American Idol stuff

Prior to ripping off half of my face, I did watch American Idol, and I may have some stuff to say about that later. But it reminded me that I have uploaded a few performances from last week (just the ones I liked - I was lazy. And I have a few from last week's guys too, but I haven't uploaded them yet.)

• Katharine McPhee - Since I Fell For You by Ella Fitzgerald
• Kellie (or is it Kelly?) Pickler - How Far by Martina McBride
• Lisa Tucker - I Am Changing by Jennifer Holliday
• Mandisa - Never by Heart
• Melissa McGhee - When the Lights Go Down by Faith Hill
• Paris Bennett - Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight

You can find the mpeg files here: http://www.ramblestrip.com/downloads/ai/. After following that link, please right-click and "save as" to save my bandwidth, otherwise I may rip off half of YOUR face. Ha ha. That sounds a little harsh, doesn't it? I really am just kidding. About the ripping, not the right-clicking. Okay, I should go to bed now.

But wait! There's more! And I forgot about it until I checked that link up there!

There's also mpeg files of both versions of fake Clay Aiken that showed up throughout the auditions - the one who (badly) sang Measure of a Man, and the one with giant teeth who had to pee in the middle of the audition. And finally, the montage at the end of the auditions, set to Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" (downloadable from iTunes) is also there. Enjoy!

I've ripped off half of my face, y'all

Owwwwwwwww! Ow! Ow! Ow! Owwwwwwww!

Wait, we should go back in time about a half hour. Here's the thing. When you're taking Accutane and you're told not to use hair-removal wax, it's a good idea to listen and to abide by that advice. And you should also refrain from making matters worse - you should run away screaming when someone suggests using an extra-strength wax that is supposed to be used on things like arms and legs to get rid of hair on your oh-so-delicate face.

So I've stupidly (yet cleanly, I must say) removed the outer layer of skin from part of my face. I look fabulous, and by fabulous I mean hideous. And I thought it was impossible for me to look more repulsive than I already do. Ugh. I would post a picture of my hideousness, but I don't have my digital camera with me. So, here's a reasonable likeness:

And a before shot, just for comparison:

I think that's all I've got today. Except one more "ow", because that REALLY hurt.

"Bless his little heart"

I don't want to let another day go by without acknowledging the death of Don Knotts - my favorite West Virginian. Well, aside from people I actually know, of course.

I was really sad to hear the news of his passing - several generations of my family have done a lot of chuckling (and chortling, with the occasional guffaw) at Barney's antics. And I don't know what else to say without sounding like a cheeseball, so - RIP.

Sometimes ...

... I worry that I have too many Huey Lewis songs in my iTunes library. I mean, what does that say about me, really?

Oh and also, I finished my mini-semester - 7 weeks of neuroscience behind me. Woo-freaking-hoo. Well, if I got the required grade on my final exam, that is. Which I think I did. I hope. So I feel totally drained and I've spent the weekend sleeping - except when I was at church, or out to eat with Scott. My brain is still recuperating, so I'll come back and say something entertaining later. Watch this space.

On dreams - Bo Bice with sparkly hair and people I don't normally fight with

Last night, I dreamed that Bo Bice was on the Today show, and he unfortunately had all kinds of sparkly hair. And my unconscious self was all, "Bo! WHY??? Step away from the glitter hairspray, my friend!"

Weird.

Speaking of dreams, I have this recurring dream that I'm fighting with someone that I know, but that I never fight with. Whazzat mean? Anyone? Anyone?

And finally, in keeping with the randomness of this post (not the "fandomness", which is what I typed first) how about a list of songs in my iTunes library with "dreams" in the title? "No thank you," you say? Oh well, who cares what you think.

