(Un)Happy Happenstance?

Sometimes everything goes just how you want it to.

And sometimes . . . okay, usually it probably doesn't.

That can't be the end of everything.

You can't let it beat you.

Beat it.

Try harder.

Change your plans to work with how things are now.

And win.

Who knows?

Things might turn out better this way. . .

Youtube Crushes

Okay, these are not legitimate crushes, but oh lawd they is funny.

Ever heard of DJ Flula?

Well, you should watch some of his stuff, because it's hilarious.

He's this German DJ who - when he comes into contact with weird English idioms that he doesn't understand - he gives it his best shot. 

For instance, there's the Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Happy as a Clam.

Skeletons in the Closet.

Proof is in the Pudding.

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.

And my personal favorite: the Party Pooper.

(A friend made me watch that in the middle of the university library -- my other friend working at the checkout desk thought I was having a stroke. It's really hard not to laugh, y'all.)

His broken English is adorable and hysterical, and the 'outside opinion' is priceless.

And Olan Rogers.

If you have not heard of him, I pity you.

A friend of mine posts a picture of him every Monday, and when you watch this, you'll see why.

His facial expressions and snarkiness are to die for.

He also talks about the time he took his lady out -- that's pretty awesome, too.

But yeah.

Those are my Youtube crushes.

Pointless Fun

This post is pointless. 

Seriously.

I'm just going to tell you something I did that was really fun:

I JUMPED UP ON AN ELEVATOR GOING DOWN.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomigosh it was so fun!!!

It's really weird because if you wait right before it starts to drop and then you jump, you feel kinda like a superhero, or a Jedi, or somebody from Inception or something for a split second.

It's really cool.

You ought to try it.

But I would suggest not doing it with a 25+ pound backpack. 

Just sayin'. 

And yes, I am a responsible 20 year old adult.

$100 Etsy Giftcard Giveaway!

A giveaway I'm participating in with Angie!

Remember how I told you Monday was my four year blogiversary?

Well, we're going to celebrate in a BIG way! 

I honestly can't think of a better way than by giving one of my readers a $100 Etsy Gift card!

And these lovely ladies and their blogs made it possible, so show them some love!

Giveaway Rules
Open Worldwide
Must complete ALL mandatory Entries
Must be a follower of My So-Called Chaos
Giveaway Ends 2/27/13


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Coach Purse Birthday Giveaway!

A special birthday giveaway I'm participating in with Brie!

Wow, the time has come. 

I'm turning the big 25

Ok, I won't be 25 till the 20th but still....
When you're sitting there at 5 thinking of being 25....wait no one is thinking about being 25 when they are 5 years old who am I kidding.

When you're sitting there at 10 thinking of being 25 you assume that is the age when people die. 
When you're 15 thinking of being 25 it seems so amazing because you can be an adult and free of your parents.

When you're 20 thinking of being 25 you think that it is 5 years away, no need to think about it, wrong. 

I've decided to give one of you lucky ladies something I would want for my 25th birthday. 

A COACH PURSE!!!!!!

This bad boy (MSRP $358) is oh so pretty in person and smells heavenly. Don't judge me, you know you would smell it. I've contemplated not giving it away just because I've fallen in love since it has been chilling in my closet. 

A few ladies have joined in to help me give away this amazing purse and we are also giving away 3 ad spaces!

1) Nikki @ Chevron and Sweet Tea

2) Kim @ The KO Story

3) Jess @ Tooth N Nails

4) Erin @ Shades of Gray and a Pinch of Pink

5) Alyse @ The Enchanted Owl

6) Michael @ Crazy Tragic Almost Magic

Well ladies I can't wait to see who is going to be the winner! The giveaway ends on Tuesday the 19th at midnight and I'll announce the winner on the 20th! Yep, on my big day one of you ladies will be getting a present!
I'm sorry but this is only for people who have a US residence.

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New Year's Giveaway Winners!

First off, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the Giveaway! It wouldn't have been . . . well, anything without y'all!

I also want to thank those who entered!

Now, out of the 18 entries, we had 7 winners!

Hope you'll join me in congratulating . . .

Gayle

Ronit

Karrie

Andrea

Meg

Betsy

Beth

Congratulations to you ladies and thank you all!!

Christmas Shenanigans

You know what's really weird?

Me and my mom have quite different tastes.

Example: many, many moons ago, my uncle gave me the EXTENDED edition of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for Christmas. I began to watch it as soon as I could, and my mom fell asleep on the couch next to me. She woke up during a scene with the Ents (which she now loves because they "help the short guys") and said, "What is that?"

I told her they were Ents.

Now, my mom has been in the medical field for a while, so she was probably like "ear nose and throat . . . ???"

She looked at the screen, looked at me, and back at the screen.

"I'm going back to sleep."

Now, that isn't to say we don't have anything in common, and this proves it. 

