Crunchy Mustard

Yea. I didn’t think so.

The President of Iran - HIS EXCELLENCY - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke at my dear Columbia campus today. The spectacle was quite a site. Plus, I don’t think I could have loved President Bollinger’s opening speech anymore.

It’s all better told in photos. Want the words? Head over to the “Ahmadineblog” at the Columbia Daily Spectator which I helped set up.

You’re on Flickr Mahmoud: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larac/sets/72157602137862384/

Ok ladies… you’re probably the only ones with me on this one. But, how many times have you treated a stick of deodorant like it’s a piece of dynamite?

Deodorant has the power to ruin an outfit or even a night for that matter. (You know those lone white marks that seem to show up only after you’re very far away from any sort of cleaner.)

And yes, yes, there’s always that nifty trick of rubbing the same piece of fabric over the white spot of doom to make it rub off and disappear… but we know this doesn’t work on all fabrics.

So what measures do you take to prepare yourself against the dangers of deodorants? Put it on after you have your top all set? Buy the special “no white marks!” brand (we all know this is a scam.) Or my favorite: The cotton top shimmy.

As a side note for those of you that may follow my design company Blog What? Design, we are having major DNS issues with our new registrar. It’s a mess. So basically, it may be 36 hours before I get things worked out.

(P.S. Remind me never to go with a MASSIVE hosting/domain company again. And shout out to hostingmatters.com for the most amazing hosting EVER!)

Bouncing off Ryan’s earlier post about living with people you hate, here’s a snap shot of the sort of room I’ll be moving into next Monday.

Hip hip hooooray!

And the strange thing is, the only thing I’m worried is how I’m going to fit my 24″ Dell monitor into the desk.

Baby-crying contest in Tokyo

A baby, held by amateur sumo wrestler, cries loudly during a baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo April 28, 2007. Eighty-four babies born in 2006 took part in the event, which is held to pray for the babies’ health and growth. The winner of the contest is the baby who cries the loudest. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

P.S. Sorry for the slight hiatus! We’re all working a fantastic Ukrainian dance camp right now for 7-16 year olds. Fun fun! Blogging back next week! (And maybe photos too.)

As soon as I returned home from my two week dance workshop, my mom told me I had received my “first assignment from Barnard.” I didn’t even care if it was an assignment - I was just ecstatic to receive a package from the school of my dreams.

I took the contents out of the package, and picked up my “complimentary” copy of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Neatly pasted to the inside cover was a small message from Barnard offering me my first alumna novel. I’m sure it will be one of many.

I finished the book in about a week, easily… Besides the fact that I’m going to get to meet this amazing woman during orientation week and ask her about her life after I’ve read it, I don’t think I could have loved reading this book anymore. It was simply fantastic.

The Glass Castle is a memoir detailing the life and childhood of Jeannette Walls. A bit like Grapes of Wrath, yet written from the perspective of an extremely intelligent young girl and much more compelling, this book will draw so very many different emotions out of you. It was a fast-paced read; the plot never stopped rolling through Jeanette’s struggle against her ambitious (yet drunken father), the numerous faults of society she faced daily, and her attempt at growing up as an awkward child trying to set a place for herself in the world.

The fantastic bit about this memoir was the chapter in which Jeannette arrives in New York City and applies to Barnard. I couldn’t be more proud of my school.

So, if you need a summer read that will make you stay up until 4am because you can’t put the book down… I suggest The Glass Castle. I can’t wait to meet Ms. Walls, and I’ll be sure to fill you all in.

Breaking off from my last post about the death kitty, Oscar, I present to you a showcase of fantastic cat sites on the web. (An my own cute ones.)

First up: The Daily Kitten.
“The Daily Kitten publishes a new kitten picture every day at 3.07pm GMT, (10.07am EST). We hope you enjoy it.” And they really do. Like little kittens much? This site will have you “awwwing” for hours. Check out my submission from when Chikilini was a kitten.

Taking a turn towards the more hilarious, we have: Stuff on my Cat. Do you like to put stuff on your cat? So do we, show us some love and head over to our submissions page to find out how to send us a picture! … – Mario. This website is simply hilarious. There’s photos of cats with hoodies, cat’s with beers, cat’s with hats! Just check it out.

And finally, the more sinister: My Cat Hates You.
Started in 2000, we proudly present you the largest collection of sour-faced, indignant felines on the Internet. This website is equally hilarious. Check some kitties at their worst moments.

So which one would you submit your cat to?

UPDATE! I nearly forgot the fantastic I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?. This hilarious site features photos of cats and kittens in various situations with funny captions attached. You have to check it out.

Earlier this year in April, right after I was accepted to Barnard, I met up with Lindsey at the accepted students weekend there. We had a blast together, and found out that we both:

• Don’t see the logic in keeping an ultra-neat room.
• Enjoy performing (her: theater/Broadway, me: dance!)
• Are certainly outgoing and love the city (NYC) and all it has to offer.

So voila! A roommate match was born. We’ve been keeping in touch during the summer (of course we planned our room theme thank you) and we’ve both been keeping busy.

With the help of her boyfriend’s father, Lindsey and Alex both work at Playbill. But… this is no ordinary desk job! I present to you: Playbill: Video. The fantastic duo does a great job reporting on a variety of theatrical events along with their friend Noah. Check out their feature on Shakespeare in the Park and all of their extremely professional features. (They’re naturals.)

Hello folks! You should feel a little extra special today, as you’re reading the words of a Connected Ventures intern! Connected Ventures is the company behind the brains of sites like Vimeo, College Humor, Busted Tees, and a few others. So, to show my appreciation in being able to work among the youngest, most innovative web geeks out there, I’m going to tell you a bit about Vimeo!

So, unless you’re a human-being who hasn’t been living for the past year, you certainly know of YouTube. You may also know that whenever you need to find that random clip from Southpark, or that really funny bit from Stephen Colbert (hey, I like Comedy Central) you know to search for it on YouTube.

Vimeo’s a bit different. This video community focuses on the more personal edge of video-uploading. Here’s their pitch:

Use Vimeo to exchange videos with only the people you want to. We have a bunch of different privacy options so you can choose exactly who can see your videos, and others can do the same. When you join Vimeo, this page becomes your homepage and will fill up with your videos (and the videos you love).

The site is definitely a lot more private than YouTube, and it fosters a more creative environment (especially if you enjoy creating small movie-shorts.) They also use a great tagging system, like Last.fm. Each day they have new fun projects to participate in. To join, all you need to do is upload your video and tag it with the specific word they give. Example: “merightnow: Just grab a camera and film whatever you are doing right now!”

These mini projects are featured on the front page along with the latest video uploaded with that tag. It’s a really great way to get involved and be creative! So check Vimeo out

Oh, and on a final note, you may be thinking (probably not) “This girl’s got her own company! What does she need to work for free for?!” - I’m telling you people, clearly it’s just for the free lunches and the chance to work in this office. On a more serious note, I’ll be able to gain quite a bit of experience from working with the best WHILE keeping my company going at the same time.