• (I Wish I Was) Still in Your Dreams - Conway Twitty
• All I Have to Do Is Dream - The Everly Brothers
• Big Dreams in a Small Town - Restless Heart
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams (clean) - Green Day
• California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas
• Dancy's Dream - Restless Heart
• Daydream Believer - The Monkees
• Daydreams About Night Things - Ronnie Milsap
• Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
• Don't Fall in Love With a Dreamer - Kenny Rogers
• Dream a Little Dream of Me - Ella Fitzgerald
• Dream Lover - Mariah Carey
• Dream On - Aerosmith
• Dream Walkin' - Toby Keith
• Dream Weaver - Gary Wright
• Dreamgirl - Dave Matthews Band
• Dreaming My Dreams With You - Waylon Jennings
• Dreaming With My Eyes Open - Clay Walker
• Dreams - The Cranberries
• Dreams - Van Halen
• Dreamtime - Daryl Hall
• Drift off to Dream - Travis Tritt
• Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car - Billy Ocean (we actually have a clogging routine to this, heh)
• I've Got Dreams to Remember - Otis Redding
• I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman
• In A Dream - Badlands
• In My Dreams - REO Speedwagon
• Maggie's Dream - Don Williams
• Never Had a Dream Come True - S Club 7
• Only in My Dreams - Debbie Gibson
• River of Dreams - Billy Joel
• Runnin' Down a Dream - Tom Petty
• Shattered Dreams - Johnny Hates Jazz
• Someone Else's Dream - Faith Hill
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
• These Dreams - Heart
• When I Dream - Crystal Gayle
• You Can Dream of Me - Steve Wariner
• You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates

And finally, I don't like it when the congregation applauds TV preachers. That is all.

Random statements about Jack Bauer - which are funnier than the Chuck Norris statements. Yep.

A couple of months ago I found a list of random Chuck Norris statements, but now, I've come across a similar list of Jack Bauer statements, which are better. Obviously. And I should be studying, but I wanted to post these, if for no other reason than to make Ryan cry. :-)

• If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.
• Jack Bauer is the 'i' in team.
• If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12". (ha)
• Nobody says 'hit me' when Jack Bauer deals Blackjack.
• Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.
• When Kim Bauer lost her virginity, Jack Bauer found it and put it back.
• If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.
• Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
• Jack Bauer's calender goes from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Jack Bauer.
• Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.
• It's no use crying over spilt milk ... unless that was Jack Bauer's milk. Oh, you are so screwed.
• 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.
• When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer hates lemonade.
• If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef ... then it's beef.
• Let's get one thing straight - the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.
• Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
• Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.
• Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.
• Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.
• Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.
• On a high school math test, Jack Bauer put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Jack Bauer solves all his problems with violence.
• Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.
• If Rosa Parks was in Jack Bauer's seat, she'd move to the back of the bus.
• If you're holding a gun to Jack Bauer's head, don't count to three before you shoot. Count to 10. That way, you get to live 7 seconds longer.
• Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.
• Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer".
• Jack Bauer removed the "Escape" button from his keyboard. Jack Bauer never needs to escape.
• If Jack Bauer misspells a word, your dictionary is wrong.
• When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.
• Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.
• When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.
• Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something, then you better do it.
• When President Palmer started doing Allstate commercials, it took him 43 takes before he could stop saying, "You're in good hands with Jack Bauer".
• Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.
• Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.
• When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.
• It is a known fact that when Time magazine awards "The Man of Year*", there is fine print on the bottom of the cover that says, " *besides Jack Bauer."
• In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What the heck have you done with your life?
• If Jack Bauer saw a terrorist reaching for a bomb to blow himself up, Jack would shoot the bomb first. Nobody steals a kill from Jack Bauer.
• Jack Bauer arm once wrestled Superman. The stipulations were the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants.
• Finding Nemo would have been vastly more exciting had Jack Bauer been looking for him.
• Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.
• When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.
• Men are ok with their wives fantasizing about Jack Bauer during sex; because they are doing the same thing.
• There are no such thing as lesbians, just women who have never met Jack Bauer.
• Despite being white, Jack Bauer was admitted into the Black Panthers not only for his amazing ability, but also because his name rhymes with "Black Power".
• You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.
• When Jack Bauer goes to the airport and the metal detector doesn't go off, security gives him a gun.
• Jack Bauer doesn't play the game SORRY. Jack Bauer apologizes to no one.
• Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.
• Due to Jack Bauer, no one looks forward to the weekend anymore, they look forward to the weekend being over, and watching 24 on Monday.
• What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.
• In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.
• If Jack Bauer was gay, his name would be Chuck Norris. (BURN!)
• There are three leading causes of death among terrorists. They are all Jack Bauer.
• There is the right way, the wrong way, and the Jack Bauer way. It's basically the right way, but faster with more deaths.
• In poker, Jack Bauer doesn't need to bluff. He looks at opponent, tells them to fold, and they do so. Always.