For Christmas I decided to get my mom two movies she liked when we were kids but hadn't seen in a long time, probably coinciding with the VHS to DVD transition. 

I bought her Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Now, just take a wild guess as to what was in my stocking . . . ?

Yep.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Whoever said great minds think alike was right.

And here's my favorite part of Mary Poppins (because everyone loves this part, and if you don't, go get your head checked now before healthcare prices shoot up):

And from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, because I don't think it's nearly as popular as it should be:

The Day After the End of the World . . . and Walmart

So the world didn't explode, or melt, or swarm with Flood or zombies, or viruses, or have the animals go cray cray.

Hm. Fancy that.

Well, for those of us over the age of 13, we've survived the "End of the World" twice:

Y2K and 12/21/12

Yay us!

Our kids will never believe us . . .

On a similar note, what the heck is up with Walmart registers never being open when you need them?

I'm not dissing Wally World or anything, I'm just asking.

I mean, wouldn't that drive down your customer loyalty?

But come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any retail store with all their registers open.

That should change.

I mean, really.

Who wants their customers to stand in line for 20 minutes holding a heavy box of firewood?

I wouldn't.

Let me drive this bus a while . . .

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow and I am sooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!

Last year, I fell epicly short of 50,000 words by about 47,500 words.

Yeah . . .

But this year I have new hope!

No, not Star Wars I/IV. 

Hope that I'll get ahead in my school work and crank out a 50,000+ word novel!

(Opera) Bucket List

Just a short(?) list of operas I want to see . . . eventually:

Tosca

Werther

Eugene Onegin

Marriage of Figaro

Lucrezia Borgia 

Rigoletto

Elektra

Pelleas and Melisande

Rusalka

Die Fledermaus

Der Fliegende Hollaender

Tamerlano

Aida

Lucia di Lammermoor

La Clemenza di Tito

The Capulents and the Montagues 

Orlando Furioso

Ernani

Semele

(Update! 11/15/12 - I knew I had more of these floating around in my head!)

Katya Kabanova
The Capulets and the Montagues
Semele
La Finta Giardiniera
The Tsar's Bride
Virginia
Flora
Nabucco
Anna Bolena
Roberto Devereux
Francesca da Rimini
The Elixir of Love
La Sonnambula
Marie Victoire
Manon
La Traviata
Macbeth
Daughter of the Regiment
Il Travatore
Hippolyte et Aricie
La Cenerentola

(Soon to come: my favorite operas!)

Got any favorites of your own?

"Singing" versus SINGING

This may be beating a dead horse, but this occurred to me whilst in the shower, so it's automatically groundbreaking. 

Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) was a sensation when she was 16, right?

Me and a lot of my friends thought she had been pushed out onto the stage too early and didn't give her voice time to develop. That may be true, but I realized something the other day - 

Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) was also 16 in Phantom of the Opera. And when I say Christine Daae, I don't just mean the character: I mean Emmy too. 

This brings us to an unpleasant thing to admit: I was mistaken about voice maturation. 

(That means I was . . . um . . . wrong.)

But I was right about something else: Miley never really had it. Sorry HM fans. 

Emmy was trained in some opera school, I think. That's crazy! You know how much talent you have to have to be accepted . . . ? Yeah, a LOT. 

So yeah, either you got it or you don't.

And yes, I am a music snob.

My Spoiled Fish

I have this betta fish that I've posted about before.

Other than a near-death experience, he's pretty spoiled.

Like, really.

I went to Petsmart just looking around for a plant for his tank.

Just. Looking.

I come back with new pebbles, a Grecian temple, a cleaning cloth for the tank, and I ran out of fish food, so he got a fresh pack the same day.

He is so spoiled. 

God help my future children . . .

Field Trip!

Yesterday, one of my professors took us up to Columbia to go see Antony and Cleopatra performed by some players from Cambridge University.
It. Was. Fantastic!!
It was also a blast because our professor gave us a tour of Columbia - like where he lived and stuff like that.
We ended up going to a Mexican place afterwards (that play was 3 hours long!) and laughed about just about everything - not about the performance; the performance was impeccable.
If y'all ever have a chance to see the touring Cambridge University Players, you should.
And next time we go up there, we need to go to the zoo.
I haven't been to the zoo in ages. . .

How my Mother Saved my Life

Yes, this is a true story.

I will say first off that unused appliances scare me. And by "unused", I mean unused by me. And if you're still not sure what I'm talking about, check out this guest post I did not too long ago; it explains everything.

Allow me to set the stage: I've been house sitting for the past two or three weeks - a weekish at one house, two days between and now at another house. 

The first house had a lovely kitchen with a stove very much like the one I use at home.

Easy to cook on?

The second house has a lovely kitchen . . . with a gas stove . . .

Um. . .

Easy to cook on?

Which means I didn't have a clue how to use it.

I'd turn the knob, and it'd click repeatedly, and all I could think of was the house blowing up, so I'd turn it off in a hurry.

