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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Grad School (sorta panicky) Blues



So I must be crazy because I thought writing my college application essays would take me around a month. It's been two months and I've only written four essays. I can't decide if I have a ridiculous amount of faith in my abilities or I've misjudged the time it takes to turn in graduate school applications. Well, ok, I know which one it is. These essays are hard.

For example, one school wants me to explain all my activities in about 100 characters are less. Including spaces. I've re-written it about five times because I'm absolutely terrified that it sounds like a very boring, bullet  list of things I've managed to to join and do. I still think it's a hacket job but the deadline is looming and I really can't justify writing it again and again.

And I haven't even started on teacher recommendations (that's tonight...and after that...I'll sit in the corner and cry).

What's really depressing (and to be honest, incredibly annoying) are these people on grad school messaging boards or business school messaging boards that leave messages along the lines of:

  • "oh? you only scored above that on the GMAT? Well, I did around 750 and I'm on Harvard's waiting list"
  • "Maybe you should consider taking the GMAT again...and hope to score 400 points higher"
  • "You still have a social life? Well..you're doing something wrong"
  • "All my essays are in, plus I'm working two full time jobs...what have you been doing with your time?"

Who are these people? I mean, I'm going to assume they are pretty smart (if those scores are true) but goodness...my eye twitches when I read their responses. There are nice people on the boards as well, and I did learn a lot (for instance, how I didn't actually want an MBA). 

Oh well, I'll get it together and hopefully get into a lovely school. Eek!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Oscar Night!

Well okay, the Oscars were last night. But I actually watched them, even the red carpet preview. I don't normally watch any of the award shows because I honestly forget when they come on. So to be honest, this was an accidental stumbling while changing channels.

The red carpet was alright. I watched the one with Tim Gunn so I missed the Ryan Seacrest and Sacha Baron Cohen dust up.

Jonah Hill brought his mom, which was incredibly sweet

The strangest red carpet moment was the interview with Prince Albert of Monaco (his wife Charlene), Bob Iger (the CEO of Disney) and his wife. The interviewer talked to Albert about his mother, Grace Kelly and then  asked Bob Iger how he knew Prince Albert. I'm guessing she had nothing else to ask them. 

Bridesmaids was nominated but didn't win. I liked Kristin Wigg's hair color (over the blonde in the movie), Melissa McCarthy was pretty funny during her skit with Billy Crystal and her Martin Scorsese drinking game with Rose Byrne made me crack up. 





Tina Fey and Michelle Williams wore a style of dress that baffles me. It's some mix of the 80s (with that skirt) and 50s (again...the skirted section. Tina Fey looked okay in it but I just couldn't love Michelle Williams version. 


Here's some other people there
Glenn Close
Jason Segel
 










Jennifer Lopez's dress is hard to capture in pictures. It looked much, much better in motion than it did when she stood still. I think it has everything to do with the fabric and the lines (and the way they hugged her body). And while Gwen actually wore a cape (and wore it well) on the red carpet, I hated her hair style. 





Harry Potter (the last film) didn't win in any of the three categories it was nominated in. I actually found it surprising that none of the movies have ever won considering all the innovations and character makeup or visual effects (trolls, goblins, witches/wizards, house elves, dragons...). Granted it was up against Hugo and that was an impressive movie.


The Artist won awards for best original score, best director, best actor and best picture. They said on TV that it was the first silent film nominated since 1928. And at the end, they even brought the puppy (Uggie) on stage. I'm super behind on movies and I haven't seen The Artist yet but I thought they gave lovely acceptance speeches (I could be biased because I do love a french accent). The (American) news mentioned this morning that Jean Dujardin dropped the F-bomb during his acceptance speech for best actor. My french is a bit rusty but I didn't hear that, I did hear him mention Polanski (eh) and cinnamon rolls (I don't blame him, they're delicious). 




Octavia Spencer won best supporting actress for The Help and Christopher Plummer won best supporting actor for Beginners. While Meryl Streep won best actress for The Iron Lady


Plummer


Streep

Spencer




Separation won for best foreign language film and the director, Asghar Farhadi, gave a very moving speech celebrating Iranian culture through the ages and noting that there has been some harsh and nasty words spoken  that are overshadowing Iranian culture. 

Robert Downy Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow did a cute skit in which Downy was  pretending to  film a live documentary. Paltrow quipped that a live documentary was called "the news". They then gave an award for best documentary to Undefeated. Emma Stone (with a foil performance by Ben Slitter) was adorable and hysterical. 



Best Live action short (The Shore) and best documentary short (Saving Face) look like wonderful movies actually. And the speeches given about Pakistan and Northern Irish violence were heartfelt. 

My absolute favorite part was Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis's skit. They walked in from the audience banging cymbals (and I think smashed them in front of Brad Pitt). It took me a hot second to recognize Esperanza Spalding; she sang a lovely version of "What a wonderful world" with a children's choir from California. 

Well, it's been  a super wordy post (sorry!). I'll link this last thing I found, which was a list of interesting Oscar/Acadamy Award facts. 


