Good morning, Good evening, Good new year to whoever; whenever and whereever you may be reading this entry. It may be 10 miles from me, 10 years from now, or 10,000 miles away 10,000 miliseconds after I post this.

:~:    This is for you    :~:

For years I've been hanging up the winter coat of web posting, in hopes for an endless summer of pure exploration; yet, I find myself here again placing words in order for you to take in (for whatever reason you wish to take them in).

My blog neglect was brought to my attention when a friend of mine expressed interest in reading my material. I searched around, high and low, in all of the trash recepticles of the world web and was able to bring about a handful of links for her. These included blogs originating from free web providers (substantially before Blogger came about), Blogger itself, Facebook 'notes', and of course Blogdrive (which happens to be my favorite).

After re-reading my old posts, I realized that most followed a tight chronological order (most of the time gaps being no more than 6 months) Observing that gave me much more encouragement to stay committed to a single blog. So after this post. I think I'll try to consolidate most of my posts to one blog, in the best way I can.

 

Following this post: Official Update. (I just wanted to use this post to give Mandokoto a big hug.)

 

UPDATE:: I have successfully uploaded archives of THE WEEZEL blog posts from like 2005 onto here. I have to still hit up the OLD "hello mando" and then "WTMP Radio" (You guys don't even know that one lol)

 

 

 

Today is a lazy, lazy, day.... So was yesterday, actually.

I ate breakfast... talked on the phone for a while... ate lunch.... then slept until 530. Definitely not fun at all. Despite that, I did manage to do something really profound!

I was talking to my girlfriend, Julie, and said to her, "I haven't been that creative lately. Japan doesn't seem to inspire my creative juices the way home does. Maybe it's because there are so many flashy and advertis-ey things that I don't really feel it needs to be done up anymore... sad really."

 

But yesterday... maybe it was the fact that I had been in the same position for three hours, but I managed to get an idea for a movie. So I got to work... did the pre and post production... wrote the script... casted the actors.. everything. So once I get the video up.. I will show you my first major motion picture!

Stay tuned!

 

I'm so confused right now.... Let's start off with this: I love icecream.

My favorite type of icecream to make is vanilla with M&M minis inside of it. MMmmmmm. The other day, Brett and I went to Ed's Shop 'n Save to buy some M&M minis, and the damned store didn't have any! Arghaghaghahg. They had LARGE, MEDIUM, PEANUT, PEANUT BUTTER, ALMOND, MY MOM, kind of M&Ms but not MINIs... I was so upset.

But the icecream I had that night was still freakin awesome. The chocolaty-ness of the M&Ms was just spectacular.

I also like Icecream and Hershey Bars. It's pretty awesome.

Today, though, when I got myself some more icecream delicious-ness, I noticed that Hersheys Syrup is not nearly as awesome as Hershey's chocolate. It's so weird!

Like... I don't get it. I think that Hershey's syrup is probably one of the most unrewarding topping you can put on icecream. It sucks so bad.

I was just irritated by that, today. Maybe I should invest in  Nestle syrup to see if I like it.

What's your favorite topping?

For those of you who know me well will find nothing but humor in this article that I found at CNN.com

TheDenverChannel.com Thomas McBride faces up to 48 years in prison. Jury Finds Man Guilty Of Shooting Girlfriend In Face Thomas McBride Convicted Of Attempted First-Degree Murder POSTED: 6:35 pm MDT August 10, 2006 UPDATED: 8:05 pm MDT August 10, 2006 DENVER -- A jury on Thursday convicted a man for brutally attacking his girlfriend -- shooting her in the face with a shotgun and leaving her for dead last Christmas Eve.The jury found Thomas McBride guilty of trying to kill Martha Clark, who was literally left without a face. McBride, 50, was found guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, first-degree assault and two sentence-enhancing counts. Clark barely survived the attack and is still undergoing facial reconstructive surgeries "My whole face got shot off. I didn't have no face at all. All this stuff right here is new. The doctors had to take bones out of my head to make me a face," Clark said, during a public appearance in February to thank the police officer who saved her life.Denver officer Eric Gray was choked up, recalling how he first saw Clark. She was lying in a large pool of blood, her face completely obliterated. "When I got closer, that's when I realized that there was talking, (that it was) actually praying. And I walk inside the bedroom, and that is when I found Ms. Clark," Gray said."I was praying because I thought I was dying," Clark said.McBride is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 23, and faces up to 48 years in prison.

