I got to ride a moped today! I didn't crash it, and I managed to take it all the way up to 16 mph! WHOA!
Yeah, the top speed is 26 mph, but I'm just going to ignore that for now. . . .

The confused and concerned looks from people passing by in their cars was also quite amusing.
This experience has re-instilled my love and longing for a Vespa!

Most hectic spring break EV-er

The spring break we get at UC Davis is literally four days. If you have a final on the last day. I don't know why they do this to us. I, however, have a final on one of the earlier dates, so my spring break is a WHOLE WEEK! Woo hoo!!

On the first day of break I'm getting a titanium post implanted into my jaw, then two days to recover and pack for Washington D. C., and then a trip to Rosarito, Mexico for two nights with the roomies, and then a day in between for the surgery follow-up, and then I fly out of LAX to D.C. for three months to work as an intern for CAL (Center for Applied Linguistics).

I don't know if anyone cares about all of these thrilling details, but I felt like sharing anyway And I guess it helps me organize everything in my head when I type it out.

And then TAHOE this weekend, and my parents coming to visit the weekend after that!!

There, now you know all of my plans. :)

Overheard in Cowtown

Overheard at the Coffee House by a very enthusiastic young gentleman sitting at the table next to us:

"It'll do your taxes AND flag down space ships!!!"

I will live the rest of my life wondering what this amazing contraption could be.

When is a "friend" a friend?

I've decided it's time to feel important and use titles for my posts. Thoughts sound much more meaningful and scholarly with titles.

So regarding the title of this post, don't worry, I'm not feeling bitter about a failed friendship or anything. I just wanted to post about a funny thing came to my attention today. I've always thought it was a little silly how Americans call everyone their "friend," whether it's someone they've known since they were in diapers or someone they just added on Facebook but have never spoken to.

I never really thought about how weird this aspect of our culture was until today, when I was working at the grill. I was telling one of the girls about my friend Alicia who sings with the a capella choir The Spokes, and the girl said, "Oh yeah, one of my friends is in that group too." But when I asked her who it was, she couldn't remember her friend's name! Come on now! We clearly use the term "friend" much to generally if we're using to describe people who's names we don't even know!

Anyway, I think we should find some kind of medial word like "acquaintance," except not that one because it sounds too much like a word you'd use during an interrogation by the police.

Oh, and one more totally unrelated musing. Today I read an article for my German Women and Films class by Susan Sontag about how modern sadomasochism is largely influenced by fascist principles and the military uniforms of the Nazis (black, leather, etc.) Eye opening, to say the least.

I saw the film Children of Men last night, and I have to say, GO SEE IT. It's one of the few movies I can think of where I had to cover my eyes for about half of it due to the violence, but I still really liked it. (I generally write off movies that have a death count of more than two people.)

The film takes place in the year 2027 at a time when the human race is dying out because women have become inexplicably infertile. It's a really interesting premise, and all the actors do a really good job. I didn't really like Clive Owen before I saw him in this, but now I've changed my mind. And Michael Caine steals every scene he's in; he was definitely my favorite character.

Children of Men is super thought-provoking, and I want other people to see it so that we can analyze it together!

Thanks to the traditional American love of suing, products have been exhibiting weirder and wackier warning labels. This one was awarded as the most wacky of the year.

PS: I just bought Abbey Road. V. nice. Only the second Beatle's CD I own! And I call myself a Beatles fan.

PPS: Sadly, apparently working out while listening to an iPod does not have the intended effect of making you eternally indefatiguable. Especially if you just sat around and ate all Christmas break. But it DOES inspire you to use big words that you've probably never used before.

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone's had a scrumtrellescent day (to borrow an adjective from the great Will Ferrell). At my house we made Nutella crepes for breakfast, opened presents, went to the grandparents for lasagne, opened more presents, then came home and relaxed. I FINALLY had the time to finish 100 Years of Solitude, a book I've been working on since Thanksgiving. I pretty much wanted to kill myself while I was reading it, but now that it's finished, in retrospect it wasn't actually that bad!

