Later gators!

It seems like it’s been AGES since I wrote something here! And you know what the quick-fix is for zero blog motivation? A new theme! I felt like my old theme had way too much stuff on it. Just stuff everywhere! And though the fancy Web 2.0 clickables seemed cool, it seemed like I was forgetting that blogging should be about the content, not about how many visitors and comments you get. That said, here’s my life thus far in reverse chronology:

Last weekend, I went to visit Jamie at her university! Jamie gave me a tour of her classes as well as her new dorm room. On Saturday, we “re-discovered” a cute little diner out in the middle of nowhere. It was a very small town (and a very conservative one), so Jamie and I felt like outsiders in a place where all the other customers were grandparents and their grandchildren. The food was okay (they burnt my sandwich) but the ice cream was awesome! Jamie tried the orange sherbet and I had the strawberries n’ cream. It was divine!

Later that evening, we met up with Jamie’s former roommate, Morgan, and went to Indianapolis for dinner. It was quite an adventure. After shopping, the plan was to go to a Mexican restaurant that Jamie had discovered online earlier that day. The restaurant had some great reviews and the website was impressive. When we finally arrived there around 9:30pm, we found that the restaurant was in the heart of, possibly, the worst side of town. All the surrounding buildings looked abandoned and shady and there was no one on the streets. Needless to say, we got out of there as soon as we could! We ended up eating dinner on the northern end of town at a Mexican restaurant located in Broadripple Village. The highlight of the night occurred afterward at a local hookah bar. Almost a year before, the three of us were in Broadripple and vowed that we would all try hookah for the first time together. According to Wikipedia, a hookah is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) instrument for smoking tobacco in which the smoke is cooled and filtered by passing through water. I’ve never smoked anything in my life, so I was a little nervous, but also really excited!

It actually turned out to be a lot of fun! If you’ve ever smelled incense before, then you know what what a hookah bar smells like. All the people there were very chill and there was a wide variety of people too! It was nothing like the shady crowd I had imagined. Also, smoking from a hookah isn’t as difficult as it seems.  I was worried that we would be coughing up lungs like the smoke-virgins we were, but smoking a hookah is pretty much breathing in flavored air. When you’ve savored the taste a bit, you breathe it out. Easy. All in all, we had a really good time.

On a different note, last week was my first week of fall semester! I’ve got a really good schedule this time around (Fridays off! Woo hoo!) and I’ve got some pretty interesting classes as well:

Monday & Wednesday

• Principles of Logic | 4:30pm-5:45pm
• Native American History | 6:00pm-7:15pm

Tuesday & Thursday

• General Geology | 9:00am-10:15am
• English Literature | 10:30am-11:45am
• Principles of Sociology | 12:00pm-1:15pm

Is that not an awesome schedule or what?! No more 1, 2, or 3 hour breaks! Yessss! I love college. I think I may have to dedicate a future post to how much I love it.

Finally, the week before last, my boyfriend, Mik,  came to visit all the way from England! We met last November on Omegle and became pen pals. Over time emails became instant messages, instant messages became phone calls, phone calls became Skype calls, and nine months later, we finally met in person! Talk about finding love in unexpected places, right? We visited an amusement park, went shopping, watched movies, and spent an entire day with Jamie at her lake cottage. While we were there, she used her photography magic and took some lovely photos of Mik and I:

Overall, it was a wonderful week and I miss him dearly! A long-distance and international relationship can be difficult at times, but he’s well worth it! I’m one lucky girl! ;D

Anyway, that’s all for now!

I’m currently in Ohio for the weekend, visiting my uncle and the rest of my family. It’s just a small gathering before the fall semester starts and we all have to go our separate ways again. My mother, grandpa, and I arrived here at about 11am and while we were waiting on my father and brother to arrive, my uncle said he had a special treat for my older brother and I.

