Crazy Dogs

One thing I love about still being a student (and there are in fact a few things) is that I still get breaks. In fact, rather long breaks compared to my friends who actually have jobs. Now, I know that the days of break will be ending in a little over a year and will be greatly reduced next year, but they still exist.

And one of the great things about break is being able to come home and spend time with my family. This break I also got to spend time with my best friend, who happened to get enough time off to come back our cold, wintry state for a few days.

During these few days the topic of dogs came up on multiple occasions. But before I go on I must allude to a book that I gave my best friend a few years ago about best friends. One of the pages said something along the lines of "Best friends never call each other dogs ugly, even if they are." Now, when I gave this book to best friend I had to add the caveat that this was not true in our case... We both agree that her dog is insanely ugly.

Wendy, best friend's dog, used to be cute. In fact she was one of those cute puppies that local stations showed in order to get viewers to save them from... Anyways, she was cute enough that best friend and family decided to get her (in addition to the other dog they got a few years early from such a news spot).

However, as Wendy grew her cuteness began to wane. She used to be this all white puppy that kind of looked like a lab. But then the "chops" appeared, followed a little later by the coarsest hair I've ever seen on a dog. We've joked around that Wendy could probably win an ugly dog contest. But we love her nonetheless.

Well, over break best friend and her mom told me that Wendy had some interesting mannerisms when it came to dealing with loss. Shortly after their first dog passed away Wendy developed a limp of no known origin. The limb apparently comes back when best friend and her brother leave after breaks.

Izzy, the princess, begging for food

After hearing this story I began to reflect on my dog: Izzy. I think I've mentioned her before (and I think there's even puppy pictures somewhere on the blog). Izzy is Golden Retriever and is about 1 1/2 years old. She is a princess... which makes her fit right in with the other women in the family (aka mom and me, who are self professed as "high maintenance", but in a good way).

Izzy is also a little crazy. What it comes down to is that Izzy doesn't like to touch anything non-human. She's all about cuddling and licking your face and infringing on your personal space, but when it comes to anything else, she is the biggest baby.

Example, every morning after my mom wakes up Izzy comes and sleeps on my bed. However, my door is always closed to keep out the noise. Now, it's not completely closed, it's open just a crack. But Izzy will not just push the door open with her nose. No, she will stand looking at my door until I open it and let her in.

Another example: I'm pretty sure Izzy is afraid that things will fall on her. Whenever her toys roll close to furniture she stands and looks at it and then at us until we get the toy. God forbid it actually roll under the table or chair.

It's really quite amazing the little personalities that our pets can have.

Uses for Text books

The Curse of Ondine

There once was a beautiful water nymph named Ondine who fell in love with a mortal named Sir Lawrence. If Ondine was to ever marry Sir Lawrence she would begin to loose her immortality. However, this she was willing to do and the knight vowed to love Ondine with every waking breath.

Soon Ondine was carrying the knight's child, as as the child grew so her beauty began to fade. As the beauty that attracted Sir Lawrence began to fade, so did his love.

One day while roaming the estate Ondine found Sir Lawrence asleep in the hay... with another woman. Ondine's rage was fierce and she turned Sir Lawrence's vow of love against him... He should love her with every waking breath. However, if he fell asleep he would not breathe any more. Eventually the knight fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion and thus ended his own life by his own infidelity.

This is the German myth of Ondine.

I first came across it in the last unit at school, with a obscure reference to "Ondine's Curse" listed as a respiratory disorder*, with no further explanation. Curious I "wiki-ed" it to figure out what it was and came across a much shorter explanation of its origin.

Needless to say I thought it was pretty awesome and immediately shared it with a friend that I thought would find it interesting. He did and sent back the story of King Pandu.

I thought that would be the end of the story until it came up today.... randomly at family Christmas. I cannot remember the reasoning behind it but I somehow managed to interject something about Ondine. This was met by quizzical looks and a comment that I mispronounced the name (which came from my mother referencing a totally different mythological god of some sort). Luckily I had my iPhone and could prove them all wrong... but more importantly enlighten them.

But it does not end there. I mentioned yesterday that I have been watching some old Audrey Hepburn movies. Well, today I finished off the trio by watching Sabrina, which I absolutely adored. But I like to remain in the land of make-believe longer than the movies typically last... so I went on to the special features.

For Sabrina there is a little documentary about how the film came together.

And there it was: Ondine.

Apparently right after finishing up with Sabrina, Audrey Hepburn played Ondine in the stage adaptation by Jean Giraudoux, for which she won a Tony Award.

So random how so many different threads come together into one cloth.

*Ondine's Curse is a respiratory disorder (associated with sleep), in which the person only maintains regular respirations by consciously having to remember to breathe. It is also known as congenital central hypoventilation syndrome or primary alveolar hypoventilation.

Oh... Pretty.

I have a confession to make. I am extremely lazy and irresponsible, especially when not in school (and even when I am). During school I tend to put everything about the real world out of mind (i.e. laundry, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc) and either just study or entertain myself with music and movies (for example, I watched the entire series of SATC over the past few months, have an unhealthy addiction to buying new music before exams, and read the entire Twilight series in the course of a few months).

Once off from school I'm not much better. The strain of school makes me not want to do anything. Laundry goes home with me and sits waiting to be thrown in the laundry machine, I still haven't paid bills, and I like to sleep a little too much (I'm now blaming this on fragmented sleep due to the bed at home).

