Meat… It's What's There

I tried to donate blood today but apparently my iron level is 10.9 (g/dL) — a healthy level for women is 12-16 and my iron's never been that low— so I have to go to the health center to have that checked out.

I'm sure I'll be told to eat more beef and take supplements. Somehow I thought I was getting enough iron, but I do tend to avoid eating dinner at the kosher dining hall on meat days because the dining hall meat is very fatty, greasy, and salty… the only low-fat/low-grease meat is deli meat, which isn't low sodium and certainly isn't as iron-rich as beef.

Weird as it sounds, after being vegetarian for 6 years I  also don't feel the need to eat meat every day, even every other day. If the meat is well-cooked and flavorful (like a roast lemon chicken or brisket), it is a welcome indulgence. But eating it more than twice a week just feels gross, and I hate thinking about how many resources are used raising livestock, let alone the working conditions in slaughterhouses. 

On the other hand, when it's there, and there aren't many appetizing vegetarian options, I eat it just because it's filling. I guess for the time being I'll just have to get over my aversion to cafeteria meat. Ideally, I would get some beef or chicken liver, since that stuff's super iron-rich and also has other nutrients, but I don't have a kitchen to cook it in, which is a problem.

I do have a thing of unsalted almonds, though, and it's tough to complain about low iron when it's something that's easy to remedy. Hopefully it will pass over quickly.

What Makes a Good Copyright Violating AMV?

Arguably, the film Fantasia was not just the first music video (or, rather, a combination of long music videos) in the technical sense of pairing moving images and music.

It may also be viewed as the forerunner to the homemade animated music video or, as typed in YouTube video contests, the AMV. That is, the process of finding animated (or, in other homemade videos, live action) footage that brings new meaning to a particular song.

Some AMVs aim for sentiment, but not necessarily quality sentiment. Say, the pairing of well-recognized scenes from Disney movies to a sappy pop song without an effort to match the lyrics to the visuals or the Grey's Anatomy fan video whose aim is to say McDreamy/George/Mark/every male surgeon in Seattle Grace is soooo cute… enjoy 3 trillion 2-second clips of him. There are also the videos devoted to written (usually unwritten) pairings of characters. Some of these are kind of funny; most are not worth watching.

Others, however, take a step beyond the obvious, making unusual connections between separate films, giving someone a funny singing voice, contrasting a film's actual tone with the background song's tone, and somtimes all three at once.

Some of my favorites are:

The video with news clips of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, set to "Endless Love." There are several copies of this on YouTube.

Clips of Georgette (from Oliver and Company) set to "Prima Donna" from Phantom of the Opera. By YouTube user TheTerrierQueen.

Clips from almost every Disney movie set to "Hair" as an ode to, well, hair. The person who made the video found a clip to match just about every type of hair mentioned in the song (polka-dotted, twisted, braided, waxen, shining, down to there hair). By YouTuber agentcoffee.

The Firefly video to "All Theses Things That I've Done" by YouTuber cnstrikesback.

DaJugglingFool's video "Why is the Rum Gone: Remix" does a very nice job of sound mixing and pairing said sound effects with the video clips and adding unexpected clips (and audio!) from the Teletubbies, the Terminator and 24 into a video about Pirates of the Carribbean. 

I would post the hyperlinks, but haven't figured out how to do so in Blogger, which is why it will be a while before I make any AMVs.

Housing Drama

At my school, students apply to receive a housing number early in spring semester. This year, everyone got their housing numbers just before the end of February break.

First-years and sophomores are guaranteed housing. The two freshman quads are conveniently situated on campus and, while not luxurious, are in rather good shape (some floors have been recently renovated). One quad is two minutes' walking distance away from one of the major academic quads and three minutes away from the old campus center, which has one of the two main cafeterias, the mailroom, the campus convenience store, financial services, and the career center. The main library is also close by. The other quad is close to the other main cafeteria, the chapels, the science buildings, and the new campus center. 