Apparently, my uncle’s coworker’s friend works for the PGA (Professional Golfer’s Association) and through him, my uncle scored some tickets to the World Golf Championships–Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. Basically, the PGA selected the 50 best golfers from around the world to play in this tournament. I saw pro golfers from England, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Spain, and the United States. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I saw Tiger Woods. (He was already done playing when we got there, but I got to see him practice!) Now, I’m not much of a golf fan (it’s totally boring to watch on TV), but being at a professional tournament and seeing the players close-up was totally cool. I was literally an arm-length away from Swedish golfer, Alexander Noren. I would have taken oodles of pictures, but cameras and cell phones weren’t allowed past the entrance. Over the course of the day we bounced from course to course, ate lunch in the Championship Clubhouse, and got some gear from the gift shop.  My brother and I got a couple of tourney visors! So cute!

On a different note, I have spectacular news! I’ve got a new hostee, Eunjung! Stop by her blog and show her some love!

I love black licorice because it reminds of my childhood. One of my father’s favorite candies is Good & Plenty, which is essentially pink and white, candy-coated, black licorice. Every time my family and I piled into the car for a road trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, my father would always be sure to have a box of Good & Plenty handy and, of course, he’d always share. When I eat licorice, it feels just like going back to my little, 5-year-old self strapped in the backseat, looking out the passenger window with a handful of those pink and white candies melting in my hand. So thanks, Dad, for making me a black licorice fan!

NOTE:  Consuming excessive black licorice can be bad for your health! I only eat Twizzlers licorice, which only uses small amounts of licorice extract.

Anyway, nostalgia aside, I finished watching the film, Les Miserables today! I’ve often heard stellar reviews of the novel by Victor Hugo (It was my high school history teacher’s favorite book!) and I’m sure we’ve all heard the song “I Dreamed a Dream,” a song from the musical version,  at least once (Thanks, Susan Boyle!). However, I’ve always been wary of reading the book since it’s, like, THIS thick! *sticks thumb and and forefinger apart as far as they will go* So I  thought I’d try to watch the movie first, just to see if it would be worth the 1,000,000+ pages of reading. My final verdict:

It was FANTASTIC! I watched the 1998 version  with Liam Neeson as the main character, Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who seeks a peaceful life, but must constantly escape the clutches of the relentless police inspector, Javert. The film is on the longer side, a little over two hours, but it’s well worth it. As soon as I can find a copy of the book that divides the book into easy-to-swallow volumes, I’ll likely read it.

So, lovely readers, I ask:

Have you ever read/watched Les Miserables?

And, what was your favorite candy when you were growing up?

See, whenever an idea for a blog post comes to mind, I usually jot it down in my handy Moleskine notebook. On May 22nd, 2010, I wrote simply: “I don’t understand Tumblr!”

Before I made this blog, I gave Tumblr a shot… and hated it. But I now I finally get it.

Basically, Tumblr is a cross between WordPress and Twitter. You’re not limited by 140 characters, but your text/photo/link/audio/video posts are meant to be short and sweet. So it comes in handy when you want to post something longer than a tweet, but shorter than a blog post.

So, without further ado:

http://itsokidoki.tumblr.com/

At the moment I’m using it as a link-log of sorts. A place to share any cool, interesting things around the internet, but in the future, I’ll probably post photos and videos as well!

If you have a Tumblr, please give me a link! I’m looking for some awesome Tumblelogs to follow! :D

How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?

Fifty four. Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty-eight to bill for professional services.

From Lawyer Jokes and Cartoons

There are a lot of lawyer jokes out there and most of them accuse lawyers for being cold, heartless, manipulative, and greedy. And yet, a lawyer is what I aspire to be.

