Wipe That Smile off Your Face!

This is one of my favorite cartoon scenes: CLICK 

It's when Daffy Duck tells Porky Pig to wipe his smile off--and so Porky does. lol!

My Favorite Happa Celebrities

A lot of people tend to have a fascination with happas. A happa is basically a person of half one race and half another. The typical combination my community thinks of as hapa is Japanese or any kind of Asian + any kind of white (it could be any combination though such as Korean and Chinese). The stereotype is that they are good-looking, which is often true in my opinion.

I realized recently that some of my favorite celebrities are hapa. Here's my current list:

(1) Kristin Kreuk (Canadian Chinese & Dutch actress from Smallville, Streetfighter, Eurotrip, Ben Hur, Edgemont, Partition, Chuck, & the upcoming show, Beauty & the Beast on the CW)

Photo source: Fanpop

(2) Lana McKissack (American Japanese & Irish Youtube celeb from her own channel, the first season of Internet Icon, a David Choi music video, etc. Singer, actress, vlogger, Youtuber.)

Photo source: IMDB

(3) Kina Grannis (American Japanese & European Youtube star/singer: Kina's channel...Interview on Ellen...Singing with David Choi)

Photo source: AOL Music Blog

(4) Chester See (American Filipino & ??? Youtube star/singer/actor: Chester's channel...also the host of Internet Icon

 

 

(5) Dean Cain (American Japanese & French Canadian, Irish, Welsh actor from Lois & Clark, Smallville, Beverly Hills, 90210, etc.)

Photo source: Geek Nation

Hisami, Hitomi, etc.

I've always found Japanese names that sound like English words to be pretty amusing. A guest reverend at my church once told a joke that went something like this:

Question: "What did the man say when he dropped his axe on his foot?"
Answer: "Ajinomoto."

Get it? Like "Aw, gee. No more toe." It's also a Japanese food seasoning company that makes things like MSG...not that that as anything to do with it.

My cousin and I used to say that "Hisami" sounds like "He saw me."

The other week, my other younger cousin was trying to tell me her middle name, but here's how our conversation went:

Cousin: "Hitomi."
Me: "Who told you?"
Cousin: "Hitomi!"
Me: "What did he tell you?"
Cousin: "Hitomi!"

Ohhh. And then I remembered her middle name and that I had been misunderstanding the entire time.

A Kinder's View of Princess Leia's Custume

There's no way this is going to be as funny as my experience seeing this little guy (picture an adorable blonde smaller-than-average kindergarten student) explain who Princess Leia was, but somehow he mentioned Jaba, and then he continued, saying that "Jaba has Princess Leia, who wears a swimsuit." Then he made swimming gestures with his hands. SO CUTE.

EWWW!!

I lead three kindergarten intervention groups every Thursday, and a bunch of things make me laugh (and almost cry--not in a good way), but this stood out from last week:

Girl: "It's because you love us!"
Me: "I do love you guys."
Boys: "EEWWWWW!"

Oh, sheesh, boys. Unfortunately, you will never grow up. Kidding. Guys are awesome.

Old and New Kids

Six-year-old: "Can you come to my house today and give me a birthday present?"

Oh, kids. I'm so happy I'm always around them! This year I'll be at elementary schools and a high school, so I'll have a bit more variety, although last year I was at elementary schools, a middle school, and a preschool. I guess I just love being in schools. I'm keeping a list of all of the schools at which I've done work, and it makes me happy.

I wish I could capture in words my exact experience of certain facial expressions and voices I've encountered with kids. Hilarious. Like these preschoolers' exclamations. Or every detail about this conversation. Or this one that made me burst out laughing uncontrollably when I probably should have immediately told him not to use that word. This "I love you" story is a classic in my brain too. I miss those kids SO much. If I'm ever sad, all I have to do is think about them.

Oops! I mean--

Hilarious when people say things they don't mean and end up being unintentionally offensive.

Example 1:
Brother: "I made that one mistake and I felt so bad...but I tried so hard!"
Me: "Nooobody cares."
[I was responding to the first part about him making one mistake]

Example 2:
Me: "If anyone wants some entertainment, be confused, or feel better about themselves, all they have to do is talk to me."
Blake: "Yep."

A Little Football?

I don't remember the exact words that the teacher was using, but here is the funniest thing I witnessed today at a school:

Teacher: "Jake said that they would watch a little football and then go home."
Kindergartner (thoroughly perplexed): "A little football?"

Someone was thinkin' a little bit too literally. LOL

Another Glee Quote

From "Blame it on the Alcohol"

Quinn: "There's a fair amount of the pot calling the kettle black right now."
Brittany: "That is so racist."

Funny Awkward Academics

It's fun poking fun at them. I like funny down-to-earth professors the best.

