong. Lacey asked me for a full list of the sites to which I subscribe. Here goes nothing. I am too lazy to provide links but you all know how to use the Google so if you want to subscribe for these, I have faith that you are all intelligent enough to figure it out. =)

- Groupon (duh)
- Living Social
- Buy With Me
- Zozi
- Tippr
- kgb deals
- InBundles
- Yelp Deals
- ScoutMob
- BloomSpot
- Town Hog
- Gilt City
- Zagat Deals (I didn't even know I was on this list but..there it is in my email)
- Eversave
- Plum District

Err..that's a lot more than I thought. Oh, and don't forget Mamapedia, which I signed up for in order to buy a movie ticket deal, then unsubscribed from after all the ensuing deals were...for, well, moms.

I was also a member of Fab.com which was a deal site for gay men (um, they had $10 Lucky Burger meals for $.50!!), but they have since redone their design and I don't think they do daily deals anymore.

Though this makes it seem like I'm some kind of deal fiend, I don't actually purchase too many of them. I presently have exactly 11 outstanding deals that I need to use in the next year or so.

But Arielle, how do you keep track of all your deals? you ask.

My secret, dear friends, is a spreadsheet. Duh. If you learn one thing about me from this blog, learn that I have an Excel sheet for most of things in life. Remember when I wrote about how I kept a spreadsheet to keep track of my TV shows, but I thought it was crazy and I deleted it? Yup, I reinstated it. WHATEVER.

The point is, I have a spreadsheet listing all the deals I have outstanding, the site I bought them through (so I know how to retrieve them), and their expiration dates. They are listed in order of expiration date so I know which ones are the most pressing. I have yet to let a deal expire before I got the opportunity to use it.

Excel owns me. And so do Groupons. I of course use "Groupon" as a generic term for all daily deals, sort of like people say "kleenex" when they really mean "tissue."

I have a problem

But before I get to my problem, I'm going to briefly summarize the 2 blog posts that have been floating around in my head recently but that I never got around to actually writing in full:

1) If you're going to see the new Harry Potter movie, see it twice. For realz. I was able to pick up on so much more the second time.

2) I have a crush on my volleyball coach, Mark. (not his real name) (obviously his real name) He is tall and hot and foreign and I get excited whenever he comes over to tell me what mistakes I'm making. Also, one time we were playing a game and I took my place by the net and he was standing right opposite me on the other side of the net, and he was smiling as a residual from some conversation he had just ended with a teammate and then he directed his smile at me and I melted. Good story.

Okay, my problem.

Ever since I reformatted my computer a few months ago (lies, I had my more tech-savvy friend do it for me, whatevs), for some reason the album artwork for 2 of the Glee albums does not show up correctly on my iPod. This is weird because a) the artwork is correct in iTunes, and b) no other albums, to my knowledge anyway, have mixed up artwork.

Glee volume 2, instead of the nice happy picture of all the Glee kids, shows up as Ben Kweller, Sundress. Which is cool, I suppose. I'm down with Ben Kweller.

Glee volume 1, however, shows up as the album cover from Ashley Parker Angel. And this is simply not acceptable.

I listen to Glee songs quite often, which means this album artwork shows up frequently on my iPod. I have no qualms about accidentally displaying Ben Kweller but the world does not need to know that I have any Ashley Park Angel music (whatever, it's one song. So fun and upbeat! Let U Go! Yeah!).

I have no idea how to fix this. But seriously, um...how do I fix it? Ashley Park Angel is a secret between me and you guys and NO ONE ELSE. And no, I am not willing to delete my Ashley Parker Angel song in order to hope that it removes the album artwork from iTunes. Because...no.

Glee for all, take 2

We're well-rested and ready for Glee For All day 2!

10:49 AM: Our day so far has consisted of watching Dave move some stuff around while I play DJ. Update forthcoming when we actually get our Glee on.

10:59 AM: Starting the day off with MADONNA. Oh yes.

