What time is it? It's Vero-time!
(Break it down...)

Vero is, you know, Vero-y. The weather is beautiful. It's been in the seventies since Wednesday. A nice change.

Gabe is amazing. I miss him so much when I'm in Chicago. It is getting to the point where I can't really support him not cutting his hair anymore, though. I have to unclog the drain of the shower every day; it's not pleasant. Still, he's an amazing kid.

Sreya and David came with Jon and me to Busch Gardens on Friday. I love that place. I didn't ride a roller coaster until I was thirteen and my RAs at Columbia City Ballet picked me up and strapped me into one. Really, roller coasters just don't get much better than the Montu. The Sheikra is always worth the wait, but it's more of a thrill ride than a coaster. Jon didn't want to go on it, but relented in the end. I don't really blame him, I mean, it's horrifying. It's the tallest roller coaster in Florida and it has a 90 degree drop from that point. The climb up is the scariest part. The chains pull you at 47 degrees upwards two hundred feet, and you can see all of Tampa. It's pretty cool. Cool and terrifying. The last time I went on it, it still had a floor. Now of course, it is floorless. I have to admit though, I didn't notice a difference.

I am still trying to get into classes for next quarter. Anyone know of any random but cool classes I could pink slip into if I can't get into Intro to Cognitive Linguistics and the art survey class on the U of C campus?

Labels: Gabe, roller coasters, school, vero beach

...Apparently.

Jon looks like he is going to join the marines.

I am in Tennessee. It is full of Republicans. It's weird though, because they are all really smart and rich Republicans. In Vero, the dumber and poorer you are, the more conservative you are. Here, it seems to be the opposite. Either that, or I'm actually really dumb and poor and didn't realize it.

Florida tomorrow. Florida, are you even ready for the badassness that is me coming home? Probably not. Maybe, though, if Gabe has prepared you.

Jon cannot possibly be prepared to meet Magnolia. No, he's not. No, he didn't bring a gun. He's lying. Also, he wouldn't' shoot her. She's too cuddly. I wonder how she will greet me if I bring him along. Usually she yells at me for being gone and hits me on the forehead with her beak, but if I have a boy with me, maybe she will forgive me. Then again, Jon has no hair, so she probably won't like him.

That's all.

Labels: boys, magnolia, republicans, tennessee, vero beach

This is difficult to say, but I think I need to just put it out there. While Olivia and I were cleaning today, I was sweeping behind the TV, and I found a bag of dirt. A bag of dirt. Not like, a bag or mulch or soil or something you'd buy at Home Depot. No. A one-gallon Zip-lock bag about three quarters of the way full of dirt, even with little sticks and stuff in it, like somebody had just gone outside, scooped some into the bag, and then tossed it behind the TV.

Initially, I was pretty horrified.

But now, and for the past few hours, I (and Olivia as well) have been suffering from severe laughing fits. Every twenty minutes or so I just start giggling, and then I can't breathe, and then O asks me what's going on, and I just kind of sputter, "a fucking zip-lock....dirt...bag of dirt...why?"

It's kind of the question for our time, you know? Why is there a zip-lock bag of dirt behind the fridge?

Labels: bag of dirt, cleaning, olivia

Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

I have rediscovered an old addiction: CRYPTIC CROSSWORDS. They are truly amazing.

They are kind of like normal crossword puzzles, but way more confusing. They're also way more satisfying. Once you get a word, you are totally sure of it, no second guessing.

This entry will bore the hell out of most people, so feel free to just go to facebook now. But I know I have some friends who would just eat this stuff up. So, my nerdy nerdy friends, this is for you. (CoughSreyaJoeThomasWesleyNickCough)

This is how it works:

• Each clue has two parts.


• One part is the definition of the word. That part could be taken out and be the clue if it was a regular crossword.


• The second part is a wordplay. This is a phrase that signals an anagram, a homophone, a double meaning, a hidden word, a deletion, a container, a reversal, a charade, or other random wordplay things.


