ATTENTION!

Hey there. For whoever out there who reads my ramblings, take notice!

Let me start out with a brief story. When I came to Blogger to start a new blog, my initial thought for the URL was jenniferbates.blogspot.com. But it was taken, and so I used my common internet username JBtheeUnknown instead. Today I decided to find out who it was that was using my ideal Blogger URL, and to my embarrassment, it was myself! Apparently, I had signed up for a Blogger account way back in 2005 with the URL address of jenniferbates.blogspot.com. Hahaha. Silly me.

So anyways, since I would much rather use the one with my name in it for random reasons, I'm switching over. I've already imported all the blogs from this one onto that one, and it looks exactly the same. So the only change would be for YOU, my reader. Just note that it's now jenniferbates.blogspot.com instead of jbtheeunknown.blogspot.com.

KTHXBYE!

I'm a Druggie

I've been sick for the past week with who knows what. I've been having a sore throat, painful swallowing, and a cough. I finally decided to go to see a doctor today to find out what's going on. Apparently there's nothing really wrong with me. I might've had strep throat earlier last week, but it must've healed itself as my tonsils are only "mildy red" and not whatever they're supposed to be to indicate strep. I'm fine with coughing. I rarely get sick, so I can put up with some coughing every year or so. It's the painful swallowing that I don't like. It makes the entire front side of my neck tense up and hurt with every gulp.

Since I don't really know what's wrong with me, I've been taking a couple different medications to alleviate multiple symptoms. For my throat pain, I was taking Robitussin that had acetaminophen in it, until I ran out. Then I started taking cold and allergy Dimetapp because that was the only thing I had, and it helped a bit with my coughing. Then I remembered that I have this herbal Chinese sore throat syrup that tastes really good, so I started taking that, but it doesn't really seem to help. After seeing a doctor today, I went to Walgreen's and bought more Robitussin for cough (this one didn't have acetaminophen in it), and Children's Motrin for my throat pain. Yes, Children's [liquid] Motrin; because I'm a baby and I can't swallow pills like a normal adult being. Anyways, hopefully I'll get better soon. It's no fun being sick, and it's also no fun having to take these medications without getting them crossed in my system. They're already giving me elevated blood pressure, and I certainly don't need any complications such as death from heart attack. (Yeah it's not proven, but I believe it's possible. Drugs are unpredictable)

Music Monday

Alright guys, here they are. My favorite band of all time, Modest Mouse. I don't remember exactly when I first started listening to them, but I do know it was about 6 or 7 years ago. I saw their music video for Float On on TV. I thought it was weird. But I kept seeing it during commercial breaks, so it grew on me. And now they've earned the spot of being my all time favorite band. I have yet to see them live. When they come out with their next album, I will definitely try to catch one of their shows.

One of the things I like most about them is that they have really super mellow tracks like The World At Large which is one of my favorite tracks to listen to while I just lay down and close my eyes. But they also have fast paced tracks like Florida from their newest album. I also really like that it doesn't seem like they're trying really hard to come up with their music. I get the feeling that it just flows out of them, and is natural in that way.

Well, there you have it! Music Monday as I promised. Again, I apologize for missing last week's. I would love to say that won't happen again, but when finals roll around, nothing is guaranteed.

ETA: LOL at the shitstorm that is #amazonfail.

GAH

I'm sorry. I'm like the worst consistent blogger ever. I failed to do Music Monday on Monday and I also failed to do Favorite Lady Friday yesterday. Sorry sorry sorry. I'll get better. It's just these damn midterms that are ruining the month of April for me. BUT, I will have a Music Monday this Monday since I promised. And I should have time to do something mid-week. Everything will be back to normal on April 21st. Sorry again!

Music Monday

Hey y'all. Sorry, but I'm short on time and brain function [re: organic chemistry midterm] so there's no Music Monday this week. But I promise to do a good one next week. As a little hint, it's my all time favorite band ever. Those of you who know me well enough, you already know who it is.

To emphasize my state of mind even more, this is me normally.

And this is me on organic chem.

You get the picture.

Favorite Lady Friday

Anybody remember that movie Panic Room? Jodie Foster's daughter in the film? That was Kristen Stewart. I try to make that the movie I remember her from because that vampire movie was just so...so...utterly absurd. I mean I get why people would be obsessed about it, but I'd rather not take part.

The ONLY reason that I may consider watching the next couple movies in the series is to see Stewart, albeit I think her character is strangely one-dimensional. But let's talk about her in Panic Room. That movie is relatively old now, but it was her "breakout role", I would say. People may not know who the actress was, but people remember the daughter with the short hair in that movie. And then she grew long hair, got older, more professional, and did In the Land of Women which I wouldn't go see because I didn't want to see Seth Cohen's face being all Seth Cohen-y.

Now she is slated to play Joan Jett in a biopic of The Runaways, aptly titled The Runaways. I'm excited for that. We will probably finally get to see more of her actual acting chops rather than the awkward googly eyes and intense stares that go on between her and Pattinson's unsettling "I-can-see-through-you" face. Ugh. Creep-o.

Lecture Me Friend

I'll admit. I like to think that I'm mature beyond my years; that I know who I am. But really, who knows who they are anyways, or are 100% sure of themselves? If they say they are, they're probably lying to you. People don't have enough time to figure themselves out. We're too busy trying to understand what's going on around us, that we all forgot to learn about ourselves.

