Plugplugplugplugplug

The Best Part of Today #129:

Cross-blog...pollination? Dissemination? Infestation?

Not sure what the right word is, but my friend Sara has a youtube blog, and like the shamelessly self-plugging blogger/vloggers we are, we sometime mention each other's blogs in our own, like I am doing right now!

The link to the relevant post is found here, and you should subscribe to both her channel and the collab for which this video was made, Allmadeofawesome.

In her blog, Sara points out a parallel between Boos from Mario and Weeping Angels from Dr. Who, who both hide when you're facing them and then pop out all scary when your back is turned. I brought this up because I recently went to Anime Boston where I saw the best shirt!

I have also included the below Dr.Who-realted shirts purely for her benefit because she was supposed to be tagged in them but Facebook is a jerk who punches unicorns in gonads.

And now for something completely different.

The Best Part of Today #128:

A totally, wonderfully unexpected viewpoint.

Today could have been about the last day of classes or the overwhelming attendance at the LRR publication party, but instead it was a very intense conversation with my roommate about the nature of photography.

It all started when my roommate, an art major, showed me this website about Symmetrical Faces. She had been studying how models are often perceived as beautiful because they tend to have more symmetrical faces. However, when we each did the experiment to our own face, we though just the opposite.

As you can see here, we have an original photograph of my face on the left. Because photo formatting is hard, I'll just say the one that looks like I have my hair in a bun is made of two halves of the left side of face, and the one in which my hair looks down is made of two halves of the right side of my face.

Now because I was fascinated by this and wanted to do it to more people (but also so you couldn't make fun of just me) I did it to my sisters face as well. I couldn't get the sizes to quite work, but the bottom right is the original, the one next to it is the right side (with the bangs over her eyes), and the one above it is he left side (with the pointy hair).

So my roommate Alicia did one of these too, and we agreed that we all looked better unsymmetrical rather than unnaturally symmetrical. But here's where the intense conversation came in. I siad it's weird because these aren't even real photographs. Alicia said "What?!" and I said well no one took these pictures; they are completely artificial so they aren't photographs. Alicia found this extremely fascinating, being an art major. She believes that all photography altered or not, digitally created or produced in a darkroom, is just photography. And apparently all art students at uconn think so too. But I tend to create a distinction between a "photograph" and an "image," an image being a creative composition that did not occur naturally. Apparently, I think of photography as purely documentary because I believe that if you did not capture something with a camera, then it isn't a photograph. Because if you change what you actually saw through your lens and captured, whether by film or memory card, then it's artificial. Alicia said that she believes all "photographs" are "real."

All in all, we both had a very enlightening sort of mutual epiphany that what we think is the obvious truth is not always apparent to everyone else.

Any comments from art majors or not?

I don't have to explain my art to you, Warren.

The Best Part of Today #127:

Getting busted for art.

Best and worst, actually. A group of friends and I banded together to make sticky note art promoting the release of the literary journal we worked all semester to create, the Long River Review. Not only that, but we made this journal for a class, part of our grade for which comes from a "guerrilla art project." As you can see above, we've hit bus stops as well as buildings, windows, cars, walls, you name it. It has been going moderately well for the past few days, in areas where our installations weren't taken down.

At the very beginning of the semester, we were told by a veteran editor of the journal, half-jokingly (but only half) that it's better if you can get arrested. Naturally, we didn't get quite that far, but tonight our group was assembling similar installations like the one you see above when we were greeted by a building patrolman, who promptly told us to take them all down. And took our IDs, which ruled out the possibility of continuing our activities for the night.

But that doesn't mean it has to stop! Tomorrow (Thursday, April 28th) is the Release Party for issue 14 of the Long River Review and all are invited to the Co-Op at 6pm!

Another convert for the Racer ranks!

The Best Part of Today #126:

Turning a friend on to your favorite movie.

We all have favorite movies, or at least movies we really like (or if you don't like any movies, seek help). Like reading a well-thumbed book, watching your favorite movies over again, laughing and crying at all the parts you love that movie for is truly a wonderful experience that can be matched by few other things in this world. But converting a friend to having the same enthusiasm for the movie as you do derives a special pleasure. Even though in the long run it doesn't matter what other people care about your preferences, it's nice to be able to share your enjoyment with someone else.

I just succeeded minutes ago in having my roommate watch Speed Racer for the first time and she loved it, which the proverbial cherry on top of a great day today. Second only to the Lord of the Rings film series, Speed Racer is truly one best movies I have ever seen, and adding another friends to the posse of admirers of which I am a part is intensely gratifying.

Let's hear it for geeks (of all nationalities, shapes, sizes and flavors!)

Last week was kind of crazy. I was catching up on schoolwork after my 21st birthday consumed the weekend before, and I was trying to get ahead because I was going to AnimeBoston on Thursday. Needless to say, in order to achieve this, I needed every space second of time. But that's okay, because my weekend was so great that it can take up 4 days and be a two part BPoT.

The Best Part of Today #124 [Wednesday, Monday]:

Geekdom.