• You do not know where the division between the two parts is. You also don't know which part (first or second) is the definition and which is the wordplay.


• Some, if not most, clues involve multiple types of wordplay.


• You do know how many letters there are, denoted in parentheses at the end of the clue. You also know if there are multiple words, and how many letters are in each word. So if the answer was "doodle," it would say (6) at the end of the clue. If the answer was "doodle bug," it would say (6,3).

This is highly awesome.
Here are some examples from my trusty book of cryptics:

• Reach up at tangled skydiving apparatus (9)
  "Tangled" means it is an anagram of the words next to it. Notice that "reach up at" has nine letters. Rearrange them to get "parachute," defined by "skydiving apparatus." Anagram signals are usually words like "tangled," "confused," "mixed up," "disoriented," etc.


• Plumes in knife at her side (8)
  A word meaning "plumes" is "in" "knife at her side." Hidden in the phrase is "knife at her side" so the answer is "feathers."


• Kid keeps near this evening (7)
  A word that means "kid" will "keep" a word meaning "near." When put together, it will mean "this evening." Kid=Tot and Near=Nigh, so Tot keeps nigh = tonight. These signals are usually the same ones that could mean a hidden word (like above). Words like "keeps," "holds," "inside," "pens" etc.


• Anti-abortionist ate spread (11)
  Probably the most common form of wordplay is the charade. This means the answer is split into two words, neither of which has anything to do with the full word. (So, this will never be an easy wordplay for compound words.) In this case, another word for "anti-abortionist" is "pro-lifer," and "ate" is already given. Combine the words to get "proliferate," meaning spread. Sometimes charades will include words like "over," "on top of," "under," or "after" to indicate order.

This is only a very brief list of examples. Check out the Wikipedia page if you want to see more.

Meanwhile, if you are getting into this, want to help me out? I'm totally stuck on a few, and maybe you can see what I can't. I refuse to look at the answers, but I am not opposed to working with other people.

I can't get these, but I have some letters already. My thoughts are in italics:

1. Yell back, after second-rate actress Hamilton: "It doesn't lead to much." (5,5) _LI__ ALLEY
   So, "yell back" is lley, which makes the end of alley. I don't know how the a gets there (but I know it's there). The "after" means they lley goes at the end. What goes in the _LI__A spot?
   


2. Eight islands created by terrorist group (7) MA_E_R_
   I think the first part is "made" (=created) and the _R_ is a terrorist group, that together defines eight islands.
   


3. Battle instigator once again put the heat on (4,4) WAR_ O_E_
   War? Oven? Once again=re? I'm lost.
   


4. Jackie is born on ground (8) _O___S_N
   No clue about this one.
   


5. White noise spoiled piano pieces? (7) _B___E_
   Spoiled means something is an anagram, but I don't know what, since it has to have a "B" in it."
   


6. In recession, attract orphan (4) W___
   I keep thinking "wane" for "in recession," but I don't know how that could come from "attract orphan."
   


7. Skinny opening in grocery item (5) ____G
   I can't get "egg" out of my head. I am thinking that it is a word meaning skinny, with something that means "opening" inside the word "egg."
   


8. Expert's excellent speech (5) _R__E
   I think "speech" means this is a homophone. So, the word will mean "expert's," but it will sound like a word that means "excellent."
   


9. Greek god is concerned with shaved head (4) ___S
   I really want this to be Zeus, but it's not. So...I don't know. "Shaved head" probably means taking at least one letter off of "head." So..."ea?" _EAS? HE_S? AD_S? _ADS?
   


10. You ultimately hit one woman with a fat lip? (6) __AN_I
    This one pisses me off. The ? implies some sort of pun, like it would in a regular crossword. "Ultimately" probably means the last letter or two of either "you" or "hit," but fuck if I know. Maybe "one" is "I" like the Roman numeral?
    