But that's what other people are for. I believe that by understanding, and experiencing other people, we get to understand and experience ourselves. They are after all, interacting with you. Besides learning directly about ourselves from ourself, the best thing is to learn about ourselves through the understanding of how others interact with ourselves. Get it? It's like getting so see oneself through the eyes of another, yet still, your own.

I like experiencing this. Having people tell me about myself, without actually telling me. It's pretty insightful, because oftentimes someone won't say directly to your face what they think or feel about you, but they will act in some manner towards or with you that gives you hints. In some ways, this could mean that having tons of friends is better than having a few great friends, because the more people you are interacting with, the more possibly varied responses to yourself you get whereas a few good friends will react to you the same way after a certain amount of time.

Meh. Anyways...I'd go a bit deeper, but you know, I like everyone else, am too busy to do such things.

Music Monday

Say hello to Rilo Kiley. [Yes, I do know that this picture is semi-similar to the group pic of Metric from last week's Music Monday, but that's how band pics go I suppose]. Back in the day when Grey's Anatomy was super popular, and I could keep track of all the neat songs they use, I discovered Rilo Kiley's Portions for Foxes which is cheery and smooth. Since then, I've listened to pretty much all of their songs. Their songs cover a wide range of sounds from the cheery Portions for Foxes to the grungier Money Maker (which when I first heard, thought it was Sleater Kinney). I like them so much, that their song Breakin' Up had the honor of being my first ever music ringtone, and it's still my favorite.

Also, I hear frontwoman/former child actor Jenny Lewis is going to be working on her second solo album, and the process filmed into a documentary.

I'm excited. Are you excited?

Favorite Lady Friday

Every Friday I'm going to make a post briefly profiling one of my favorite ladies. They will pretty much all be from the world of entertainment, but there may be one or two in the future that aren't.

I've been a fan of Tina Fey ever since I saw a clip of her and Amy Poehler playing sexy tennis. Then she did Mean Girls, 30 Rock, and the now infamous Sarah Palin impersonations on SNL. My favorite is 30 Rock where she plays Liz Lemon. And to save a long paragraph describing her character to you, here's a clip to cover all that for me.

And this only covers some of her best moments from the first season. The second and third are just as fantastic. Tina Fey's rise to stardom was super fast, and very much deserved. I can't wait until her next big project, whatever it may be. You go Tina Fey, you go.

Getting to Know You Impersonally

I got an IM today from some random screen name saying the following, "Hi, Billy Mays here with another fantastic coho". Are you kidding me? What the hell is this? Virus? Spam? Well, actually it's neither. It's actually a part of this grand project some group of people have put together called, Project Upstream. I'm not going to get into the details, but basically, they set up fish bots that somehow get your screen name from the internet, and then they connect you to someone else whose screen name they have. It's sort of like a blind date. All of a sudden, you're in an online conversation with someone you've never met and know nothing about. And that's the goal. Project Upstream is all about "promoting social ideals through the use of exciting new technology". It's all a bit too weird for me. Apparently, they get screen names from Livejournals, blogs, and other various social networking websites. I was just editing my Livejournal for the first time in 3 years, when I got the bot message. Anyways, I don't know what's up with this thing. Public feedback is mixed, with some people thinking it to be fun and interesting, and others thinking it to be a little too invasive. I personally favor the latter.

Calling Kobayashi

(Click to enlarge)

If you frequently browse the articles on Yahoo's homepage like I do, then you've heard of the Fifth Thirds Burger, also known as, a heart attack on a bun. This thing is HUGE. It's got about 1.5 pounds of ground beef, chili, nacho cheese, salsa, tortilla chips, lettuce, tomato, and what looks to be condiments slathered all about. And it's all packed (somehow) between two halves of an 8 inch wide bun.

So what's with all this talk about obesity rates on the rise? Cardiovascular disease? High cholesterol? Diabetes? I think eating something like this could cover all those pretty efficiently. Granted, there aren't very many people in the world who could even consume such a thing in one sitting, but why entice people by placing something like this in front of them? There are so many people out there who lack self control when it comes to eating. Which I believe is the reason why obesity exists in our society. Food is just everywhere. It's so easy to come by, and there's so much variety. It's hard to ignore it.

Humans need food to survive, but do we really need a Fifth Thirds Burger to survive?

Music Monday

Every Monday, I will feature an artist and/or song that I think people would like. This will creatively be called, Music Monday.

I've been listening to Metric ever since a friend of mine introduced me to them several years ago. The lead vocalist is Emily Haines. Her voice is sort of quirky and can be mesmerizing as well. Her accent is also pretty cute. Their newest album Fantasies is one of their best and begins with the track Help I'm Alive which is super catchy and is a great way to start off the rest of the album which is just as amazing. So if you've got some spare time, I really recommend you to check them out!

Fantasies out April 7th!

The Start of a Brand New Adventure

Hey guys. Welcome to my blog. If you know me already, great. If not, that's great too. You can get to know me. Anyways, as you may derive from the title, this blog will be my own random comments on things that go on in my life or things I observe and think are interesting. Pretty much everything is fair game. So this will be the only introductory post. I'm hoping to make a few posts a week. It will vary depending on how much time I have or don't have. Thanks, and enjoy!