I would tell you where I found the link to the list, but then I'd have to kill you. That's all.

A year or so ago, I saw this picture of a bunny wearing a pancake as a hat, and I loved it - so cute and so random:

Anyway, I just read that Oolong, the rabbit, died in January. Awww. RIP Oolong, you and your breakfast-foods-turned-headwear made me smile.

Also, we have a stupid new test policy in my neuro class - it's a whole load of ridiculous and I may gripe about it later, if I'm still feeling annoyed. A blog is a wonderful thing, you know? I can gripe, I can share random information (like the death of a rabbit that you probably didn't know existed anyway), I can post pictures of my internal organs - because it's MY blog. I lurve it. And people read all of this, for some reason. I wonder - why DO y'all read all of this? I mean, I find my life rather mediocre, and I can't imagine that it's entertaining to someone else. Anyway. I would also be interested to know who I know in real life is a reader of my blog. (That sentence seems weird, but I can't figure out how to fix it.)

Okay, that is all.

It's not every day that a blogger shows you her pancreas, is it?

Since my pancreas (and to some degree, my procrastination) had sent my neuro grade spiraling into unacceptable territory, Monday's exam warranted a lot of praying, a friggin' huge amount of studying (well, huge for me) and all possible appendages crossed. Aaaaaaand ...

It worked out okay. My grade on the lecture exam was acceptable-ish (I wish I was doing better, but what are you gonna do when you're borderline stupid?) and I actually got an A on the lab exam. So YAY. Yay for God (Who is always good, but Who was particularly good during my lab exam!), yay for me, yay for Tamika and Onala, my official encouragers. And today was sunny, with two more minutes of daylight than yesterday, and I had a good lunch with a bunch of people and it was fun. (I won't go into the misheard discussion about pinnas.)

In conclusion, life is good today and I'm happy.

My pancreas is still evil, though. I had a CT scan last week to make sure there's not a cyst or something that's causing all of my pain (although I really think it's all of the stress that has it all riled up - medical school doesn't agree with chronic pancreatitis.) And the radiology guy made fun of my turnip-like veins, but then he gave me a CD of my scan. It's cool because I can scroll right through myself on my computer, see my aorta give off my hepatic artery and splenic artery, and then bifurcate into two common iliac arteries, all of that. I only know a wee bit of what I'm looking at - we had a little bit of imaging stuff during anatomy lab last semester, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Anyway, I THINK this is my pancreas (see previous statement about lack of expertise):

If you're smarter than me and know that that's not my pancreas, please comment and let me know. Because I'm going to blow that picture up to poster size and fling large objects at it regularly, and I'd hate to take out my rage on an innocent artery or something.

Okay, it's 11:14PM and I'm studying for tomorrow's 9AM neuroscience quiz. Here's my problem (well, my loudest problem.) The tenant above me in my apartment building is playing ridiculously loud music. It's so loud that I think I can tell what it is - I think she's played Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects three times in a row. And it's not like I live on a college campus - it's supposed to be a quiet building, with tenants who have real jobs and stuff - which is one of the reasons I picked this apartment. So I'm glad that I have a tragus and also another tragus (a tragus is the little flap in front of your ear hole (a.k.a. external acoustic meatus) and I don't know what the plural of "tragus" is, so there you go.) Anyway, I'm using my tragus and my other tragus to cover my external acoustic meatus and my other external acoustic meatus, because I'm trying to memorize all details about why it is that we don't spontaneously lose our balance and fall down.

And now, before I go back to my notes - what is the protocol for this, o ye long-time apartment dwellers? Advise, please. Do I go ask her to turn it down, or do I mention it to my landlord - what? Or, do I turn into Mr. Heckles and bang on my ceiling with a broom? Ugh. I hate confrontation. Okay, that is all.