I can’t say I slept very well last night. When I got back to my apartment I was bored, so I ate a bag of chips and watched Suspiria, which I’ve had on loan from the store for almost two weeks now. It was pretty good — scarier than some of Argento’s other movies but by no means a terrifying film. The violence was less brutal than Opera, and some of the violence was exaggerated (the dog chewing at the throat of its master was totally camp), but the film was shot beautifully and the story remained fairly interesting. I was shocked that I recognized a young Udo Kier, who I recognized instantly from his work in Ace Venture, Grindhouse, and — most notably — as the evil Ralfi in Johnny Mnemonic.
• Speaking of sleep, TIME published an article on how much sleep the human body really needs. That’s cool, I haven’t read an article about recommended sleep patterns in…I don’t know…a couple weeks? I think articles about how much sleep we should get each night rank right up there with articles about the effects of global warming in terms of timeliness. To imply that articles such as these are flooding periodicals would be sheer lunacy. Oh, yeah, by the way — between 6.5 and 7.5 hours each night is ideal. In case you didn’t know, or haven’t read that before. Maybe this will be the last we hear of recommended amounts of sleep. Bah! Who am I kidding. [story]
• And speaking of movies, apparently scientists are going to put dinosaur DNA into the birds that most commonly relate to old dinosaurs: chickens. I don’t understand it, I don’t think it makes any sense, but apparently these researchers want to make a real-life Jurassic Park, and chickens hold the secret to unlocking dinosaur creation through science. I always thought chickens were fowl, not birds, but maybe a fowl is a bird? I don’t know, I’m not a scientist and I certainly don’t want to make any dumb comments here about my lack of knowledge as it relates to kingdom, phylum, and class of a particular species. That’s what the scientists are for…the ones who apparently see no problem in bringing back dinosaurs. [story]
• Even more scientists (“There are more of them?” “Lots more!”) are working on a way to create a 100mpg car. Something about solar power and displaced petroleum. I don’t know, all I care about is not spending $4.90 a gallon on gas when I only get about 15mpg driving in Los Angeles traffic or up and down Echo Park hills. I’d also rather not drive a car that looks like a flying toaster, but if it means I have to pay a lot less for gas I guess I can manage. [story]
• Interesting article in the New York Times this week about Muslim women having operations to restore their hymens, so as to appear chaste on their wedding nights. In other news, wait — hymen restoration surgery? Count me in! I’d love to forget all about my first time! What!? I’m not eligible? What do you mean I don’t have a hymen?[story]
• Oh, how fitting! This follow-up article (alright, the Holy Taco isn’t exactly the New York Times, so I guess it’s not a true “follow-up”, but…) is about the eight places you probably lost your virginity. It reads as if it was written by a frat guy, so I’m hesitant to post it, and also the list is really bad (I could write a better one — wait, I will write a better one — next week!), but its a bit more digestible than that haughty New York Times piece about girls having surgery for some weird religious purpose that serves no purpose because religion is the biggest bullshit story of all time [pause for dramatic effect]. So did you lose your virginity on Spring Break or in Europe? [story]
• Hey, sucks for us Americans, apparently the aliens will want to make contact with Japan before they talk to us. Take that, world’s-only-remaining-superpower! [story]
• It’s summer, and it’s not too late to start making plans to visit one of the “11 great beer festivals of the West” if you live on the left coast. According to the LA Times, between June 27th and October 11th, there are eleven awesome beer festivals. The closest one to me is the San Diego Festival of Beer, which will be held at “an outdoor downtown venue serving more than 150 beers from 60-plus area microbreweries” on September 19th. I guess I’m there. The others are all held in the Northwest or Colorado, so if Swan Fungus reader “Tree” is reading this in Colorado…enjoy! [story]
• Headline of the year? “Zombie Caterpillars Controlled By Voodoo Wasps”. With video! [story]
Last but not least, a POLL! Should I or should I not take this class and then write a blog post about my experience? Please vote by leaving a comment in the comment section below.
June 14th, 2008
“It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
Henry David Thoreau
December 12th, 2008
- I haven’t seen Suspiria, but after looking @ how Asia did in XXX, I think it may be worth a look!
- As far as sleeping, I’d be lucky if I get more than 4 hours/night during the week. I think it has to do with the fact that I simply don’t have enough time to accomplish the tasks I need to do in a typical weekday. As far as weekends, Friday night is catch-up sleep for me. I take an Ambian and get in a solid 7-8 hours of undisturbed sleep (since I sleep in the guest room and it’s my husband’s night out w/ the guys).
- When you discussed about a realistic version of Jurassic Park, I think that you have just as much knowledge about the subject as anyone who’s outside looking in. If anyone wants to go deep, I’d hit up my biologist neighbor and talk to a Palaeontologist. Otherwise, you’re right on the mark.
- Hymen Restoration surgery is a thing that more and more women are engaging in this day. It’s not all about religion. Some people do it simply because they want to forget their 1st encounter. It’s sort of a re-birth of virginity. I see nothing wrong w/ that if someone wants to “re-save” themselves for someone special and to ceremoniously “break” the barrier on their wedding night. I think when you look @ it that way, it’s rather romantic and beautiful.