I do, however, find pretty pretty things to distract me (or things that I do out of feeling lost):

1. I bought 2 DVDs yesterday at Target, which actually turned out to be 4 movies (for like $20, how could I say no?). So, I've been watching movies:One of the movies was a 3 in 1 of classic Audrey Hepburn movies (what can I say, I'm a sucker for the classics). So mom and I watched Roman Holiday and I enjoyed Breakfast at Tiffany's all by myself. LOVE IT!
The other movie was Sense and Sensibility. Again, sucker for Jane Austen (and most romantic literature for that matter... I have Wuthering Heights in document form on my computer right now c/o the Gutenberg Project)

2. iPhone games... oops. I found one called Doctor Awesome and it was only 99 cents. How can you not be intrigued with a name like that?! It's pretty awesome (it takes the names from your contacts and admits them as patients). That and Guitar Rock Hero have given me hours of fun.

Other things distracting me:
3. My beautiful beautiful dog
4. The hot tub.... yes, a definite bonus of coming home
5. Robbin's Review of Pathology... lots and lots of questions that are feeding the guilt of not studying and not having done them during the semester. There also there to help keep the topics fresh so board prep isn't such a beast come spring. It's fun to read the questions to my mom and see what she thinks the answer might be (it's also helping me define terms more clearly and solidify concepts).

On that note... time for bed. Family Christmas tomorrow to get some sleep for (minus the whole insufficient sleep issue due to fragmented sleep and possible apnea due to allergies).

The Art of Cramming

**holy hella language warning (for those of you might find it offensive)

Red Label Productions, the people who brought you School of Zombies, released it's second production today!


Part One:


Part Two:



I know it will probably not be funny unless you know the people or are in school, but I thought I would still share it.

Just Because

Ooops.

more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

My friend and I submitted this to failblog... But it's too good to not share it with you all. It was taken while he was working at one of our city's museums.

Enter Controversy

Mike Huckabee and Jon Stewart on Gay Marriage.



So, I know I'm going to offend some people with this... but Jon Stewart totally won. He has some great points:

• If we went exactly by the Old Testament, polygamy would be okay; however, we realize that this is not right. Marriage has evolved.
• Religion is a more of a lifestyle choice than what gender you prefer, and religion is more protected by laws.
• It's a travesty that we've forced those who are gay to prove their points.
• While the "point of marriage" may be to train the next generation, loving gay families may be better than some of the dysfunctional heterosexual families - sexuality vs. attributes.

I'm going to throw this out there. I'm a Christian, and while the Bible does say that homosexuality is a sin, so is lying (and when it comes down to it they both end up with the same consequences without forgiveness). But that doesn't mean that I am against gay marriage. I have grown up around gay people all my life (one of the benefits of having a theatre director for a mother)... and they are amazing, loving individuals.

That being said, I think Jon Stewart is right when saying that a gay family does not mean less love or worse parenting. If anything, I think it might lead to better circumstances for some. Why?

Any heterosexual couple (married or not) can make little babies. They may not be ready for children and might not even be bringing children into good situations/ healthy emotional circumstances (read: no test required.... although that's something else all together that should be discussed). However, in order for a homosexual couple to raise children it usually involves adoption. And no sane adoption agency is going to place a child in an unhealthy or bad situation (read: test required).

I'm not saying that they're aren't healthy heterosexual relationship or unhealthy homosexual ones, I'm just saying that a gay family does not mean a worse outcome in the least.

But back to the main point of the gay rights movement. If any one of my friends found someone that they truly loved and wanted to make a commitment to for the rest of their lives, I commend that! Who are we to decide who someone can and cannot love. I know that love does not equal marriage, but please people. Let's rethink this and put yourself in their shoes for a few minutes.

Remember the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.


P.S. As I've told many people before, while I believe that Christianity is truth and try and live a life that shows such (and talk to those who are interested), I do not believe that it is in our right to determine what is law for society. Christians are not the only ones with a "strong sense of ethics", as put by some, and it is not wrong for different peoples ethics to be different than ours. Tension is the essence of everything, which I believe is due to the fall of man. This means that no one will ever have it right, as there is a disconnect from God due to sin.

P.P.S. Please feel free to comment, I will try and be nice to dissenting opinions (rather than replying with nasty comments). However, I might still respond.

I love the snow but hate the cold

Enter ramblings:

Mmmmh... Holidays! Yay pretty snow. Boo stupid roads and drivers...

On that note, my friend told me that Detroit has decided that they either ran out of salt or just don't have the money to buy it (what happened to the salt mines under the city, fools?!) so they will not be salting our roads this season.

Read: increasing debt because everyone will end up in the ER.... most of whom don't have insurance (thus costing everyone else)... Gotta love the universal health care at 3x the cost delivered via our amazing ERs though.

Anyways, we've been in class for a week and I have done nothing and will continue to do nothing today (and parts of tomorrow). I know this will back fire on me come the 18th, but I killed my brain in October and November. It needs the break.... and I am still attending class, so that counts for something, right?

This to look forward to:
1. WINE AND CHEESE HOLIDAY PARTY! A little tradition started last year and happening tonight! Everyone brings wine, we get a little buzzed and then head out to the Casino for some more fun. Bring on the debauchery (just kidding).

2. Break.... only 15 more days and I'm free for an entire 2+ weeks. So excited.

3. Spring Break... so far off but seriously going to be the hightlight of the year. It's the last official break that we all have off together. So a bunch of us are going on an amazing Caribbean cruise. Can we say excited?!

And now, I'm doing to read me some Breaking Dawn and listen to some Christmas music while drinking hot coffee.

Sorry bout the stream of consciousness, but it's all my brain can produce at the moment.