Jaws, Teeth, Mess

This morning a friend of mine from Long Island let me know of X situation that had come up in the family, so I just found out I'm somewhat stranded after I fly into Newark this Sunday at 5 PM. For those of you who are East Coast travel experts and such, your advice would be appreciated. I need to get to Boston South Station at the latest by early evening on the 15th, so I can take the Dartmouth Coach up into New Hampshire. Here's what I'm looking at as options:

a) Stay in the NYC area for the night, take the Peter Pan bus up from downtown NYC to South Station, then catch the next Dartmouth Coach
b) Take the Peter Pan bus up from downtown NYC to South Station at 10:30 PM, arrive at South Station at 3:25 AM (it's the only time that seems to work to allow enough time to get from EWR to downtown NYC), and be a hobo until the first Dartmouth Coach departs after 9 AM

1) Which of these options seems more reasonable, or is there a better yet economic option I don't know of?
2) If Option a) is the best, is there someone in the NYC who would be willing to harbor a fugitive Canadian for a night?


Oh, and eurobikermcdog, check yer phone messages!

Long story short, I'm wrestling with whether or not I should even go.
Pros: Seeing and hanging out with Scrabble peeps, chance to play the best in Scrabble
Cons: Dayton sucks, flights are expensive from this end of the country, low registration numbers this year means less young peeps around

Thoughts?

What the title says. Anyone looking or know of anyone who is? Thanks!

Not just to dillyroo (yes, you were amazing and we've all said so!), but also to j_is_worth8 for her performance in the OT Late Bird. 4.0-0.0 +162 got her an approximate 95 point rating gain to a estimated new peak rating of 1443 (it will change a bit due to the main event's results not showing yet in the TSH estimates). She beat Brendan Huang, winterene, meezerman and Ruth Hamilton on her way to 2nd place! Couldn't happen to a nicer and more deserving person. I know it's due to all those antelopes!

As a random sidenote, it's cool that 3 out of the 4 events at OT were won by women.

Just got my last mark in last night... 4.0 GPA on the year!!!!

*happy dance*

I'm goin' to the HO!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Just thinking a few more things through for BAT. One particular issue, now that I'm last-minuting...

Is anyone looking for or able to take on a roommate for BAT, either at the venue or off venue? Last year magrathean graciously hosted me, but this time around since he won't be there, I'm looking elsewhere. Any info would be appreciated, thanks guys!

Title says it all. I really want to see Scrabble people! The biggest thing making me hesitate on going is that I have an English final on the Tuesday after BAT. I should be able to get a reasonable roundtrip flight through Air Miles, so I'm not worried about excess cost. My worry is that I don't get home with sufficient time to study for the final, or even worse, somehow miss the final. Mid-April should not be a time of flight delay, but I remember flight delays due to rain/thunderstorms last year when I left Boston.

Thoughts?

Because of the Scrabble tournament happening in Vancouver next weekend, I wouldn't have any time to see my extended family, so I decided to visit this weekend. As I type, I'm at my grandparents' house staying overnight, having just spent the evening lazing about doing crosswords together and watching the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women's semi-final curling match between defending world champs Team Canada and their worthy opponents, Team Quebec. As I'm spending time with them, I can't help but think of age. Papa (what we call my grandpa) is 84 and Tutu (what we call my grandma) is almost 80. Both of them golf several times a week and are in amazing shape considering their age. My mom is 51 and is only just starting to look 40+, my dad is 48, recently retired and this year he's starting to go gray. I'm turning 23 on the 3rd, and I'm just starting to realize (as stupid as it sounds) that my parents eventually have to become old people. It's weird because you pretty much eternally have a grid for your own grandparents being old right from the get go, whereas with your parents you don't. Furthermore, my parents are no longer deciding anything for me, but rather are adults I am in a really good relationship with, ones I can seek counsel from when I'm looking for it. I guess what I'm realizing is the fullness of my own adulthood.

Part of that fullness includes freedom to make my own choices, even when not everyone agrees with them. I'm finally stepping out of that grid of trying to pick things in my life that please as many people as possible. The first choice I've made that reflects that was my application to go on exchange to UQ in Brisbane. People have asked why, some of have tried to tell me why I shouldn't go, etc etc, and when I thought a lot about it, there's just one central reason on top of several others: I want to. I don't want to for anyone else, I don't want to because it's "a good choice", I simply want to travel to and live somewhere that I've never been to meet new people. It's a bonus that education is a part of that.

Another aspect of making my own choices for myself is seeing my cousins. My family, both immediate and extended, has been tangled in very complicated, twisted, downright malicious drama for the last 6 years. I won't write all of the details, but a small portion of it involves my mom's oldest sister testifying in court about my mom's older sister allegedly cheating on her husband, my mom trying to write an affidavit to counter it but to no avail, resulting in my mom's older sister being kicked out of her own house and separated from her children. Me and my cousins have been in a very weird position as a result of it all, and I of course have had an understandably limited perspective. Regardless of what actually happened or went on, I've decided that 6 years is enough; there's no reason I should be unable to hang out with my cousins. So yeah, tomorrow I'm going to see them, including one that I haven't seen in over 10 years!

Part of making my own choices relates to Scrabble, too. I'm not about to go tournament crazy, but I'm going to go to tourneys when I want to, not just when it seems like there's been enough time between them to avoid familial disapproval. That therefore includes the possibility of repeating an appearance at BAT...who knows?