11:24 AM: Dave doesn't believe that Sue is actually singing during Vogue. Boo non-believers.

11:52 AM: Kristin Chenoweth is back! Yesssss. Does anyone else want to go to a roller rink? I do. Do those still exist?

12:25 PM: We have decided to make a drinking game out of Glee. Take a shot every time someone is creepily watching someone else. We'd get shwasted.

12:48 PM: Can't Touch This!! So adorable.

1:02 PM: Run Joey Run is the most awful thing to come out of Glee. I am not unhappy about the fact that they didn't include that song on any of the albums.

1:11 PM: Listening to Total Eclipse of the Heart makes me think of college when Crapface and I used to write out all the lyrics to this song on each other's whiteboards. No easy task, my friends. Quite time consuming. I miss college.

1:33 PM: I think I'm the only person who really likes Kurt singing Mellencamp. Sure it's not him but it sounds kickass.

2:33 PM: NPH practicing his one line in Les Mis ("Hooray!...Hooooorayyy!") has inspired Lacey and me to go through another round of being Pauly D. Oh yeeeeeah! T-shirt tiiiiiime!

3:00 PM: I absolutely adore this performance of Bad Romance.

3:20 PM: The Glee version of Poker Face has seriously grown on me. Also, it is sort of freakish how much Lea and Idina actually really look like each other. How conveeeenient.

4:22 PM: We took a break for Wendy's and are back with our final 2 episodes. HOME STRETCH.

4:37 PM: I want to cry for Rachel when she gets egged.

4:45 PM: LAST EPISODE! Ack.

5:04 PM: Between this week's episode of Project Runway and the last episode of Glee season 1, the last few days have been SO EMOTIONAL.

5:30 PM: IT'S OVER! What a long, strange trip it's been.

Glee For All Free-for-all, day 1

This weekend, Lacey and I decided to take on a challenge. Do you remember Harry Potter Festathon? Well this is like that, only..with Glee.

Introducing, the GLEE FOR ALL FREE FOR ALL! Twitter hashtag: Gleeforall

2 girls, 2 days, 15 hours of of Gleeful musical cheesy awesome goodness. Plus snacks, OMGLEE t-shirts, and a husband who is very tolerant of our nerd-dom.

1:31 PM: We have been experiencing technical difficulties with trying to get Gleeforall started.

1:42 PM: Sue's hair was totally longer in the beginning of the season. Almost feminine!

2:04 PM: Glee has changed a LOT in only one season. Lea Michele has lost a ton of weight and the little a cappella interludes are gone.

2:13 PM: Rachel is sort of creepy in early Glee. I mean, we all know she's always kind of annoying but here she's just frightening.

2:57 PM: Umm, Mr. Schue is singing Leaving On A Jet Plane. This did not happen on the televised version. What the eff.

3:19 PM: God I hate Terri AND her sister. Punch kick taser.

3:38 PM: Push It! How did this not inspire a sex riot but Britney Spears did? This is way dirtier.

4:01 PM: Acafellas!! YES.

4:10 PM: Sandy is wonderful. "Who is Josh Groban? KILL YOURSELF!"

4:24 PM: I'm saying it now. Mercedes is the only one who consistently makes all her songs as good as (or better than) the original. ALL OF THEM.

4:31 PM: I don't think I'd know who Josh Groban was if not for Glee. Is that a problem?

5:07 PM: More technical difficulties. WHY DOES NO ONE WANT US TO SUCCESSFULLY HAVE A GLEEFORALL MARATHON?

5:19 PM: Does anyone know what a "lime a loser" is? Why do they keep calling each other that?

5:33 PM: Lacey has determined that apparently they live in the town of Lima. Hence "Lima Loser." ENLIGHTENMENT ABOUNDS.

5:45 PM: I kind of want Puck and April to get together. He likes older women. Idea for best ever future episode? I think so.

5:50 PM: Oh, apparently they do and I forgot about it. Bwa ha ha.