Oh my god, people, I just died reading this. Look at how many times they just emphasized the fact that her FACE got completely shot off! It's not like they beat around the bush.. they just tried to go in as gross of detail as they possibly could! Hahahahahhahaah

The History of FACE:

Many people ask me, "Lauren, what's up with FACE? What does it mean?" Well it's simple:

"FACE" means what you want it to mean, whether it's good, bad, happy, or upset.... My brother started saying it when he was in middle school and for some reason it stuck for years. I've heard other places in TV and stuff make a joke about "face", but I've never seen it officially catch on as a word to say to people.

I also tried going on "urbandictionary.com" to see if "FACE" had any sort of meaning that my family usually connotates to it, and I haven't found it yet. It's kinda sad, but I'll tell you what: when people see "FACE" or hear it.... a lot of them will think of the Schaefers.


FACE!

So, usually when I think of a cold, I think of... like..... the fall or winter.

The cold is something that is transported from one person to another, by like either breathing it in or touching them and then touching your face. It's upper respiratory, so there usually is a lot of coughing and phlegm (I love that word!)...

 Anyway, the point is that usually when you get cold, it's cold outside and everyone is in the same place together all the time, so it's easy to get it. But I've been outside all the time, what's the freakin deal?

I mean I know that there are all of your sciency-people out there with some crazy explanation about it, but what I'm sayin is two things:



How the heck did I get this? I guess I see a lot of people up at school when I'm out of the dorm or something. But even if I maybe shook hands with somebody and took a whiff of cold-lovin' bacteria.... how did THEY get it?!

Cause like... it's hot outside already, and so I'm searching for cold places, but I'm actually cold, so I bundle up in my bed. Then I realize that once I bundle up, that I'm sweating because it's already hot and it's just like rrrrghhh gah gah gah just make up your MIND!

So I'm a little poopy right now in the health department I need to super recover fast cause there are so many things I want to do this week:
 

1. Go to the drive in 2. Go out for a picnic 3. Go to a pirate game 4. Get together with the Shaler people 5. Have a party at my house

According to Wikipedia, though, my crazy cold should end in about 5 days, and that my symptoms started AFTER I contracted the virus, so that leaves maybe... 3 days for me to go? Lame!


Cold.... you'd better get warm or I'll kick your ass!




This is just a classic story... :)

Lately, there has been a lot going on with me. I've had people visiting, enjoying life before everybody leaves this week for home, it's quite memorable and sad. I, personally, have a little anxiety before departure.

It's really difficult thinking about the fact that I'll be going completely across the globe in a couple weeks. I mean, a couple weeks ago I was thinking, "Oh I can't believe I'll be going to Penn State in a couple weeks." So strange, that it just flies by like that.

Before you know it, I'll be saying, "I can't believe that I'm going back home in a couple weeks!"  I will be able to.

I've been thinking, really, about nothing much else other than me going back to Japan for my second visit. Possibly, I'm most interested in revisiting my memories from when I first went when I was 14. Maybe I'll feel like I'm 14 again?

I had the time of my life there. My host family was very kind and really made me feel comfortable in a completely different country. I remember sitting in my bedroom the day before I left for a different city, I cried for about an hour. Maybe too intense, yes, but I WAS 14.....

In the "Thank You" card I wrote to them, I included,

    "Thank you so much for being so nice to me and letting me stay with you. I promise that I will go to college, study Japanese, and come back to see you. Maybe we can actually talk in Japanese together!"

By studying abroad this semester, I'm fufilling that promise to my family. Sounds like something you'd hear in a book or something, eh? I personally find it quite .... surprising and astounding at the same time. I never really put much thought into it until now, and since I am... I feel really good and excited.

