Burqini

Perhaps when some people look at Ahiida's line of Burqinis they see women's oppression. When I look at Burqinis I see SPF 50+ protection and zero body issues when I'm swimming out to the end of OB's pier with my pal, Lauri.

(Thanks for the tip, L)

Snack

These crackers are pretty much what I imagine prison food to taste like.

I can't stop eating them, though, because they're the only thing in this house that requires no preparation. (Peeling bananas and oranges have just become too much of a time suck in my very busy schedule...I'll be adding laziness to my blog list of categories) This is key for someone who values the speed of which one can get food to mouth. Wasa Crackers = High food to mouth velocity. And they're already so bad that I just leave the bag open in the pantry because what's the worst that could happen? Your cardboard brick of a cracker will go stale? For the Catholics out there, let me put it this way: Wasa crackers have NOTHING on communion.

Hey, speaking of Catholicism, tis the season for Lent. No meat on Fridays, right? So technically we should NOT receive communion on Fridays since the eucharist becomes Jesus' body. I mean, unless Jesus' flesh is made of cod, we're eating meat, right? Then again, the guy has been known to pull a David Blaine or two so I wouldn't put it past him where he's just like, Yeah, you know what? On Fridays I'm made out of cod. Sneaky Jesus.

35 Days Till Chrismukkah

With Thanksgiving a couple of days away, it's not to early to prepare for Chrismukkah: The merry mish-mash holiday and the only site to bring you Oy Joy this holiday season. My favorite card is the picture of an egg nog carton on a table with the proclamation on the side that it's Kosher. Be sure to browse a bit to also enjoy the mish-mash music.

Euphemism Generator

Not surprisingly in a German class full of foreigners, there are sometimes awkward interactions. And it's also not much of a surprise that this usually stems from not understanding the words the other person is saying, or not finding the words you need to explain yourself. But more interesting is when the misunderstanding comes from cultural differences and not because you lack the vocabulary. My interaction yesterday went like this:

S: I have a question.
Kell: Okay.
S: Sometimes when I read a sentence, I understand the literal meaning of every word, but I don't understand the whole sentence.
K: Okay.
S: Why?
K: Do you have an example?
S: No. I only want to know why I don't understand.
K (feeling slightly confused at this point): Well German is a foreign language that you're learning and sometimes the German mentality doesn't translate great. (This seemed to satisfy her to a greater extent than I expected...I thought I was being slightly funny).
S: Naturally it's another language, but if I understand every single word, why don't I understand the whole sentence.
K: I'm not sure I can help you without an example.

S became very frustrated with me. She simply wanted me to tell her why she couldn't understand. To her, a specific example was beside the point--this was all very clear and it struck me as very strange that another person wanted me to tell them what they were thinking. S is a Muslim from Turkey and it's the second course I've had with her and we're partners in 90% of our exercises. I don't like to readily label differences as something being cultural (because the more I get to know many of the people from various nations, the more I realize most of the world is frighteningly the same as far as personality types go), but the past six months have definitely manifested that a strange control has been exerted over this girl--sometimes elementary confusion over an aspect of sex that might come up, but a seemingly full understanding of the complicated relationship of a concubine, for example.

With much resistance she brought an example to me five minutes later. Turns out the sentences that were confusing her contained German euphemisms.

On that note, have a look at the Euphemism Generator. I don't know that it's "endless amusement" as they claim, but it might get a heh out of you.

Pharmatology

I'm thinking about becoming a pharmacist AND a scientologist. Just think of the salary I'll make for doing nothing because my job is against my religion...

pope john paul II's death

A little late for the blog, I know, but I lost sleep over him the night before he died. Part of it over "Wow...the guy whose portrait I saw everyday for 12 years of my Catholic education is about to come off the wall," and most of it over "Holy crap...here's a guy who's chosen religion and God as a way of life in preparation for this exact moment AND became the freakin' 'king' of it all...he's about to find out if it was all worth it..." I was scared for him.