6:15 PM: Lacey and I are having a rousing singalong to Somebody to Love. I don't understand why no one has given us a record deal.

6:16 PM: Arielle singing: "Day is donnnnnnne..." Lacey: "SHUT UP!" Arielle: ~horrified~ Lacey: "Oh...sorry not you."

7:58 PM: Lacey apparently cannot do the running man, though she won't show me to prove it. Friends for 22 years and I'm still learning new things about her.

8:03 PM: Yesss the Glee secret Jew joke!

8:06 PM: "We're a couple of good-looking Jews." If I ever date a Jewish guy I'm going to say this to him at least 6 times a day. I mean, hour.

8:13 PM: Will and Sue swing dancing? Definitely one of my favorite non-singing Glee moments.

8:53 PM: Wheels is by far my favorite episode. The bake sale, Sue's sister, Artie and Tina getting together, Defying Gravity, Proud Mary in wheelchairs. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

9:35 PM: Lacey and I are discussing how there's a lot of creepy activity in this show. Someone is always lurking in the shadows staring at someone else singing or otherwise giving someone the crazy stalker eye.

10:34 PM: Papa Don't Preach is way better than the song Quinn sings later on when she's so pregnant that she's about to pop.

11:21 PM: Will finds out that Terri isn't pregnant!! On the angry scale of 1 to 10, he is totally Incredible Hulk and yet he is still super sexy right now.

12:23 AM: I feel like I'm actually losing my mind. Lacey and I are quoting Pauly D: "Oh YEAAAAAH! T-shirt tiiiiiiiime!" Normal.

1:16 AM: We are tired. 14 episodes, time to call it a day.

Dropping that third grade knowledge

I am giving you all a grammar lesson. Remember when I taught you all how to use the STRIKE? This is like that, only...not.

The following is a general rule. Many of you will say, "Oh pish posh, Arielle. We don't do that silly thing." And I say: "YES YOU DO." Ready?

DO NOT USE MOTHERF'ING APOSTROPHES WHEN PLURALIZING THINGS.

See what I did there? "Things." Not "Thing's."

WHO TAUGHT YOU CRETINS TO DO THAT?

I realize that my grammar is far from perfect and you are more than welcome to hate over on this way if your pet peeve involves ending sentences with prepositions because I love doing that even though I know better.

Seriously, though. Why has the apostrophe managed to sneak its way into our plurals the way that "LOL" has snuck into the lexicons of wayyyy too many people my age. (P.S. if you are a dude who says "LOL," I will never date you. Truth.)

Here are some examples of how to properly pluralize:

Machete --> Machetes
Popsicle --> Popsicles
Mojito --> Mojitos
Deer --> Deer (tricky, that one!)

Do you see any apostrophes? NO YOU DO NOT.

The only time where it is maybe acceptable to use them is where it would otherwise be confusing.

Instead of...

I got straight As.

It is okay if you say...

I got straight A's.

One reason why this is okay is because you might get confused otherwise and be all, "Girlfriend, straight as what? First of all you don't know when to capitalize letters, and second of all you didn't finish your sentence."

You call me "Girlfriend" because you're sassy.

The other reason why this is okay is because Wikipedia says so.

Okay, everyone. You have been schooled. Go forth and make me happy.

Best email of the day

Anny sent me not one, but TWO hilarious emails recently. Here is today's:

Funny story that I know you will appreciate:

So my sister was telling me how her friend from BU is working with an intern from Brown. While at Brown, this intern had one of those huge lecture classes with a zillion people. Emma Watson was in the class and at one point, she answered a question correctly. Some (genius) classmate from the back yelled out, "Ten points for Gryffindor!" Emma was not amused. (But I was!)

I FREAKING LOVE THIS.

The end.

A whole new world

Every so often I try to write a post that conveys exactly how much I love business school and how useful I find it. I have never once felt satisfied in the success of my attempts, and I certainly don't expect better results now, but the more I try, maybe the closer I'll get. Or..maybe not.

