Let the friggin fun begin already!!!

So, as most of you know, I'm "working" as a consultant right now. As most of you also know, despite the fact that I was hired a year ago, and actually began at the end of August, I have not yet been assigned to a project. As a result, I'm experiencing a major case of the blahs vis-a-vis the whole job thing.

Picture this: you have just graduated from college, finally found a job that sounds perfect for you, and begin this job with all of the excitement and anticipation one can imagine attends such a wonderful new phase of your life.

Now, imagine going into the office for five straight weeks to get trained on how to do this job. Sure, that gleam in your eyes may have dimmed somewhat, but you're still anxious to get going.

Now, imagine at the end of that five weeks, that you actually don't have anything to do yet. You need to "get staffed to a project." (What? You mean I got hired without something to do? That's weird.)

Finally, fast forward two months, and you still have not begun the actual work. Oh yes, you are getting paid, you've been to the doctor, the dentist, gotten your car repaired, checked your email, answered any and all calls for social events to "enhance your network," but STILL, you have not actually begun to work in this "challenging" environment.

Imagine you are the kind of person who turned down a job where you got to sit in your pajamas all day working on PowerPoint slides for $30 an hour because it wasn't challenging enough, and then imagine that instead of that, you got paid even more to do nothing whatsoever. My insightful husband compared it to an episode of the Twilight Zone: You wish that you could get paid to do nothing, and then you get your wish and it sucks! Well, that's where I'm at right now, cue Rod Serling.

Word on the street is that I am unlikely to get staffed on a project until January, so I have at least one more month of this inertia to look forward to. I'm going crazy. I've watched every movie ever created. I've taken online classes on a variety of scintillating corporate subjects to "enrich my skills." I've had lunch with executives:"Sorry, nothing on the horizon right now, check back in January. If it makes you feel any better, we've all been through this." I'm even "volunteering" for non-billable projects to keep from forgetting how to be a productive member of society.

I know, it is completely "Generation Y" to complain about getting paid to do nothing in a recession, while people everywhere are losing their jobs and lining up in breadlines. But I competed my butt off for this job, and I want the chance to prove myself. I want the opportunity to earn my wages. And mostly, I want some frequent flier miles.

Back in the Saddle (again)

Hello everyone,

Sorry for those of you who were disappointed in the attrition of blog contributions toward the end of my road trip. I was definitely experiencing blog fatigue. I now realize that I am just not very good about keeping up with the blogging, so I removed "books" and "movies" from this blog, and moved "Favorite Things" down to the bottom, so I don't feel so disappointed in myself when I finally do log back on. I also changed the title of my blog from "crises of a 10th year undergraduate" since I FINALLY got my degree!!! Yippee!!!

What have I been up to? Well, after my road trip ended, I got my wisdom teeth pulled on Wednesday the 20th (well, two of them were pulled, and two of them were surgically removed) then I had an allergic reaction to the vicodin which left me sick for days and days.

Thursday - Sick

Friday - Sick

Saturday - Slightly less sick, but still not quite up to snuff

Sunday - Not really sick but in a lot of pain from the jaw tension and only being able to take tylenol

___________

Monday, August 25th - First day of work. (For those of you who don't know, I just began work as a technology consultant for a major international consulting firm.) The first day consisted of eight hours of powerpoint slides about various HR topics.

Tuesday, August 26th - Second day of work. Eight hours of slides of "core values"

Wednesday, August 27th - Stitches removed from surgery, and eight hours of online training on such scintillating topics as sexual harassment and data privacy.

Thursday, August 28th - see Wednesday

Friday, August 29th - See Wednesday and Thursday

_______________

The next two weeks promise to be a little more exciting (well, for me anyway) with two weeks devoted to computer programming training.
________________

Then two weeks after that, I get to travel to another state for two weeks of training with all of the new hires from around the globe (who look a little bit like an alcoholic co-ed fraternity in business suits, if the recruiting materials are to be believed). I'm actually really looking forward to that too. I'm just excited to be starting this new chapter of my life. The powerpoint presentations and online trainings wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't so anxious to get started on the "real" work.

Anyway, I'm definitely very excited about the opportunities before me. I'm working with some really great people (even if most of them are really young, and I can't help acting a little bit like their mom, or at least their nerdy older sister) and all of the experienced people I've met seem to be competent, if not always entertaining. I'll try to keep you updated, but I'm not making any promises. I'm an international consultant now. :)

Weather, Integrity, and Moral Imperative

I hate rain. I love snow, but not when it could be confused for rain. I am not a fan of the "wintery mix." It's like everything that's bad about rain, plus it's Hella McCold, and it stays on your body longer. Ew.