The Best Part of Today #125 [Thursday, Friday]:

aNiMe CoNvEnTiOnS.

Clearly these two are pretty closely related, but they are slightly different. I like to think of them as two sides of a venn diagram with a large shared middle section. Not all geeks like anime because there are varying degrees of geeky/nerdiness. (Geekdom and Nerdom are not even the same thing, but that's a discussion for a different day. They're more closely related than anime and geekiness are.) Anyway, the great thing about anime conventions (and comic conventions I'm assuming, though I've never been to one, and expect they are more firmly in the Geek side) have all kinds. There are people dressed up as characters from shows with japanese names you can pronounce and there are people dressed as Star Wars characters. There are Pokemon and there are Gundams. There are Kirbies, and there are shinigamis. Even if you don't know any anime, it's still cool to just sit and watch everyone pass in crazy, homemade costumes. Where else do you get to channel your love for awesome fictional shows? Where else can you go and know that every person there is a geek? Feel the love, people.

Bringing spring indoors

The Best Part of Today #123:

Fresh flowers.

I have heard some arguments from people that find flowers to be sad or wasteful because you cut them from growing outside, and they don't last very long, and you have to throw them out when they die. But really, they are there to be enjoyed and there is really nothing like have fresh flowers in your room, especially if it's raining and cloudy and cold outside and your room smells like spring. I myself have a wonderful bouquet of daffodils in my room and they smell just delightful. Daffodils always seem very special to me because they announce the coming of springtime, but they really aren't there for very long, so I want to enjoy them as along as possible.

As you can see, our plants have been growing

exponentially since they were potted in the

bigger pots. This picture was actually taken about a week and a half ago, and they gave grown even more since then. I would have taken a new picture, but the plants are currently at home but divided into yet more pots. Along with my fresh daffodils, I also received a new strawberry with some ripening strawberries! What a treat! I'm hoping our little strawberry plant (lower left) will some be as large and fruitful!

When the weather outside isn't frightful

The Best Part of Today #122:

Perfectly-timed weather.

Isn't it always the way that you're sitting inside at work or class, staring at the sunny blue sky, and then when you finally escape it starts to rain? This has happened to me before, but actually it isn't always the way of things. Today my first and and only class (in which we had a quiz scheduled) was cancelled, and it was pretty nice all day until I went back to my room and hunkered down to do work. After a little while I happened to look out the window notice that it was spattered with rain falling from a cloudy gray sky. I enjoyed that it wasn't the other way around for once.

Sometimes listening is just not enough

The Best Part of Today #121:

Discreet distractors.

It has reached that part of the semester at which point final projects and presentations are beginning to flood my classes. I had to observe upwards of 6 presentations just today and butt and brain both were starting to go numb. I firmly believe that I can do something else while to music or to someone speak. That is why, even though I love classical music, I generally avoid classical music concerts because I feel I need something else to do while listening, which is of course considered very rude. I used to play my gameboy at some of them when I was younger, and attracted many disapproving glares, and graduated to reading books. This is slightly more difficult when the concert hall is dark and it is difficult to see the pages, but it attracts fewer haughty stink-eyes.

This sort of thing is considered even more disrespectful in class, and something to the extent of diverting oneself with an electronic device, or even something non-electronic like a book, is absolutely unacceptable. I'd say doodling is pushing the envelope a little, as your professor may glare at you if he or she realizes you are not just taking dedicated notes. The perfect medium here is jewelry or other accoutrements that you can use to occupy yourself without looking distracted or distracting. For me, it was my relay for life anklet. I mentioned in an earlier post that I got a bracelet for donating a dollar to relay for life, to which I added a colored bead for each time I walked around the track. During class today I amused myself by pushing the beads around the bracelet into different formations and just back and forth, kind of like a mini abacus. Call me crazy, but it helped pass the time because it was better than just sitting and blankly staring at my classmates. No offense to their presentations and hard work and everything, but we all know that class presentations aren't really anyone's favorite things to sit through, so I'm sure you can all relate.

Things that also fall into this category are those fancy watches with spinning dials on the face, or rings with with moving parts. I myself have two rings that are fun to play with: one is a steampunky little thing with gears and a spinning hand kind of like a compass. The other is actually a miniature box with a little latch that my friends joke I could use to surreptitiously poison someone's drink. I was also wearing my fork bracelet today and resorted to taking that on and off occasionally.

Any other things you guys use to keep yourself politely occupied?

The best kind of book

The Best Part of Today #120:

Free books.

This is such a great thing that I was sure I had written about it before. Now that I'm over 100 posts its hard for me to keep track of everything I've listed as a BPoT, and I'm still not entirely sure I haven't said something along these lines before. But if I have, my defense in this case is that I'm not just talking about free books. I'm talking about free Advance Reading Copies! I always feel that these are so much more special than regular books because a) they're not for sale and b) they come out before the actual book. That means you're paying nothing to get a book before it has actually come out. What kind of crazy idea is that?! It also usually means--for me anyway--that I have met someone in the publishing world who has given me these books, which, in itself is a wonderful thing.