It is often hard for me to remember how much I love my courses, particularly in light of the fact that I don't like the city I'm in OR the particular school I go to. But I love what I'm learning - specifically, I love the fact that every single day I find myself thinking things I wouldn't have thought before b-school, or understanding things I might not even have understood at this time last year. Here are just a few examples.

Sometime last semester, a nail salon opened up near me. I was pretty excited because I had been saying ever since I moved here that my area needed a nail salon. And, voila! Wish granted. I went there for a manicure and had a lovely experience, and I was happy to give them the business they clearly needed. A few weeks later, I went back, and my manicure was 2 dollars more. My business plan team had recently had a conversation with our professor about why it is not a wise strategy to set low prices to attract customers, and then raise prices once you have them. Seeing this in action, I was outraged, and have not gone back since.

I was texting with a friend a few weeks ago when he said something about his company stock options. A red flag went off in my head and I was all, "Dawg, there is no way you are important enough to have stock options." I replied that I was pretty sure he meant just regular stock, and not stock options, at which point he confessed that he had no idea what the difference was. I was pretty pleased with this hard evidence that I have actually retained SOMETHING that I learned over the last year and a half. B school WIN.

Our final example is from the other day, when I was watching TV and I saw a commercial for the CVS MinuteClinic. Have you people seen this? CVS is going to start having no-appointment-necessary clinics in some of their stores where people can come in and get checked out for minor things like sore throats and then get prescriptions written on the spot. For the record, I think this is an awesome idea, in theory. But as soon as the commercial ended my mind started racing with questions. Will they take insurance? If so, will they take people without insurance? Will this turn into a haven for the nation's healthcare-less to try and get a doctor to see them? Do they have a referral system for people who have more serious problems? Will this end up being more like the HourClinic? Policy issues aside, we in the lovely US of A have a shitstorm of a healthcare system in that there are bottlenecks all over hospitals that cause ridiculously long waits (as anyone who has ever gone to the ER yet not had a life-threatening emergency will tell you). How is CVS going to differentiate itself and not turn into another poorly run service?

Seriously, if anyone knows any details of the MinuteClinic, I really want to know.

Well, there you have it. I don't think I have any business junkies reading this so I probably bored the crap out of everyone. But personally, I think everyone and their mother should get an MBA because it will, for realz, change the way you look at...everything.

This snow post is better than your snow post

One of my favorite activities over the past week has been monitoring this crazy winter that the East coast has been having. Namely, I like to watch my DC friends flip out as if none of them have ever seen snow before, even though I know some of them grew up in NJ and went to college in MA which means BLIZZARDS ARE NOT NEW TO YOU (ahem, Greeny).

Going along with watching our nation's capital go into panic mode has been comparing DC's ridiculous snowfall to the uncharacteristic LACK of snow we've been having here in the Boston area. Every time DC gets a snowstorm, people are all "Oh don't worry, it's on it's way up to you, New England! It may not be snowing there now but MARK MY WORDS, IT WILL SNOW!"

And you know what? It hasn't, really. Over the weekend we got about 3 flakes, and even yesterday where schools were preemptively closed (including mine, KACHING) in preparation for the blizzard, it looks like we got about 2 inches. Maybe.

But the real point is, one of my favorite parts of SNOW DRAMA 2010 is hearing the ridiculous terminologies that the mid-Atlantic comes up with to describe what's going on. Snowmageddon! Snowpocalypse! And my personal favorite, snOMG!

It seems that Boston finally has its own answer to those.

You see, I was watching American Idol, which I normally don't do since I'm supposed to have class on Wednesday nights, and a commercial came on for the 10 o'clock news. And the reporter was saying something to the affect of:

"Schools were closed and there was no snow! Wtf happened here in Boston? We'll get you the INSIDE SCOOP on how these important school closure decisions are made!"

At the bottom of the screen, there was a one word tagline to describe the whole thing.

"S-Nope!"

Fucking genius.