Sunday, February 26, 2012

Do you ever wonder

When you won't have to actually drive to work. Well...for those of us who can't afford a driver that is. Apparently it's quite possible and I'm super excited. I hate driving and here's why :

"Over 30,000 people a year are killed in car crashes, the majority of which are caused by human error. Computers may not be perfect, but they're almost certain to be far better than us."

 Anyways...I know how to link articles but I'm not sure about posting the articles in the blog post. Copy-write and all that...

Driverless Cars

Google's Driverless Cars

Nice huh?

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Organizing Junkie (The Amandas)

I have a total girl crush on this woman - Her name is Amanda, and she's an organizational DIVA.


And she does it all in heels and the cutest dresses you've ever seen (because you perform better when you're dressed for the part, in my honest opinion...well, and hers too).
look at those shoes!
She runs a company in Birmingham Alabama called  Clutter Prescription (I think at least? Or it might just be called The Amandas. I only caught a brief glimpse on the TV). That's right, she's a (really good and fancy) professional organizer.


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Lin-sanity


Have you heard of Jeremy Lin? He's a basketball player for the New York Knicks. And you know you've made it if I've heard of you (well, in sports at least). I couldn't begin to tell you if he was a decent basketball player but I do know he graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics.

I think some of the fascination with Jeremy Lin is because of his degree. I searched through google and had a hard time finding any list of NBA players that had a college degree (although apparently it's around 21%) . I did find numerous articles of how a majority of players go broke after their career because they mismanaged their money and then have nothing to fall back on. So I'm going to go out on a branch and assume if there are degrees, they aren't helping these guys out.

Some athletes I found with (some form of) degrees: Shaquille O'Neal, these guys (Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant), and Darrell Stuckey. I'm sure there's a ton more but that was just a quick google search.

Here's the stories I found, apparently this is an issue (although one look through my college teams degree choices would have told you that as well).



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

2012 Spring Colors

So as I was wandering around Target (I swear...I was only going for one thing) I passed by the magazine Vanity Fair and stopped dead. The colors were gorgeous.

The whole pull out continues the Hollywood vibe


Aesthetically, it's really stunning. I love every single one of those dresses! To be fair, Vanity Fair usually gets in trouble with this particular issue (The Hollywood issue) because it tends to be overwhelming "white" but I'm not going to comment on that at all.

When I got I flipped through and saw the Louis Vuitton adverts had the same color scheme. I was surprised because the last couple of cycles, their ads were much darker (gloomy and nature-y). See, here are the new ones with some of the old for comparison.




see..."nature-y"

Most of the time I could care less what the hottest colors are, the new fads, the haute couture leanings. I tend to wear the same wardrobe for the majority of the seasons because it's the south-it's hot, it's muggy, and wearing all black (for instance) would have people showing up on my doorstep with a bereavement casserole. I was tickled at the Spring 2012 fashions because the colors are the same colors as my closet. I freaking LOVE pastels and I own every shade of pink possible. 

Elie Saab's 2012 runway show was gorgeous as well, with such pretty colors (granted, I'm partial...look at that fabric! LOVE!)
what? you don't wear a wedding dress grocery shopping?
well, you're missing out


Unforgivably, no one gave Givenchy the heads up 
what the hell?


Jean Paul Gaultier went for the colors in the hair...or he has a cotton candy addiction. Not exactly sure which. 
oh dear...moldy cotton candy
Valentino had some pretty colors as well


I was feeling pretty fashion-competent after realizing my closet houses the correct colors until I saw this article...



What? Seriously...what? How? I haven't had overalls since a farmers party freshman year of college (don't judge me...I LOVE a themed party!). I guess I'm not going to do to well with this fashion icon status after all. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Manicure Meltdown

My manicures tend to only last about three days. It doesn't matter if I do them myself or have it done professionally. They just don't last.

Why I would love to have nails like this...





One day it would even be fun to go a little crazy and have a fun manicure last for a couple of days looking like this


But last night was the worst...my brand new, salon fabulous manicure chipped after ONE day. I was incredibly sad...maybe eventually I'll figure this out. 

Anyone have any tips? Other than wrapping my hands in bubble-wrap of course.



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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Do you ever wonder...

Have you ever wondered how these wildlife organizations move some of the bigger (and more dangerous) wild animals? No?! (well ok, I never had either).

But that is the lovely thing about the internet...you find out all sorts of things you didn't know that you wanted to know! For instance...here's how to move a rhinoceros away from poachers to a protected area.





Well obviously you have to sedate the poor guy (seriously...how many vets does it take?)




Then the rhino gets lifted by helicopter to it's new location



New (poacher free) home!


Pretty cool huh? 



P.S. On a more serious note---The poachers are after the rhino horns, which has led to the extinction of the black rhino in Vietnam. This particular rhino was being moved in South Africa by a combination of the South African government and the World Wildlife Fund.


Here's the article and some more links in case anyone wants to read more about it.
Rhinos get upside-down helicopter ride to safety
World Wildlife Fund

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