11. Begged for leather endlessly (4) S__D
    This one seems straightforward enough. It should mean "begged for," and it should be a word that means "leather" without the ending.

Any help is gladly appreciated.

Labels: puzzles

I sleep too much. Way too much. Wake up, Natalie.

I am going home soon! I've never really been excited about going home, but I am right now. I'm only spending a few days in Vero, and Jon is coming with me. He will meet Gabe and Sreya, and maybe Shanna. And Napoleon. That is very important.

We're going to his parents' house first for Easter. That will be very fun, except for the whole I'm-a-Heathen thing. We'll try to ignore that. He's a heathen, too, whether or not his parents accept it.

Also, unrelated, I have to pink slip into my classes. The linguistics class I want says I can't add it because no more than 60% of it's students can be undergrad. The class isn't full, or even close. Just, not enough grad students want to take it. God damn. The other class is an art survey class that counts towards the core. Apparently the rule is that if you didn't pre-register for core classes, you have to pink slip. Damn damn damn.

So, we'll see about that.

Labels: boys, school, vero beach

I am taking a stand: no more ridiculous ballets. I mean, I don't mind if there is magic involved, or dancing flowers, or even pirates kidnapping whores. Whatever. I just take serious issue with whatever the fuck Petrushka is. Seriously.

I just watched the Bolshoi's production on youtube. Here is the synopsis:

There are some Russians at a fair. They are having fun and walking around for a good ten minutes. There is a police officer there. Then this wizard comes out and gives them a puppet show with three dolls: a clown (Petrushka), a ballerina, and a Moor. The show kind of involves dancing, but it only lasts like thirty seconds. Everybody seems to like the puppet show. Then it turns out the wizard is a bad guy, and he locks Petrushka up in his room. Petrushka is really sad and shakes is fists and makes sad faces for ten minutes. Then the wizards is like, "Shit, I'll put the ballerina in there." So he does, and Petrushka gets excited. Then the wizard is like, "Woops, I don't think so," and takes the ballerina out again. Then Petrushka is sad for another few minutes.

Meanwhile, the Moor is in his room with snakes and palm trees having some sort of fight with a coconut. The coconut is apparently outsmarting him though, for like six minutes. Then the wizard shoves in the ballerina, who marches around with a trumpet. The Moor sits down on the floor and claps. Petrushka breaks in, but then realizes that was a bad idea and the Moor chases him around with his machete and then kicks him out.

So yeah, the people at the fair are still having fun. Some wet nurses dance, then a guy brings a bear on, then this one guys has hooked himself two drunken gypsy ladies. Then the Moor chases Petrushka out of the puppet show and hacks him to death with his machete. Even after he's been hacked to death, he takes about two minutes to just lie there and twitch before he's really dead. Then the police officer gets mad at the wizard, but the wizard is like, "Dude, he's a puppet." Then everybody leaves and the ghost of Petrushka the clown puppet appears and gets mad. Then the wizard leaves and the ghost of Petrushka dies.



Really...what the fuck? There wasn't even any dancing.

Labels: ballet

I am done with AIM. I am really sick of it. From now on, I'm all google talk. Yeah, baby. That's the way I roll. nataliegenz@gmail.com

I was going to be decisive about something else, but I don't remember what.

I cleaned the kitchen today. I had to pull gross stuff out of the sink like four times. I am so proud of myself. Now the cabinet is full of glasses and the drawer is full of spoons. It's exciting. Also, we had a dinner party first week of this quarter (for reference, it is now end of tenth week) which involved cupcakes with homemade whipped cream topping. Of course, we made about 20 times as much whipped cream as we needed, so we put the extra in the fridge. I would like to say that I cleaned out the bowl today. Yes, today. Whatever, it's clean now.

Labels: cleaning, daily grind, google

...when nattily.org was popular? I swear, people used to love it. People read my blog, and they commented, and the askedNatalie, and they took quizzes, and they played Circle Game. I'm not sure what happened, but it's generally very sad.

Oh, I know what happened. I went to college.