If you think I didn't laugh raucously for about 5 full minutes...well...s-nope! You're wrong.

This is amazing

I am posting a video. I know that no one really watches the videos that other people post on their blogs, but for realz, you guys should watch this.

My prof showed this in one of my classes, which I am well aware is not exactly a ringing endorsement unless you're a business nerd like me. So I will not not talk about why this video is interesting from a perspective of India and China's ever-growing world superpower status, or from a perspective of the evolution of global management and why it is SO INTERESTING.

If you are even moderately interested in the internet, technology, social media, or, you know, LIFE ITSELF, you will find this to be a fascinating 5 minutes. It will arm you with fun little trivia factoids that everyone loves to have in their arsenal.

WATCH IT. NOW.

Harry Potter Festathon, Day 2

As if one day wasn't enough, it's time for the less intense but equally awesome day 2 of Harry Potter Festathon!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3RD
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
10:18 AM: The movie is starting. Lacey didn't even bother to get out of her pajamas. Though I'm wearing yesterday's tanktop and yoga pants, so I'm equally bumtastic.
10:24 AM: It's very nice of Dave to make us breakfast, but WHY DOES HE HAVE TO BE SO LOUD?!? Jeez.
10:25 AM: Uncle Vernon is mad gray! He's getting old, yo.
10:40 AM: We have paused the movie to listen to a friend's embarrassing story over the phone and to get breakfast.
11:02 AM: Dolores Umbridge makes me want to punch things.
11:36 AM: Harry and Cho are so cute! I kind of like them better than Harry and Ginny.
12:00 PM: Snape seems to be the only person who didn't get some kind of haircut over the course of the movies.
12:24 PM: Arielle, about one of the Death Eaters: "Who is that?" Lacey: "Um, Carrow...McGruber..." Arielle: "Dude there's no one named McGruber."
12:38 PM: These movies always end on a note of severe cheesiness and "friendship and love can save the world!"

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
12:41 PM: LAST MOVIE!
12:55 PM: I think I've seen this movie 4 or 5 times in the 6 months since it came out. Oy.
1:26 PM: YESSSS I got Lacey to do the Tim Tam Slam! Booyah.
1:35 PM: I want some butterbeer. I bet it's delicious.
2:00 PM: Ron is a cockblocker.
2:03 PM: No one ever wishes anyone else a Happy Chanukah in these movies. Are there no Jewish wizards?
2:10 PM: There is a Twitter debate going on about the possibility of Hermione being Jewish. I say nay.
2:59 PM: Things I want in my life: Felix Felicis, a Room of Requirement, and a Dumbledore-esque mentor.
3:08 PM: IT'S OVER!!!

That was pretty much the best thing I've ever done in life. Win win win.

Harry Potter Festathon, Day 1

The Setting: Da Bronx
The Nerds: Arielle and Lacey
The Task: Watch all 6 Harry Potter movies in 1 2 days
The Props: Wands, Harry Potter glasses, Slanket-robe, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a Marauder's Map, Sorting Hat, Golden Snitches, and much more
The Twitter Hashtag: harrypotterfestathon

Lacey's Day 1 liveblog is here. Pictures will be on Facebook in a few days.

Saturday, January 2nd
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
12:08 PM: LET THE GAMES BEGIN
12:10 PM: Old Dumbledore sucks. I mean, I'm sorry he died but I like the new guy better
12:17 PM: Daniel Radcliffe is so tiny! He doesn't look like the kind of guy who would grow up to show people his...other...wand. Mhmm.
12:21 PM: Lacey: "How big do you think what's his name (Hagrid) is in real life?" IMDB says: 6'1".
12:33 PM: Harry is wand shopping. We have wands too! Lacey's wand: Balsam wood with a hamster hair core. My wand: California Redwood with emu feather core.
12:45 PM: BABY RON IS SO CUTE! I want to hug him.
12:50 PM: Does anyone know what Draco Malfoy's real hair color is? No? Okay.
12:58 PM: I look over and Lacey is sitting with wand at the ready. "I'm ready to swish and flick."
1:02 PM: I LOVE TIM TAMS! Lacey refuses to do the Tim Tam Slam with her coffee.
1:13 PM: "It's leviOsa, not levioSA." Smartass.
1:26 PM: First Quidditch game! Lacey: "Should I throw the snitch across the room so it flies?" Arielle: "I was just about to do that."
2:18 PM: How awesome would it be to be able to put your hands on someone and have them collapse into a ball of dust and rocks? I can think of a few people I'd like to do that to.
2:25 PM: At the awarding of the House Cup, long after Lacey and I have determined that she would be in Hufflepuff and I would be in Ravenclaw. Lacey: "Hufflepuff kind of sucks."