This one professor/researcher presented his research to members of my program and was awesome (personality-wise). At one point, he stepped back and bumped into a cabinet and said, "Excuse me" and then said, "What am I talking about?" when he realized he was talking to a cabinet. LOL

More Testing Fun

Today I was about to test a first grader. While I was trying to determine on which test booklet page he was on, this conversation occurred:

Boy: "When are we gonna start?"
Me: "Pretty soon. I'm trying to figure out where you are."
Boy (in a cute voice): "I'm right here!"

Post # 100!

Yep. This is my 100th post. Here's my kitty. She likes covering her face while she sleeps. She makes me happy...when she's not scratching me, of course. Wow...such elementary-level sentences.

The Only Funny Thing in My Psych 101 Textbook

This was from my junior year of undergrad (the Spring 2008 semester), but I wrote this down and forgot about it until just now:

"Sexual motivation was unaffected, although damaged to the cerebellum presumably would have made copulation awkward." - p. 20 of Research in Psychology: Methods and Design (4th Ed.)

*Note: Psych 101 = The only required upper division psych course at UCB...the dreaded stats class that really isn't so bad...it's just a pain.

*Note 2: Apparently I already quoted this HERE, but oh well.

Lea Michele

I love Lea Michele's (from Glee and Spring Awakening) voice and personality. I really like the top part of this dress too (the bottom was feathery):



Lea Michele and Charice singing "Telephone" on Glee HERE.

Laugh to Keep From Crying

Kinda dramatic title, but that's life as a grad student. lol

Seriously...I've been seeking sources of comfort and amusement to keep myself from going crazy from stress and exhaustion. Here's something funny that happened yesterday in stats lab about this scatterplot from a computer program made of data points in the shape of stars (pretty cool):

Teacher's assistant: "Now what do you notice about this scatterplot?"
Class (at the same time): "There are stars."

Yes. That is exactly the answer she was looking for. And the shape of the data points is so important. HAHA!!

*Note: You can also make the data points into hearts, triangles, etc.

I'll try to paste the scatterplot here someday.

Sugarland

I've gotten into country music lately because of my boyfriend. I've always thought it was okay and knew I could probably like it if I listened to it more, but I just never had the motivation to sit down and look up songs. Now I love hearing country on the radio! haha Anyway, today I heard Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue," which is a catchy song despite its irrelevance to my life (except for the being stuck on someone parts), on the radio today and listened to a bunch of her songs on Youtube. By the way, Captain Awesome (Devon = Ryan McPartlin from the TV show, Chuck) is one of the lead dudes in that music video.

I like this part from "Something More":

"Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create"

Me too.

This is a good video with good lyrics one too: "All I Want To Do" - you have no idea how much I want to just chill with Blake.

Adding to the Bucket List?

I think it'd be pretty neat to experience what Frances Mayes heard in Portugal:

"Some cousins of Ferdinand the Bull relax in the shade. They gleam like polished copper, and each wears a bell. All the sheep wear bells, too, and when we stop, little symphonies are playing all over the rolling countryside."
--A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller

Wouldn't that be cool to hear? There are so many little things like that that make life extra enjoyable. I want to learn more about random things like this!

There are plenty of sheep in the U.S. Anyone wanna go find some and attach bells to a few hundred of them? :P

So Grateful!

I know Thanksgiving is awhile away still, but I have to make a list of the things for which I've been thankful lately (in no particular order):

* Sweet, genuinely friendly people
* Warm water
* Detailed but still interesting (i.e., not boring) travel books like The Geography of Bliss and A Year in the World
* Blake!
* Streetlights
* Music
* Lotion
* The internet
* Air conditioners
* Hair ties
* Caring, supportive family
* Volleyball socks (when I'm not playing, they keep me so warm!)
* Access to plentiful, delicious food
* Amazing friends
* Vacuums

Kinda random...I know.

Overheard at Greek Fest

Have you heard of Overheard in New York? People can post interesting/funny/weird things they've overheard...in New York, of course. They also have an Overheard Everywhere.

Anyway, this is a random funny comment I overheard at Fresno's Greek Fest:

Man: "God I love a man in a skirt."

He was talking/joking about the men walking around in white skirts like these. Made Mom and me laugh.

Saawariya

Official movie site here.

Finished watching this last night. I love this movie's title, music, and actors (Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Salman Khan, and especially Rani Mukherjee). I also liked how the storyline and characters were far from perfect (I'm not as into dreamy happy movies anymore). It's not my favorite Indian movie, but I absolutely loved its visual displays of darkness and cool (blues, greens, purples, etc.) colors in general. The saris were gorgeous, and I liked the dancing. I do have to say that it was overly dramatic most of the time, but I guess that was the point.

Oh...and check out Ranbir Kapoor's almost-naked towel dance (Nicky showed me this scene awhile ago). My mom just laughed and walked away after a few seconds. I liked it because he's attractive and you rarely see guys' bodies in such a revealing, sexualized way. We talked an awful lot about how Indian movies reveal and hide the female body (and kisses!) in my Indian Cinema class. I miss taking classes like that one.