So now I keep this up to date for mostly my own amusement. And I guess to appease my stalker. He likes to read my blog, and then pretend he hasn't, and then admit to it a few days later. I like to send him sly messages, and pretend like I don't think he's going to see them.

I at some point intended on writing movie and book reviews. Now that I watch about two movies a day and have nothing better to do than look at my own website, maybe I will start doing that.

Also, I think it's about time we just contacted ABT directly about getting music for Le Corsaire. We have two or three different versions of the music, but none of them have the happy pasha music or the fun time harem music that American Ballet Theatre uses. I have it bootlegged from the DVD, but that is not exactly something we can use in the show. Aside from it being highly illegal (I think), we can't exactly have applause coming from the speakers. We aren't quite that desperate. Does anyone know of a good music editing program that could take applause out of the tracks? I mean...not that we'd use it, since it's highly illegal.
I mean...yeah. Just to rehearse with, I guess. Or something.

Labels: ballet, boys, music, nattily

You know, I never have like, 4.3 or anything, so why the nattily.org version 1.0, 2.0 and everything? Oh well. This is 9.0 I guess. Or just 9. Maybe it's a significant digits thing. Maybe I should have paid attention to Mr. White in AP Chem.

Or maybe not.

This is not my favorite layout. It is one of my least favorite. I've been working on it for a while though, so it's pretty effective. I mean, I think I got all the bugs out. It took long enough.

But yeah, it's not terribly fun, even if it does work pretty well. It's also really girly, which is just hard for me to deal with. So, we'll see how long this lasts.

Labels: nattily

I've been really bummed out lately about my dreams. They suck. I mean, the eight babies dream was all right, but it was actually a lot scarier than it sounds. All my dreams have been scary lately. I wake up in a sweat three or four times a night. Sometimes I remember what they are about, but not always. I'm always terrified, though. Why? Aren't I a little old to be having nightmares?

Labels: dreams

Feeling the need to blog. But...I don't really have anything to say. So instead, I give you a list...of...I don't know, but it's a list.

1. I am limiting myself to one ballet class a week until everything is completely back on track. That means no two hour class before odalisque rehearsal. This is kind of nice, but also kind of shitty, since I really need to be warm for that, since it is too hard for me.

2. I need to sew some new pointe shoes. I also need to order some new pointe shoes.

3. I got really mad at my mom yesterday for something she'd done a long time ago, but then she sent me this really random email and I can't be mad at her anymore.

4. I think women are really primal when it comes to guys. Maybe men are that way about women, too, but I haven't really talked to any about this. But really, it seems that as soon as a girl becomes aware that she is looking at a heterosexual male, she considers whether he would be an acceptable mate and what sacrifices she would make in reproducing with him. This applies even when she is not remotely attracted to the guy. Usually it is an instantaneous "oh hell no," but sometimes it takes longer. I really mean this in a very monkeybrain way. Like, "What kind of babies would we make together?" I don't think guys think this way, but I swear I'm not the only girl who is conscious of herself doing it. I think a woman falls in love when she decides the sacrifices she is making (genetic ones, for her babies) are not as significant as the genetic benefits from her man. This is all really creepy, I know. But hey, I am creepy. Anyway, that's what I think.

5. I need to start reading a new book.

6. The Office comes back on next month. That's nice. I wish it was now though.

7. I have become a Mahjong solitaire BEAST.

8. I am meeting with a grad student today about working for her transcribing interviews. This means potential money. This makes me happy.

9. I really want to learn Flash. I mean, I know it kind of, but I want to learn it well enough to really use it effectively in my websites. Things feel snazzier when you use flash, you know?

10. I am not making any sacrifices when I am with Jon. Whether we're talking about creepy baby monkey instinct sacrifices or just happiness and feel good sacrifices, I'm not making any.

11. Well, there is that WoW thing.

12. Just kidding.

Labels: books, boys, job, lists, nattily, random, thoughts