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2:32 PM: On to the next!
2:50 PM: Lacey is still drinking the same coffee. It is definitely not hot anymore. Gross.
3:00 PM: My attention to HP2 wanes slightly for a few minutes as I try unsuccessfully to solve a puzzle on the back of a box of Nerds.
3:07 PM: Pulling mandrakes! We totally did this at the Harry Potter exhibit.
3:35 PM: Dobby is sort of like the Burger King king guy in that they both just kind of creepily show up in random places. Dislike.
4:18 PM: It's okay Ron, I wouldn't want to follow the spiders either. *shudder*
4:22 PM: This is why I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor. If I were surrounded by spiders I would explode and die.
4:33 PM: Lacey is reading the wikipedia entry on Hogwarts staff and reciting to me random facts.
4:37 PM: Gilderoy Lockhart is a douche.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
5:10 PM: Third movie, 5 hours in, still going strong.
5:34 PM: Lupin is pushing that chocolate on Harry like he gets a cut of the profits or something
5:48 PM: I think Draco Malfoy just called Buckbeak a chicken. Heh. Heheh.
5:52 PM: My bogart would take the shape of a butterfly. I hate butterflies. Lacey is unclear as to what her bogart would be.
6:04 PM: Draco's eyebrow raise move that he does sometimes is kind of sexy.
6:59 PM: How pimp would it be to have a time turner? I would do so much awesome shit.

7:20 PM: Break to order dinner and shmooze with Dave, who pretty much just got here but is leaving ASAP so as to escape the house of Nerd.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
7:43 PM: Aaaand we're back. With Chinese food on the way. Delicious.
7:48 PM: OMG ITS RPATTZ AHHHH. Cedric Diggory 4EVA! This is a Twilight-free event, friends.
8:06 PM: Food is here! Food that isn't Tostitos! Or Nerds! Or Tim Tams! Hooray!
8:36 PM: I feel good now that I'm a little less full of sugar and a little more full of MSG.
8:51 PM: We just paused the movie to watch a youtube video of a song called Pensieve Diggory. WHAT THE FUCK. People like this make me feel better about my level of nerdiness.
9:23 PM: I would so suck ass at the Triwizard Tournament.
9:28 PM: Dude these mermaids are MEAN. I promise you, we are not all angry kidnappers.
10:10 PM: Barty Crouch Jr.'s reptilian tongue flick is creepy. Is he part lizard? The world will never know.

10:21 PM: End of Day 1.

The Sing Off

Okay. I saw a Facebook update earlier today that the Beelzebubs, the all male a cappella group at Tufts that had that campus-wide level of popularity that the football team probably has at a normal school, were going to be on some show. And because I LOVE MY ALMA MATER TO DEATH, I wanted to support.

I turn on the show and find it's an a cappella reality show competition. Fine. I frankly haven't thought about a cappella at all since graduating because I didn't think anyone cared about a cappella outside of Northeast liberal arts colleges, but I will support my Jumbos in whatever they choose to do.

Now that the show is over, I have some opinions (shocking) and I NEED TO SHARE THEM.

Nota, the Puerto Rican dudes
- I had a problem with them but I don't remember what it was. So I guess it couldn't have been that bad.

