Spam is really weird to me. Electronic spam, I mean. Not like the meat.

Like last year, for instance, I got an email that said “You’re gorgeous,” something something, and he was trying to… oh I don’t even know. I don’t understand the point of spam. I tried to look it up on Wikipedia but I still don’t really get it. So it’s free advertising or something, but what’s the point if the messages are cryptic and don’t make any sense?

Luckily, this blog manages spam on its own, so nothing really shows up in comments here. Sometimes I click on the Spam filter to see what they say. Apparently laptop something or other will be very annoyed if he hears “Santa Baby” one more time. Relevant comment on my Christmas music entry, boss, but what are you?

I’m sort of afraid even talking about it will solicit more spamming. I accept the consequences of this.

Anyway, it’s just weird. The most recent spam comment is a really long paragraph where this guy gets a revelation on Black Friday at a party about how he’s still mourning the death of his brother. No. joke.

If I was a spammer, I would send messages about singing unicorns hurtling rainbows to deliver candy to all the orphans. I think that would get my point across. Or something. SPAM.

I have the Weird Al song linked above stuck in my head now.

Halloween next year. Bring it.

Again: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I hope everyone here is done with finals. Because I have been done for about a week now, and it is glorious.

Let’s take a look at what finals week was like.

Just as a reminder, pharmacy had clusters December 1-3, and I had a lab final on December 7^th, and our finals were from December 13-15. I had been studying for clusters from about November 17^th and on. I was studying for an entire month straight.

The Friday before finals was fun and exciting when a water main broke near the class buildings. I was in a case conference for Therapeutics (in the old half of the pharmacy building) when the power suddenly went out. This happens from time to time, I guess, and normally it comes right back on. But we were eating cupcakes (awesome, right?), and the power being out was suspicious, and suddenly we got emails that there was a water main break. Watching the water gush down the sidewalk from the windows was all too amusing to our feeble brains.

Aside from water mains breaking (which was obviously symbolism for the state of our brains), finals weren’t really that exciting. I do think we reached our breaking point when one Saturday night, I found Kass and Ashley sitting in front of the open fridge eating pickles from the jar and drinking Coke. Finals are hard.

I have photographic evidence of this, but as I mentioned before, I have no way of getting my SD card onto my computer at the moment, and this is troublesome.

I’m just sooo glad to be done with the semester and watching kittens play with a foam ball right now. Also. IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Here’s a blurry picture of my dad and me that is totally not from last year.

Naw, this isn't from last year! ... aw, man, my hair is short. It is from last year.

I’ve been wanting to play Scribblenauts for over a year. Thanks to my friend Mark, who is letting me borrow it, I get to play it!

The game is for the Nintendo DS, which I’ve owned for several years now and love. I guess I’ve always had a thing for portable game systems ever since Pokemon, and my days of playing Echo the Dolphin on a Sega Game Gear. Anyway, Scribblenauts came out about a year ago, and I haven’t gotten a chance to play it until this winter break.

SO. The object of the game is to collect a star in every level. Usually there’s a puzzle you solve, or you have to move through a level to get to the star. The point of Scribblenauts is that to solve puzzles or move, you can enter in one of like… a million things they’ve got programmed into the database. But no vulgarity, profanity, or racial slurs. Fair point, Scribblenauts.

(It didn’t understand “poop” when I tried to use it.)

It’s awesome. I summoned a bear to take care of this bee and piranha that were preventing me from retrieving a gardener’s misplaced flower, then the bear turned on me and killed me. I also use jet packs all the time. I tried to set the bee on fire with a flamethrower but ended up burning down the gardener’s green house. Oops.

That’s only in one of the first levels! I’m probably going to leave reeeal soon to play it. I’ve heard you can make God fight a T Rex while riding a skateboard wielding a chainsaw. That’s pretty awesome.

For those of you working retail right now, I salute you.

We have a notoriously bad shopping area where traffic gets way backed up, and the parking lot was designed by a sadist on too many sedatives. It’s a long strip mall with a Target, Old Navy, Costco, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Gamestop, and a bunch of others. Guess how many ways there are to get out of there.

Go on. Guess.

4? Yeah right.

3? Well, if you count the way out by Costco’s fuel station, sure.

2? Yes. That’s it. You can get back onto the main road from either end of the strip mall. Even on a normal Saturday, these pathways can get clogged up. The day before Christmas Eve, you better own a tank.

I don’t. I own a ’99 Chevy Cavalier. It’s a 2-door. Nobody really notices me. I almost got hit trying to back out of a spot, which I guilted a pick-up truck driving lady into giving me space to do so. Then I almost get plowed over by a huge SUV from Tennessee who decided to go 40 mph down a side street to make it through the intersection before the traffic light changed. Ugh.