My family also watched a documentary today called Shakespeare Behind Bars. Has anyone heard of it? The film is about this program in a Kentucky prison where they inmates put on a production of a Shakespeare play. The documentary was amazing; most of the inmates in the production are in prison for murder, so the interpretations of Shakespeare are obviously given a new meaning when the prisoners perform and study it. The documentary also humanized prisoners in a way that I've never seen before.
This was one of the most powerful documentaries I've ever seen, so I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to watch something a little more edifying or enriching than the usual faire!

And the finals are Done! Sorry my posts have been so boring lately; it's mostly because I have been either stressed out or busy. But hooray for Christmas break! I'm gonna be in Davis for a few more days, but after that, I'll be home for the holidays!

The first theory is similar to the “no access” theory in that it assumes that the UG is “dead” by the time the adult begins to learn L2. The result of this is that the UG can no longer be utilized to gain an internal grammar at the adult L2 level. Knowledge of the grammar can still be derived from the L1, which contains aspects of the UG. However, because the UG has already been set, its parameters cannot be changed, and therefore if the core grammar of L1 and L2 differ, the new L2 grammar will not be initially learnable.


This is what I will be writing about ALL DAY today. I can't wait. AARGH! I hate putting off papers until the last day!!

GAAH! I forgot how much I hate research papers and the requisite endless stressful hours spent at the library that come with them.

I had my last African American Studies class today, and I was surprised at how sad I was that it was finished. I don't even know anyone in that class! The teacher was a great guy though, really relaxed and funny. I can't remember the last time I felt that way about a class. :/

PS-Veronica Mars is officially my favorite show on TV right now. That's right, it even tops Top Model! *gasp*

A couple nights ago I went to go hear a talk by Michael Pollen, the guy who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book that discusses the origins and makeup of what we eat. It was so interesting! I haven't read the book, but now I plan to, since he talked about a few of the topics that he discusses in the book. The main point was, we cannot keep eating the way we are, transporting food hundreds of thousands of miles before we can even buy it at the store--it just uses too much fuel and doesn't make sense!
Thus, it's really important to shop at a local farmer's market or co-op to support locally grown stuff, even if it's not organic. So yes.

This turned into a rather preachy article, but I really just wanted to make everyone aware of this interesting book and important topic!

OH MY GOD. I got back from Thanksgiving break and the temperature inside of our Davis house is below 50 degrees. And I can't figure out how to turn on the thermostat.
Therefore, I am huddling in my room next to the space heater. THANK GOD FOR SPACE HEATERS!!!!

PS-I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Mine was lovely.

PS: I am so excited about Thanksgiving! I get to see our new dog, Jinny, and I get to escape Davis for a whole 4 days!
If ONLY the difficult midterm on the following Monday didn't exist...so it goes.

This UCLA police attack news is crazy. I don't really know what to say; I would never have expected something like that to happen at UCLA of all the UC schools, but then again, the LAPD doesn't exactly have the best record around.
Regardless, sometimes I'm really glad about technology such as cell phone video cameras that let people everywhere see what happened, and make us more aware of what's actually going on.

I have become addicted to Buffy once again. Unfortunately, I only have one more season left before I've seen all the episodes.
But last night Friday night = 8 episodes of Buffy back-to-back. And what a joyous feeling it was!

I gave blood today. I have officially redeemed my status as a good person.

In other news, I'm sad that they're gonna build a Target in Davis. And of course that Schwarzenegger has been popularly elected YET AGAIN as governor. We Californians are a backward people!

Oh, and in other rather humorous news, I was doing my homework out on the quad today and a bird pooped on it. Luckily, my professor exteneded the due date later that day, so that I didn't have to turn in the smelly original. :D

I just changed my Facebook pic to some photoshopped nonsense on a SATURDAY night. Sometimes I feel such a loser.

I found this on Facebook. Rather amusing.

It has recently come to my attention that Justin Chambers, aka Alex from Grey's Anatomy, used to be a model for Calvin Klein.
HE IS SO HOTT!



My roomies Kaylan and Alicia don't agree with me; they think he's funny looking! So I'm posting this to get people on my side--it's not just me that thinks he's smokin' right? :) And yes, I just typed "smokin'."