The majority of sophomores live in a "quad" that is actual made of two large residence halls designed to blend in with the trees nearby. These buildings are in less good shape than the freshman buildings, but since almost everyone is close by, it is very easy to keep in touch with friends. The mixed humanities academic quad and nearby cafeteria are still reasonably close, as are the next major sophomore building, "the Castle," which is — surprise — built to look like a castle, the health center, and the gym.

It used to be the case that juniors had the following options: get a suite with 5 close friends (the suites have 6 single rooms and 2 private bathrooms), get a single or double in the recently built junior/senior dorm, get an on-campus apartment (there are 5, 3, and 2-person apartments), or get an off-campus apartment.

This coming year, there will be a brand new residence hall for juniors, composed of 4- and 6-person suites. However, the other recently build junior/senior dorm is no longer an option. During the fall, it will be used by study abroad students. During the spring, all of the "midyear" first-years will be housed there. While I appreciate the effort to accommodate the study abroad students, housing the midyears there poses many problems:

1) It further isolates the midyear students by placing them physically distant from the two freshman quads.

2) It also places the midyear students closer to upperclassmen parties, some of which involve drinking. (Over-21 students can apply for a "wet" room and legally drink in the company of other over-21 students, but these rules are not always followed).

3) It reduces the number of housing options for upperclassmen whose housing is already not guaranteed.

You can guess which of the three is most troubling to rising juniors.

Before receiving my housing number, I had discussed getting a suite with some like-minded  friends. We wanted to get a large group of people in order to increase the chance of more than 1 person getting a good number (the person with the lowest number in a group selects a room or suite and "pulls in" everyone else). When we got our numbers and checked the residence life website though, we found that the junior buildings with suites generally fill up by #1200. Junior/senior housing numbers start at 1000 and go up to 3000. My number, which was the lowest, was almost 1500. For the moment, it looks bad.

I'm hoping we can find a kind, like-minded classmate with a really good number. While I would be willing to get one of the on-campus apartments, they have a two less-than-charming traits:

1) The apartments are on the farthest edge of campus. Thus, in cases of inclement weather and morning sleepiness, it is necessary to use the campus shuttle system to get anywhere. It also cuts into the breezy socializing with friends that happens easily in a regular dorm building.

2) At night, the minimal, flickering fluorescent lighting, both inside and outside the buildings, combined with the harsh concrete, reminds one of those dark, shadowy apartment buildings where people run after each other with guns in action movies. At last they remind me of those shady movie apartments.

On the other hand, the on-campus apartments have one thing going for them:

1) I wouldn't have to commute.

Here's hoping it turns out for the best…

Adaptation

I clearly remember having no desire to have children — ever — in middle school, and through part of high school. Later on, I thought the idea wasn't so ridiculous in the far, far future.

Then, when I turned 20, I realized that at this age, several decades ago, both my grandmothers were married around my age and had their first child not long after.

Almost around the same time, and especially after working with children, I realized: not only is having children something I want, but it's something I can become capable of doing. I'm used to locking away the rubber bands and stray crayons from toddlers' hands, and I'm getting used to being seen as a grown-up with answers to everything. Even when it means answering rapid-fire questions about movie previews, how to color well, and the current movie playing, not to mention guessing games.

I imagine that both my grandmothers had some preparation for child-raising from their younger siblings, and know it used to be more common for women to marry and have children fairly early. Still, I am amazed that they took on those responsibilities so soon and, seeing how my parents and aunts and uncle turned out, so well.

Men's Pants vs. Women's Pants

Being 5' 2", I usually have trouble finding pants that don't need 3-5 inches hemmed off the bottom. Some major women's brands are kind enough to have a clearly labeled "petite" section of their stores, or at least to offer pants in short lengths. However, most stores aimed at the 18-25 demographic — H&M, Urban Outfitters, etc. — almost never have petite sections, and rarely even offer short pants. Tall pants, sometimes, but pretty much no short pants. 

When I went shopping with a friend this afternoon, one of the stores we visited had a few pairs of short jeans. Only two pairs of short jeans were in a size larger than 5. There seemed to be no shortage of regular and long jeans. I tried the short jeans but they didn't work.