My mom and I traversed this No Man’s Land parking lot trying to locate a few gifts between Old Navy, Costco, and Target. Part of this journey was made while carrying a bouquet of flowers for Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow, because we were parked so far away from anything that it was too out of the way to drop off the bouquet.

NOT TO MENTION. At Trader Joe’s on the other side of town, it took me five minutes of driving around their tiny parking lot, dodging Mercedes Benzes and Volvos, to get a parking spot. Just to pick up one thing for the future in-laws (so it was important). To make it worthwhile, mom and I went into David’s Bridal so I could look at dresses.

Then try on 3 of them. (I actually tried on the one I linked in “on”).

Listen, I have pictures. But I’m going to be straight with you. I left my camera cord at school and our SD card reader thingy is missing. As soon as I figure out that hitch, the pictures will be up.

For now, festive Boo.

I meant to do this post earlier!

Child’s Play is a charity run by one of my favorite webcomics, Penny Arcade. They operate year-round accepting donations, but the biggest time that they operate is during the holiday season. Child’s Play has teamed up with children’s hospitals nationwide so people can donate money and toys for sick kids. They’re really appreciative for the movies, games, and other things that help them not think too much about how they’re sick.

I bought a little thing for Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, IN last year. It’s such an easy way to give and really make a difference in someone’s life. Basically, all you need to do is find the Amazon wishlist for the hospital you wish to donate to, and order up whatever you want! Penny Arcade’s founders, Mike and Jerry, usually buy a couple of Wii’s, Xbox 360′s, Nintendo DS’s, and games for their hospitals of choice. Show offs.

This year, Child’s Play has raised $1.8 million!!

One thing Penny Arcade also does is auction off a special comic to raise money for Child’s Play. I believe this one was from last year. I hope you find it as goofy as I do.

I’ve been free from school for an entire week now. I could be using this freedom to rampantly abuse my many hobbies, going out late at night with my friends, or even watching TV shows that everyone says I should watch. What have I been doing instead?

Going to bed at 10:30 PM.

For instance, right now it’s 11 PM and I can already feel my brain starting to slow down. I’ve convinced myself that there’s nothing good on the Internet late at night anymore, so I might as well just call it a day. That, and the sooner I go to bed every night, the sooner it will be CHRISTMAS.

I love reading webcomics about Christmas. It’s a silly thing, I know. Penny Arcade always has great strips for the holidays because they’re Scrooges and they usually make fun of their video game addictions. But my favorite webcomic, Hyperbole and a Half, has a great story about a Christmas play and how much the author hates Kenny Loggins. Ch-ch-check it out!

Reenacting the birth of Jesus with a baby doll.

I don’t have a whole lot of fun plans this winter break (and that’s the way I like it), but I do get to live vicariously through friends, neighbors, and family who have pets. I’m dog-sitting like a crazy person over break!

First on my agenda is Daisy, a cocker spaniel/poodle mix who lives up the street. She is the sweetest thing. She’s very cat-like, though, so she doesn’t get too clingy when I have to leave, and that’s a good thing. She’s also afraid of the dark and sometimes she won’t go in the the backyard to go potty!

Next, I’m looking after my friend Amy’s two poodles (standard) and two kittens.

August, swaddled.

In January, I’m responsible for my aunt and uncle’s weenie dogs, Frankie and Buddy!

FRANKEH.

We’ve never had two doggies in our house for a long time, so that will be an interesting experience. Especially because they are so nosy. GET IT? LOOK AT THEIR NOSES. NOSY.

I’ll have to study up so I can do a good job.

Listen, people. I need to go to bed. I also just took Ad Thwart off of Chrome and I’m too lazy to go put it back on. I’m glaring at all of the stupid Facebook ads showing up right now. ugh!

What do I do to avoid finals? Mostly, I look at cute animals.

Since you can’t have animals in the Apartment Village, I have to rely on Cute Overload, various Tumblr blogs, and Youtube. Let’s explore this area of the Internet, where cute animals reside.

I think you all know enough about Cute Overload at this point to not have to have any more explanation. Cute Overload posts pictures and videos of cute animals with hilarious captions. It’s like a smile in EVERY POST. That’s also where I found my pomeranian hero, Boo.

Tumblr has favorites like Pudgy Kitties and BleepYeahAnimals. (It’s not really “bleep” but you get the idea.) Tumblr is also great for just wasting time in general. I found a whole blog dedicated to Maury and making hilarious .gif clips and finding the best quotes from episodes. There’s also Vladimir Putin Action comics, which really shouldn’t be that funny, but they are. (oh, satire.)

Anyway, here’s a kitteh named Gordon who is doing an accurate imitation of my brain.

Listen, I have neither the time nor the patience to go through all of my favorite cute animal Youtubes. So let me just leave you with Cricket.