The old dudes
- I hated HATED their version of Bon Jovi. It was high-pitched and peppy and totally not as rough and dirty as my Jersey man JBJ needs to be.
- I particularly hated this because their little bio clip was all about how rock and roll they are and how they're not even a cappella, they're a "vocal rock band" and blahdeeblah and then they cheesed it out more than anybody. Shameful.

The Jesus Freaks
- I don't even care what their real name is. All I need to hear is ChristiansJesusGod and I'm over it.
- I already forgot what song they sang (thanks, brain cells, for sticking with me) but I remember thinking that the soloist sounded like she was uncomfortable in the low register at the beginning.

The Mormons
- Again, they probably have a real name and I don't even care what it is.
- They sang Aretha. They didn't have the soul to pull it off. I mean, A for effort, but...no.
- Also, I can't get down with people who a) use the word "cuss" and b) are anti-cursing (sorry, "cussing"). I mean, no need to drop F bombs left and right, but, come on. Cursing is awesome when well-placed. SHIT. See? Awesome.

The Bubs
- GO TUFTS!
- Their theatrics were ca-razzy, but all the judges called them pitchy and I agree. But still, super adorable.
- JUMBOS 4LYFE

The Moms
- Seriously? An old lady group? They're even dressed like a bunch of nerds.
- The Moms redeemed themselves when they showed that they're going to be singing Rehab tomorrow. They have a sense of humor. Love it. Well, like it, at least.

The Socal Vocal Shmocals
- I think they were called the SoCals? Whatever.
- This group was the most talented in my opinion. However, in the clip before their performance, their requisite sob story was that some girl has acid reflux that sometimes affects her singing. Really? Who cares? Sometimes I get acid reflux from drinking too much vodka and it affects my ability to keep drinking. SOMEBODY CALL THE WAH-MBULANCE. (PS, you know who didn't need a sob story? THE BUBS).
- Also, don't compare yourself to Glee and then not compare yourself to Glee and then come out singing a Glee song that Glee sings infinitely better. GLEE OWNS YOU, SOCAL VOCAL.

The Crappy Ones
- The last group just sounded like garbage. How did they make it on this show?

I was going to talk about the judges, but...I need to stop. Big heart for Ben Folds, though.

Update: Thanks to Anna for this lovely comment via email: "I didn't like the acid reflux situation. And I love how she was like "this might be my last chance." What do you mean?? Can't you buy pepto at duane reade for 5 dolla?"

HAHA.

I'm going to like this show.

Seriously, do this

Okay, I had heard here and there about the Nestle Crunch hotline before, but when I read about it through a friend's Facebook status, I had to finally try it.

Seriously, do this. It's kind of adorable.

1) Call the Nestle Crunch hotline at 1-800-295-0051
2) When asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, don't press anything but wait a little bit.
3) Smile at the awesome
4) Press option 4
5) You can then go with any of the options. I personally went with option 7 (hilarious), and am too lazy to call back and try the other ones, but I bet they're all amazing. If you try them, let me know how it goes.

I love it when corporate people have a sense of humor =)

Nerd goals

Ever since I discovered that my roommate received the first 5 Harry Potter DVDs for her birthday, an idea has been brewing in my head. And I don't think it'll go away until I make it a reality.

My wonderful idea?

HARRY POTTER MOVIE MARATHON!

That's right. I am going to wake up early and watch ALL. FIVE. MOVIES. In one day. It's going to be glorious. I'm not sure when exactly this is going to happen, because I have to find a magical day where I have 14 or so free hours, but I'm thinking after all my final papers and powerpoints and presentations (oh my!) are done, I'm going to do it.

A lot of preparation has to go into this. I need to select the perfect cozy outfit, make sure my Slanket is up to the task, and select some delicious snacks.

I cannot wait. NERD. GASM. To the max.

Another thing I can't wait for? Thanksgiving! A weekend of family and my dog and yummy food and high school friends and maybe even putting a dent in that massive amount of schoolwork I have.