I suppose that's my overall feeling now, excited. I have 17 days until I take off..... thinking about it so much now is making me nervous-excited.

For your entertainment, though, I'm going to post a few pictures of what I expect to see once I get a good look at Tokyo: If you can find cool pictures, tell me.

Right before I started to write a entry about Miki coming into visit me, I put on the Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour and singing along with the portuguese lyrics. I asked myself, "Do I know the words to this song?"

"Well, yes, I do... I'm singing along with it, aren't I?"

"True, but you don't know what the WORDS are... what they MEAN."

"Oh my God, you are SO right..."


So now I'm writing a post about it. What do YOU think about this? Do you have, like, Spanish, Danish, African, or etc. songs that you listen and sing along to, but you don't know the language?

I think that's sooo weird!

I'll try my shpeal on it, and please critique it:
 

I believe in reality, someone who sings along to a song of a language they are unfamiliar with actually doesn't know the words of the song. The voice, in this situation, is an instrument rather than a means of lyrical communication. It's difficult for the foreigner (in this case, me) to distinguish not only a linguistic structure, but also differentiate between different words themselves.  I mean, when I sing with Dave,  I can't even  pronounce the things properly.  I'm sure you 've heard the japanese sing karaoke in Rush Hour 2.... yeah it's pretty bad.

My 's' key isn't working well. What did I do to deserve this?

Now I realize that you can see many s's in my post, but that's only because when I want to use it.... I have to press against the keyboard like this:

                         PUSHHHH... *dik* *dik dik*

Then all of the sudden, my word, say for example "apples" looks like this: applessssssssssssssssssssssss.

I snapped the plastic key cover off, a kind of snap that would make anyone who owns a computer to shriek and squint their eyes. So when I open it up, I find" dog hair, food, and nasty gunk. So, I cleaned it out.. but it's still broken. I don't get it at all. I must've done something wrong.

But my keyboard breaking revealed a couple things to me:
            1. I never really realized how much I use the "s" key,
                        and
            2. I really do take advantage of the "alphabet at my fingertips" , so to speak.

Here are 10 words that I type often with the letter 's' in them:

Some of you may be painfully familiar with the fact that I am in absolute LOVE with Japanese pop sensation, Utada Hikaru (pronounced oo-tada heeka-roo) and that I'll be attending her concert in Ehibara, Japan.

Firt off: lets get the facts straight:

Hick    1. A hillbilly, mainly from pensyltucky   2. A wannabe cowboy; typically seen wearing wranglers and cheap western shirts bought at WalMart.  3. an unsophisticated provincial person

The girls (hover for definition) and I went to the mall the other day.


Okay....I'm not much of a girly girl at all. So shopping days like the one the other day are still a little strange to me. I realized that then and still enjoyed the experience. The girls would pick out a shirt, (like one to wear on the weekends) talk about how cute it is, and I was just sort of like "Cooooolalalalala???"


Throughout the trip, I thought, Man.. I'm just not into it today, huh? Why can't I jut randomly try clothes on?  And THEN... we went to Hollister! I thought I was going to pass out; I don't like Hollister's image much at all. It's too surf slut to me. But  then... something completely unexpected happened.




And, go figure, it's a red, plaid, hick shirt.... but visions of whiskey, mandolins, cowboy hats and dancing flew through my mind as I admired the bluegrass glory. I said, "Guys, guys! Oh my god, I finally found it!"

Astounded by the fact that I was excited by ANY garment, the girls hurried over to me trying on the shirt.

"It's..... perfect!" I said. They agreed, sincerely.

I thought about the fact that the first shirt I picked up there was a red, plaid shirt and then turned to Andy and said



Now at home, I was so excited to tell Brett all about the shirt. After 20 minutes of prep, 5 minutes of begging him to look at it, and 8 minutes of discussion, he said, "I'll pay for 1/2 of it" (THIS SHIRT IS 40 FREAKING DOLLARS!!!)



It's a deal!!  



Now... I want more... Jeans.... dirty ones... that don't fit me... down to my knee jeans! Alls I need now is to ignore the dentist for 5 more years and I'm good as... hay and tin banjos