Anyway, enough chatting about the weather. I'm supposed to be working on my short story for my creative writing class, and I am absolutely uninterested in writing it. I am being forced to compromise my original vision of the story (where the main character is forced into making a bad choice) into one that's much more "American" and ends happily ever after.

I don't know what I expected when I signed up for a creative writing class, but somehow I thought all of my weird bad habits would be okay. It turns out, they're not... at least not in a classroom context. I would argue however, that almost all of my favorite short stories are not structured in a "crisis, conflict, resolution" fashion where everyone's choices are clear cut and the ending is emotionally satisfying.

I much prefer stories like Richard Matheson's (or any episode of the Twilight Zone, for that matter) where the ending isn't necessarily happy, but there is a clear moral imperative, even if that imperative is demonstrated through its not being met.

Well, unfortunately for me, artistic integrity is a distant second on my priority list to the number one priority of getting a good grade:

1. Get a good grade.


2. Artistic integrity. (Do work I would be proud of.)


So, I guess I'll be telling the gangster story with the happy ending. My sister suggested that I write my stories twice, once for me, and once for the teacher, a solution she arrived at when she was in a creative writing class herself. Of course, that would be a great suggestion. But I think artistic integrity is actually placed third, behind:

1. Do as little work as possible
2. Get a good grade



3. Do work I would be proud of.


It may be possible to do all three of these things, but the best grade I've gotten so far in the class was on the assignment I just said "fuck it" to, and half-heartedly wrote a series of sentences that would best fit into a nice chick-lit story. It is possible that I do my best writing while mocking something, that is read and interpreted earnestly. But somehow, I doubt it.

Maybe the best writing I can hope to do is dimestore romance novels. I guess someone has to write them. I won't mind being at the cover shoot for the photos either. And I'd probably get to watch lots of Cinemax for research... Okay. That's enough. I'm going to stop writing now, before I turn into the next Danielle Steele.

Everytime I think I'm a genius...

...someone proves me wrong.


Today I was thinking about my newest idea for what I call my "Genius Sandbox" which is basically a repository of ideas that will make me a multi-millionare before age 30. (Please do not speculate as to how close to that particular deadline I am.)

Anyway... one of my latest ideas for the Genius Sandbox was a setting for my Google Calendar that includes a way to automagically silence my iPhone (yes, I bought an iPhone) during times when you wouldn't want it to ring--like during class, or while I'm at the theater. (Or, on an unrelated tangent, simply to make Google Calendar sync with my iPhone without using third-party software and Outlook as an intermediary.) Since I'm already going to the effort of putting these appointments into my calendar so that I won't forget them (probably because I am approaching 30) I thought it might be nice to have the "busy" radio button (that shows you as unavailable for other appointments) automagically assume that I also want my phone to be silent.

Genius? I certainly thought so. But apparently someone else had the idea last year. Same with my "how's my driving .com" web 2.0 app.

So, given that this idea has been in the miasma for over a year, why hasn't it been implemented? Well, obviously, it would be quite the programming cluster ____ to try to create code for each and every mobile device.

But I don't have every device. I have an iPhone. And some of us apple enthusiasts (not me) paid $200 more than the rest of us so we could look cool. If I have to import my appointments into the iPhone calendar, why doesn't it include a simple checkbox to silence itself? That's a great question, and I'd like Apple to answer it. Immediately, if not sooner.

Apple (or Google for that matter) could also just hire me to design this for them, and I'd be quite happy. In addition to simply incorporating a "silence" feature, you could also prioritize who gets to ring through. For example, I might not want my phone to ring during meetings UNLESS it's my boss. I ask you: What's the point of all those fancy groups, if you can't also assign specific call times? How about not letting the phone ring for anyone from the office after 5:00pm. (Brilliant, I say, brilliant.)

I'm thinking how beautiful it would be not to get woken up by that drunk dial from someone in Eurasia at 2:00 in the morning, because I've set my calendar to ring through only if it is someone in my "friends and family" group.

These innovations would be quite simple to implement AND they'd be really helpful for superusers like myself. Sure, the average grandparent isn't likely to utilize a feature like that, but I can assure the powers that be that the people who would use it (namely me) would appreciate it greatly. (And we spend more money on technology than our grandparents.)

Or, just give me an SDK and I'll write the damn thing myself. Thank you, have a nice day.

The Doctor is OUT

So, no endoscopy today. This was the original consult, where the gastroenterologist makes me spend money to give him the same medical history I gave my GP, and then puts me on expensive medications before doing any expensive diagnostic tests.