Just want you all to know I think you rock. I can't wait to see some of you next weekend, and the rest of you at some point this year, hopefully!

I'm going to UQ in Brisbane next year on exchange. Wooooooooo!!!

Ganked from xpmorgan - man that was fun! I've needed an excuse to fiddle with Photoshop, even if just for a few minutes.

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click:
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click:
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar (i.e. MS Paint) to put it all together.

5 - Post it with this text.

(10 points to whoever connects the dots between the movie and the article)

tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/TVNews/Articles/090211_contact_lens_tv_DW

Now, I know that when I've read in the past that Los Angeles is one of the biggest cities in the world (#8 if I remember right), I've thought little of it, but today on the way home from visiting my family in Nor Cal, I had a stopover in LAX. I am dumbstruck at how FREAKING huge the city is - it never ends!

I'm definitely going to go back and visit this summer. Road trip!

I have a warped sense of humor I guess - I find this incredibly funny!

I was talking randomly with eurobikermcdog on ISC tonight about the wonders *cue sarcasm* of my two mandatory English courses this semester in uni, which switched to ideal uni degrees if we could go back and start over, which became talk about unideal jobs, and then finally, a question that I'm going to ask all of you:

If you had the appropriate university training, company experience, etc etc, and you could become CEO of any company in the world, what company would you pick, and why?

Something's always baffled me about the way people address the existence of multiple variations of a popular song. There are always, without fail, several schools of thought that people carry:

1) Whichever version I heard first is the best version
2) The original version is always the best version
3) Whichever version lines up closest to my preferred music genre is the best version

There are others, but those 3 seem to dominate the often heated arguments people have about what version is the 'best' version.

As an appreciator of ALL forms of music, this puzzles me (yes bbstenniz, I still appreciate death metal and grindcore, despite the fact that they are not my favorite musical genres by any means). Arguably, the longest running debate about 'best' version of a song is Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Ranging from the original as sung with technical elegance by Judy Garland to the phenomenal, heartfelt cover version by Eva Cassidy, people seem to feel the need to say "this version is the best" or "this version SUCKS, (insert name here) always will be the best". Why is this so?

The most recent popular example is the immensely popular song "Hallelujah", originally written and performed by Leonard Cohen, later covered stunningly by Jeff Buckley, wonderfully recreated by K.D. Lang, and most recently, covered and reinterpreted soulfully by X-Factor 2008's winner Alexandra Burke. WHY is it that the Jeff Buckley purists must insist that all other versions are $#!T compared to his, or the naive Alexandra fans with only have X-Factor as a musical culture reference calling it the best simply because she's the one who sang it? I really don't get it. Granted, Jeff Buckley was given kudos by Leonard Cohen himself for capturing a large part of the essential feeling and heart of the song, but does that immediately discredit all other versions? No! Alexandra Burke's version is another twist on the song, somewhat happier and more uplifting than Jeff Buckley's version, which actually is part of Leonard Cohen said was his original intent for the song. Does this make hers better than his? No!

What's my point? Simple. Is it so hard to toss artist, genre, originality and interpretation biases aside, and just appreciate the beauty and majesty of music itself? I don't think so.

My flights are booked and money is in the mail. I'll be there Thursday afternoon, right after I finish uni in Kelowna, roughly around 4 PM, and flying back out to Kelowna on Monday morning. I've chosen to play both in the early bird and in the main event. Join me! Come one, come all, gonna be an awesome weekend...

I was at a friend's birthday party last night, and she said that we were going to have sushi before going disco bowling. I haven't had sushi in a while, so I was anxious to have something other than the bachelor scraps I've been living on in an effort to avoid the grocery store. To my great surprise when I got there, the sushi ingredients were all laid out, ready to make rolls with! I was expecting prebought stuff from some local joint, but we actually got to make our own rolls. Before last night, I'd never made a sushi roll in my life, so I had a bunch of stupid questions to ask just to get my roll prepared. When I finally finished making my 2 full rolls (hey, I was hungry!), I made short work of them. Man were they tasty! I gave myself a B grade overall for my effort, though; let's just say my 'presentation' of the sushi could use some work (a few mishaps with the sushi knife...)

And now, 2 more quirks (both encountered today):

1) Cellphone conversation in the gym
You may recall me posting before about being incredibly annoyed by people singing while working out at the university gym. I'm not much more appreciative of people having a long conversation on their cellphone while I'm working out, either. Sure, it must be wonderful for you that you're excited about going to Cancun with your buds over Spring Break to get hammered at the beach, and even better that your buddy scored a great deal on Expedia and wanted to spread the news. Really though, common sense here...keep the long drawn out cell phone convos out of the weight room.

2) The GUESS Girl
Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some gals out there who can drop money on clothing from GUESS, Ed Hardy, etc etc, that aren't otherwise vapidly pretentious airheads. But when you're 9???? I'm not kidding. I was at the mall in Kelowna today getting a shake after working out, and a little ways away, there were these two girls who were at most 9 years old, decked out in high end brand clothing. Just 2 quick glances at their outfits and I could tell each of them were worth at least several hundred dollars. Both had real Uggs, designer jeans (not your basic Wal-Mart jeans, we're talking Joe Bush), perfectly color coordinated layered tops complimenting the hue of their Uggs, even a little makeup. I couldn't believe it. Is that the kind of pressure kids are starting to feel in elementary school now? What has happened to us...