I’m surprised Hallmark hasn’t grabbed on to this one yet…

“May the fourth be with you!”

Today is Star Wars Day.

Yes, you read that right.  A day has been specifically designated for celebrating the Star Wars franchise.

Don’t believe me?  Check it out on Wikipedia.  Also, according to Holiday Insights, the origin of the holiday began with a German mistranslation of the franchise catch phrase “May the force be with you” as “We are with you on May 4th.”

If some how you have lived at any point in the last 30+ years and not seen a single episode of the Star Wars saga, take some time today and honor the holiday by doing so.  I recommend combining your viewing with a drinking game to enhance your ability to forget Hayden Christensen’s horrible representation of Anakin and totally obliterate any memory at all of Jar Jar Binks.  Or better yet, just skip the “first” three (Episode I: The Phantom Menace,  Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) and stick with the original “middle” three (Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) which rocked a generation.  While Luke’s whining is a bit tedious at first, the original three are a “force” of culture you shouldn’t miss.  And, they have something for everyone; action, romance, and a star cast including a snarky, young, attractive Carrie Fisher for the guys in the house, a handsome, if arrogant, young Harrison Ford for the ladies, and “muppets” for the kiddies.

Don’t have time to watch the movies?  Check out Weird Al Yankovic’s “The Saga Begins,” or “Yoda.”  For a combined total of approximately 10 minutes you can get a good idea of what you’re missing, and enjoy a good Weird Al tune to boot.

Happy May 4th, and may the force be with you!

 

Well that was a nice surprise

So apparently that small fortune in textbooks I bought off Amazon entitled me to a credit for $3 in free music downloads.  I’m not a huge audiophile, but hey, free is free, and I wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

After thinking about how to redeem my whopping $3 credit, I finally decided on two songs I just had to have once I realized they were available.  First, I had to have Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, just because I love the opening :

“You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht. 

“Your hat strategically dipped below one eye, your scarf it was apricot.” 

I mean, not only do I love that powerful image it conveys, but seriously, what kind of song writing genius does it take to rhyme yacht with apricot?  Anyway, I’ve listened to it about a million times since then.

I also got myself the Gilmore Girls theme version of Carole King’s Where You Lead I Will Follow.  If you’re not a fan of Gilmore Girls, I just don’t know what to say to you.  But, if you also don’t like this song, or don’t think it’s fun and happy and gives you warm fuzzies, well you must be an alien.  In case you hadn’t already guessed, I loved the show, and we always had to tune in in time for the theme song so I could sing along (probably very badly) with remote standing in as a mic (looking like a huge dork no doubt).  Without a doubt, Gilmore Girls night was always the best night of the week, and singing that theme song was good times.  And, if you believe I’ve listened to You’re So Vain a million times, you can easily guess I’ve listened to Where You Lead about a billion.  It’s my new talisman +4 against feeling sad.

Can you burn out a track on your MP3 player?

It’s bananas I tell you, simply bananas

In chem lab today we made isopentyl acetate.  You might be familiar with it as au d’banana.   Chem prof was very pleased to constantly say how this is one of the better smelling labs.  However, by the time you’ve refluxed isopentyl acetate, separated it 3 times, dried it, distilled it, weighed it, and performed IR spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy on it, you get a little sick of it.

It’s kinda oily, and after the first two hours it felt like the oil had coated my nasal passages and my throat.  By the end of the nearly 4 hour lab, everyone was probably a little sick of the refrain I kept singing:

I’m Chiquita banana and I’ve come to say –
Bananas have to ripen in a certain way –
When they are fleck’d with brown and have a golden hue –
Bananas taste the best and are best for you!

And I decided I had definitely smelled enough bananas that I don’t figure I’ll have a taste for anything banana scented for quite some time.  Good thing I’m not a monkey.

Four banana, three banana, two bananas, one.
All bananas playing in the bright warm sun,
Flipping like a pancake, popping like a cork,
Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper and, Snork!
Making up a mess of fun,
Making up a mess of fun
Lots of fun for everyone!
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la

That that’s the only verse I can remember.  They got sick of that one, too.

Thursday Quote Du Jour #11: An oldie but a favorite

This is probably my most favorite quote ever.  I’ve used it on this blog before, but when I feel down like I have lately it does bring a smile to my face.  So, I figured it was a good day to revisit it.

 

I used to think that life was unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse, if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.

-Marcus, Babylon 5, A Late Delivery From Avalon

 

Hmn.  Off I go for another day in the rat race.

Janie rebels against homework: The wild and crazy days continue

So, it was glorious sleeping on clean bedding.  Because Rupert sheds like a beast, if I don’t keep up on changing the bedding (bedspread and blankets included), I end up choking myself awake on hairballs.  So I woke up the other morning to a crisp fall day, sans hairball.  Talk about living the high life.

Leif was already up, and watching the Robot Combat League.  He made us hash browns and eggs on toast and then I sat and watched the semi finals and the finals with him.  Strangely enough, it was quite fun.  Riveting, even.

And while I’m talking about shirking homework via television watching, WHAT THE HECK is up with season 3 of Downton Abbey?!?  Not to spoil it for any who haven’t seen, but kinda fixated on t he morbid aren’t they?

Now that I’ve seen the whole Robot Combat League, and we’ve watched all of Downton Abbey season 3, we are moving on to new favorites.  Miranda.  Such fun!

I cannot believe the restraint demonstrated

A little while back I ordered myself a present:  the first three seasons of Downton Abbey on DVD.  I found them online for just $30.  Yay!

They came in the mail yesterday, and I haven’t opened them yet!

I know!  I can’t believe it.

I also have a new chip and dip serving set, I’ve bought chips and dip, and so perhaps tonight I will make a party of breaking open season 3 and making a glutton of myself on junk food and quality BBC TV.  Sounds like fun.

A new quote du jour

In the dearth of better programming, Leif and I have been giving a try to the Netflix original series, Hemlock Grove.  It started out well enough to catch our interest, but I’m starting to think they have too much mystery and to many things going on that are going nowhere but toward soft core porn very quickly.  However, there was an interesting quote from one of the episodes we’ve recently seen that has stuck with me.

“God doesn’t want us to be happy.  He wants us to be strong.”

What a haunting idea.