Afterwards, we went to Urban Outfitters and tried to find pants in the bargain basement. No luck. All the women's pants' sizes were 25 through 29. I think it was based on waist size, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be the "true" waist (around the bottom of the ribcage) or the high hip. Probably the latter. Nearby was a rack of men's jeans. I found two pairs with my inseam whose waist sizes looked right. I was a bit uncertain about translating my waist measurement into a men's waist size, but thought hey, this could be interesting.

The first pair was too tight. The other pair's fit was snug but not suffocating. The back pockets looked funny (in terms of placement), but I couldn't tell if it was the designer's intention or just that the pants were cut for a man. Overall, the pants didn't fit nicely enough to buy, but there was one feature which almost made me wish I had a better build for men's pants — the front pockets. The front pockets were about 7-8 inches deep, deep enough to carry a cell phone and iPod without worrying about them popping out, not to mention a wallet.

If even some of the practical features of men's clothing could be carried over to women's, it would probably not only result in safer cell phones but also less time wasted hemming pants and trying to figure out a brand's sizing system. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Looking Good… on the Farm?

When I went to an all-girls equestrian summer camp out in the boonies, where the only guys around were the camp director and very old farmhands, there was still a strong expectation that you made yourself look good. 

Having previously gone to a coed nature camp in the Rhode Island boonies, I was used to wearing casual t-shirts and shorts or pants at camp. We had daily showers, but the days were so highly scheduled, with most of the activities outdoors, that there was very little time to worry about looking pretty. So the fanciest things I brought to the equestrian camp were a yellow tank top and a pair of capris. The riding helmet I had was the kind that looks like a bike helmet with a visor, rather than the black velvet-covered ones. 

At the equestrian camp, showers were limited to twice a week (ten minutes each), because the camp relied on well water and we were sharing the water with 45 horses. Yet this was when I got my first "makeover." The girls who instructed me had brought along hair straighteners and massive makeup kits, along with multiple "going out" outfits (we went out to the movies/ice cream parlor about 1-2 nights a week). After plucking my brows, doing my face, and straightening my hair (which I don't need at all), they wrote a list of clothing and shoe stores.

I wonder what became of these girls in college, where it's socially acceptable to go to class in a hooded sweatshirt and yoga pants (or even leggings). Perhaps they got the fancier hoodies at the campus bookstore and wear velour track pants instead of baggy sweatpants or plain yoga pants. Maybe they still bring a copy of Seventeen or Cosmo to the gym to read at the treadmill. But mostly I wonder if they still offer to curl their roommates' eyelashes and give them fashion-oriented shopping lists.

Just for Fun - Favorite Names

Some of these names I ended up using for characters in short stories/pseudonyms in essays, etc. Most of them I would consider giving a child in the future; some I can only see on the page.

Names for a Girl:

1. Ruby Blue (after the song by Róisín Murphy) with the Hebrew name of Ruth (after my great-aunt and the Biblical Ruth). 

2. Lydia (I first heard of the name in a book I read in 5th grade about a New England mill girl).

3. Leah. I like the way it sounds and feel the Biblical Leah doesn't get fair recognition.

4. Chana (Hebrew version of Hannah). Pretty name that goes with a good story about prayer. 

5. Adelaide/Adelheid. These seem better for middle names/literary characters because they're hard to spell but I love the meaning ("noble kind") and how they sound. 

Names for a Boy:

1. Daniel. Nice name shared by a lion-surviving prophet and one of my best friends.

2. Joseph.

3. Reuben.

4. Mordechai. Comes with a nickname — Motti — that works well both in childhood and adulthood.

5. Benjamin.

Looking at a list of popular boys' names for 2007  (http://www.thinkbabynames.com/popular/1/United+States), I would like to know how Logan is #17 and Jayden is #18. Coming from the Boston area, when I hear Logan I think "airport," and somehow Jayden sounds like the name of someone in a trashy teen drama (as in "I saw Jayden at Madison's locker!") or a character in a sci-fi movie. Although I think part of the reason I don't like it is that it sounds like Jason.

There were some interesting girls' names too, but nothing too weird aside from Destiny (which was #41, 5 spots ahead of my name).