I actually ended up cooking a frozen meal in the microwave (which I never do) because I had no clue how to use the oven.

Now, how my lovely mother factors into this.

We were chatting on Facebook, and she asked what I was planning on having for dinner.

I said I didn't know.

Somehow, the stove situation came up, and she's like "Oh, those are easy".

She coached me step-by-step through how to use it.

And it worked.

God bless the mothers who make sure their "independent" children are able to cook for themselves.

Chick-Fil-A Day!

This is Chick-Fil-A at noon.

I'm actually not a huge fan of chicken, so I'm not there a whole lot, but dang . . . I've never seen it this busy!!!

There were only four parking spaces available when we got there, and people were already parked up and down the residential street. I think a couple even parked all the way over at McDonald's across the highway! (Talk about awkward -- walking to your car at MickyD's with a bag of Chick-Fil-A . . .)

I was pretty sure it would be busy; I think a few people are eating lunch and dinner there!

I have to admit I'm a bit worried about Friday . . . the . . . um . . . "event" that's supposed to happen that day. I don't think it will be a big deal here, but I pray parents will be wise enough not to take their children there Friday in cities where it will be pretty bad.

Just seeing the support people were showing for Biblical family values . . . It was awesome. God has really blessed Chick-Fil-A for their obedience and willingness to close every store on Sundays because it's the Sabbath. It's just incredible.

Though I do have to say, there are few feelings quite like wanting a CFA milkshake after Sunday dinner and realizing that just ain't gonna happen . . .

 

An AWESOME New Blog!

So, my friend Jennifer has started a new blog . . . and it is awesome.
Be a love and check it out? I'm sure you'll be blessed by it!

Hi! I'm Jennifer and I blog over at Blessings All Mind With Ten Thousand Beside. I just got started this week, so I'm a beginner at this whole blogger thing. I'm excited though. My blog is going to be about me, my family, our life and the things that God is teaching me. I am also planning to answer some of the questions that teenage girls ask me! You can find out more by visiting the blog and reading the About Me page and the About the Blog page. So head on over and check it out! Or if you have a question you can email me at: betterthatway@gmail.com.

Good things happen at school?

Indeed they do.
Whilst wandering around "town" today, and decided to drop by my college campus.
I was curious to see if they were building a new parking lot, because the parking situation is - in a word - deplorable. 
They were so excited about the number of freshman coming in when I was a freshman. Parking then was okay. Not great, but okay.
The next fall, me and a classmate walked into the cafeteria and were like "Whoa, where'd all these people come from?!" They must've all been freshmen, and that's when I noticed the parking lots became a bit more . . . "cozy".
This year, if they have as many freshman as they think they will, the parking is going to be an absolute headache.
I mean, I've had morning classes the past two years, so it's not that bad, but God forbid you go off campus for lunch . . . something I'm not apt to do this semester as "lunch" will be non-existent for me on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but that's for another post.
Anyhoo, I go by there, and they are building a parking lot . . . right where the soccer field used to be.
Not sure where my friends are going to practice now, but I suppose they've got that figured out.
So while I'm there, I see my friend's car. I pull up beside it to take a picture of it and play stalker with her, but she's in it. 
Bother.
So we chat for a while, and end up going to Old Navy and being weird and getting stalked by one of the employees. Okay, we weren't really being stalked, but he was behind us a lot.
So yes, long story short, good things do happen at school.

Sounds cool, BUT . . .

So, I'm in English class, and our professor is telling us how when he taught English as a second language in Spain, he didn't speak Spanish. He said that all you do is talk English to them the whole time.
Oh. My. Gosh.
I would feel so bad if I taught English abroad and totally confused some kids or some adult trying to learn English! Everyone hates it when you walk into Spanish class and the teacher starts talking at you in Spanish.
We hate that.
I would not want to do that . . .
But at the same time, it would be an excuse to watch American movies in class. You know, so they could learn English and all.
Hahahahaha, yeah, right!
I'd just bring a list of movies to class and have them vote on one every single week.

My evil final writing project . . .

So, for my Development of the English Language class, we got to pick our final writing project from three different options.
I picked something along the lines of "pick a small group that uses non-standard English and write about the differences".
'Kay.
Being the dork/geek/nerd that I am, I picked n00bs. N00bs that speak 1337. 
I asked my professor if that was okay.
He said sure . . . and proceeded to inquire what a n00b and 1337 was.
This paper is going to be so fun . . .

My Project for Tomorrow

Ever wanted to write a letter like this?

Pride and Prejudice, 2005.

Well, tomorrow, I'm going to experiment with different techniques of folding them, because Lizzie's letter from Jane was folded like this:

Pride and Prejudice, 2005.

If anyone wants, I can post picture tutorials on how to do it.
I'm also going to be working on making one of these:

http://bit.ly/zfcWJY.

Wish me luck!