I didn’t always want to do this. Over the years I wanted to be a cashier, a nurse, an astronomer, a pilot, an editor, a codebreaker, and many other occupations. My decision to become a lawyer didn’t come until halfway of my senior year in high school, a little over a year ago. Before then, I was determined to work for a government agency, particularly the FBI. I was fascinated by the grim, yet romantic, life of an agent: taking on the big cases and bringing criminals to justice. There was a full-ride scholarship program sponsored by the FBI that I was planning to apply for, but when my father and I made a phone call to the program with questions, we found that what the FBI needed today might not be what they need tomorrow and that job security wasn’t guaranteed. I decided that the FBI wasn’t the place for me.

After the phone call, over lunch, my dad suggested I become a lawyer. By doing so, I’d be on the other side of the justice system: the courtroom. It was a possibility that had never occurred to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. I would have job security, I would work in a professional environment, and, best of all, I would be able to spend my college years studying something I absolutely love: English. Not too long afterward, a letter came in the mail offering me a half-tuition scholarship at a local university. It was like all the pieces came together and formed a clear-cut path to a bright future. I knew for certain that this is what I was meant to do.

Funny thing is, if you knew me in person, I’m probably the last person you’d ever think of being a lawyer. I watch cartoons and gush over cute things. I wear bright colors and see the world with an optimistic view. I’m nothing like the stern, severe women that most people conjure up when thinking of female lawyers. In fact, one of my goals is to break that stereotype. I want to be the attorney who knows all the paralegals, secretaries, and interns by name and remembers their birthdays. I want to be the attorney who makes muffins for everyone in the law firm. I want to prove that not all lawyers are callous snakes.

Being a lawyer is more than just proving something to the world, but also proving something to myself. I’ve always been fascinated by strong female characters in books and movies because that’s what I want to be. Right now I’m a very quiet and passive person. I want to change that. I want to become a powerhouse woman. A girl with gumption. Someone who takes the situation by the reins and makes her own endings. I want to be someone like Megyn Kelly. She works in journalism now, but she was once an attorney. She’s beautiful, intelligent, and kind, but when she gets into a debate, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

I know that the LSAT, law school, and the bar exam will be difficult. Even today, my law classes test my ability and push me to my limits. But I see it as a challenge. I know exactly where I want to be in life and I’m willing to handle anything this path throws at me. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right?

One more joke for the road:

What’s the difference between a lawyer and a pit bull?

Jewelry.

From Lawyer Jokes and Cartoons

Damn right.

I wish I could say I’ve been hella busy, but homework and Internet has occupied most of my time. And when I say Internet, I mean that I’ve been on Netflix watching every episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender online.

The whole series is neatly summarized by the narration at the beginning of every episode:

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four Nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.”

Before the movie came out, I was vaguely aware of Avatar’s existence. I had seen a couple episodes before and liked ‘em, but I never bothered getting into it. But when I heard a live-action movie was gonna be made, I was super-excited! And they casted Dev Patel as Prince Zuko! How cool! I really liked him in Slumdog Millionaire and I thought it would be awesome to see him as a fire-bending villain.  However, all my hopes were crushed when I saw the movie on opening day. The special effects and action sequences were spot-on, but those were the only good things about it. There was no character development and the plot made no sense. Also, the casting was really weird. For example, Prince Zuko, his dad, and his sister were all of Indian descent. But Zuko’s uncle was… Caucasian? I really had a hard time making myself believe the two characters were related by blood. Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with mixed-race families (I’m from one myself), but Zuko’s uncle really didn’t fit and neither did many of the other characters.

Anyway, I went home sad and disappointed and started watching the series via Netflix online to convince myself that it wasn’t the series that sucked, but Shyamalan’s poor rendition of it. Now I’m completely hooked and it scares me. Today while perusing Target with Jamie, I saw a Blue Spirit mask and seriously wanted it. It even came with the double-swords!

So, yeah. There’s my online confession of geekdom, but I’m sure you already figured that out anyway. ;D

NOTE: This post’s title is a creature in the Avatar world. Part moose, part saber-toothed tiger/lion. Coolest. Predator. Ever.