Today I received no less than 5 free advance reading copies from the head of bookselling at my college co-op because I was interviewing her for a class. That's a total of $85 worth of free books. One of them is even from my favorite publisher, Disney-Hyperion, which I am doing a project on tomorrow and now I have something cool to bring to add to my presentation. Nice.

Shut your eyes

The Best Part of Today #119:

Sleeping in.

In general, I'd say I'm a morning person. I usually far prefer the early morning to late night, depending on the context. But sometimes circumstances force me to stay up later than I'd later, and at those times it's nice when I'm able to sleep in a little bit and "catch up," so to sleep. Conversely, it's nice when nothing impedes from going to sleep a little on the early side.

Here to make your day

The Best Part of Today #118:

Hello good weather.

When the time has finally arrived to free your shoulders and your feet from long sleeves and closed-toed shoes, it's something to be celebrated. It means the temperature has risen enough for you not to hate the wind for ripping through your layers and chafing your ruddy

cheeks and nose but rather to welcome breezes ruffling your hair and cooling your sun-warmed face. It means you can carry ice cream and cold drinks outside without punishing your fingers. It means more time in your day because you aren't wasting putting jackets and scarves and gloves and hats on and off every you enter and exit a building.

Welcome back Spring, nice to see you again.

Cancer never sleeps, so these people don't either.

The Best Part of Today #117:

Relay For Life.

This a great thing, you guys. You see, I'd heard the name in passing before and I vaguely knew it was a cause meant to raise awareness and stuff, but I never really understood it. I got a crash course in it tonight, underdressed as I was in moccasins and sweatshirts (hey, I didn't know where we were going or what we'd be doing). My friend Sara took me on the luminary circuit, a pathway lined with paper lanterns (some with tea lights, some with glowsticks) that circled a green dotted with tents and tables, as she explained the whole cause to me.

You may already know this, but I think it's pretty cool. All day and night, teams have at least one person walking the luminary circuit, while the others either walk, sleep in the tent, or other activities to stay awake. Along the way we righted some of the paper bags that had fallen over (fortunately only the ones with glowsticks had been by the chilly wind, the tealights would have caused more of a problem.) After two circuits, I dug enough change out of my purse to buy a relay bracelet, a simple cord with a green bead tied at the end. Each consecutive round, I got a new bead. I walked 12 beads' worth until my feet protested walking on the flat sidewalk in my flat moccasins.

I'm glad I was able to make my small contribution to a greater cancer relief effort that until tonight I really knew very little about. I'm looking forward to this summer when Sara said she'll take me to another Relay and it'll be warm, even at 1 am, and I'll be prepared in walking shoes.

Film-related excitement

The Best Part of Today #116:

Accidental discoveries.

I always love when I stumble upon something really exciting completely by chance (the site stumbleupon doesn't count because its purpose is to broadcast interesting things, therefore it is not accidental). In my case, I am referring to finding out that there's a new Three Musketeers movie coming this year, and it doesn't look half bad. The facts that Logan Lerman is playing D'Artagnan and that Orlando Bloom is doing something else with his life besides playing wimps like Will Turner (he's playing the bad guy) wasn't lost on me.

This also led me to discover that Bloom is reprising Legolas (not a wimp, don't even try arguing with me) in The Hobbit, which is currently filming for release next year!!

Betcha never seen one of these!

The Best Part of Today #115:

Rare hydradil!

As you can see, this is in fact a three-headed daffodil, the horticultural cousin of the mythical Hydra.

Or it could be to normal, one headed daffodils what special four leaf clovers are t0 normal three leaf clovers.

Which do you prefer?

Bonus fatigue removers

The Best Part of Today #114:

Naps.

Naps, like hugs, are usually always good. You could take a nap anytime, but you might be missing something important: lecture material, study time, movie plot development, etc. That's why actually having time to curl and have no other obligations but get a little a more shut-eye is almost as good, if not equal to, the nap itself. Like BPoT #111, it's an instance when what you want and what you need are the same thing.

Never thought I'd say this

The Best Part of Today #113:

Sports.

I am not the biggest sports fan that has ever walked the earth or attended college. But the thing about sports that I like is that it tends not to be a solitary activity to participate in or to watch. People experience a camaraderie completely absent from their day to lives when they are united by sports losses and victories. The victories are more fun to watch, particularly when on a college campus.

I was going to participate in TOMS One Day, but now that my college campus has been utterly trashed, that may be more hazardous to my health than it would have originally been. If you're not in the middle of dangerous terrain (or if you're really brave (or careless)) you should do it too!!!

Home Sweet Home

Despite that being a cliche, I mean it very sincerely.

The Best Part of Today [and Thursday] #112:

Coming home when you're sick.

I was extremely ill. This is not an excuse, but the reason I did not post yesterday was that I was being picked up from school after my late class. By my mother. Who made me chicken soup. I am 20. No shame; that's why it's the best part of today. I am convinced that the reason I feel a million times better than yesterday (not 100% yet, but getting there) is that I slept in my own bed last night, and woke up to a home-made breakfast this morning, and had home made chicken soup for dinner. In bed. It's a luxury people, let me tell you.