Current diagnosis: acid reflux. I'm going to be taking a "proton pump inhibitor" to try to neutralize the acid. It could take up to a month for the symptoms to dissipate if the medicine is effective. Fun. I'm also supposed to start drinking metamucil. Nothing like purchasing senior citizen accessories while in your mid-twenties. Soon I'll be buying ensure and depends. I can feel it.

Differential diagnosis: allergies. Apparently, I may suffer from some seasonal allergies that are causing me to experience post-nasal drip in the nighttime, and making me throw up in the morning as I try to clear my throat (subconsciously) in the morning. Intriguing. And convenient, since I have no allergy symptoms during the day. And am not "stuffed up" in the morning. If you can just make stuff up, I think I'm ready to be a doctor. If it is "allergies" then my symptoms would likely go away this summer and come back at the same time next year.

Follow up: revisit the GE if the PPI doesn't get rid of the AR. If I have reflux, then I'd get an endoscopy in 5-7 years to make sure that the acid hasn't killed my esophagus.

Feelings: why don't we have one of those medical tricorders yet? I just want to know what's wrong with me by waving an iPhone over my body, and then I want it to be cured by some kind of painless laser/photon beam. On a positive note, my doctor was pretty nice, I think I'm just frustrated with medicine as a whole.

All phones are NOT created equal

About 10 months ago, I purchased a new cell phone from at&t/cingular/at&t. After spending a few days doing research, I finally decided on the Sony Ericsson w300i. It plays mp3s, takes pictures, AND has FM radio (plus it got generally good reviews). I listen to the radio quite a bit, so I really decided on this phone because of that feature. (It's one of the only phones that has it).

When I got the phone I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did it have the features mentioned, but it also had a really loud ring (which is something I wanted, but is nearly impossible to find out about without actually using the phone), and good volume on calls as well.

On the negative side, the layout of the keypad isn't that great, since all of the buttons are flush with each other, so you actually have to look at the phone to send text messages. Which is fine, people shouldn't be texting from their cars anyway.

So, within the first few months of owning this phone, a piece of the crappy headphone adapter broke off, so I was dealing with a connection problem with the headphones. It wasn't enough of a bother for me to go all the way and purchase a new adapter, but it was mildly annoying. Then, about halfway into my super-high-stress-cell-phone-dependent summer job, the phone decides to power off anytime the flip phone is shut. ACK. So I was forced to leave the phone open while I waited to find time to get it replaced (it was still under warranty).

The replacement arrives, and it's a refurbished phone. I was excited to find, however, that it came with a new adapter for the headphones, so at least one problem was solved. :) I don't really care about the status of its having been refurbished, but I expect it to work... Within two days, the same problem as the previous phone occurs. It's CLEARLY a problem with the wiring within the hinge, and it's clear that whoever had this phone before me had the same problem, and it was NOT, in fact, fixed.

So I called AT&T to replace the second phone. It turns out that on your third replacement (on your fourth physical phone) you get to switch brands. Luckily for me, this would only be my third phone, since I'd grown fond of the w300i.

Anyway... right as the operator was telling me that if the phone broke again I'd have to switch to a new brand, he finds out that they are out of w300i's. So I'm not going to be getting the same phone, after all. :( I'm mildly heartbroken, but I sense an opportunity for an upgrade...

The operator says we're going to give you a RAZR. And I said "it can play music and has a camera phone?" and he said "yes, it even plays video." I was confused, because I know the old razrs did not play music. I did a little research and found out that the new RAZR, the v3xx, plays music, BUT it doesn't take regular headphones, AND it doesn't come with headphones. So I was prepared to make a phone call to customer service today when my phone arrived, and couldn't play music out of the box, cause I'd have to shell out $100 for crappy bluetooth headphones...

So, at 12:00, my new phone arrives, and it's a RAZR v3. As in, "the old RAZR that does NOT play music." So I called, and I whined, and they tried to give me a Nokia phone that costs an entire $100 less than my phone. I was like "uh-uh" and I was getting a little frustrated, this being my third phone and all, so I got sent to the "escalation desk." I have this beautiful picture in my mind of a desk floating up and down a magical escalator, but I doubt that's what it means.

Escalation guy seemed to understand my disappointment in the clearly inferior Nokia, and tried to offer me a straight up RAZR v3xx, I was like, NO, it's not comparable to my phone, cause you can't play music on it out of the box. I don't care that it is a "better" phone, I'm not paying $100 for some crappy bluetooth headphones. So he said, "I'll send you some headphones" and I said "awesome possum."

So, the RAZR v3xx does NOT play FM radio (insert frowny face here) but it does play mp3's and it's prettier than my walkman phone, AND it's on a better network, so presumably there will be better call connectivity. (One can hope anyway.) In most people's eyes, this is a situation in which I definitely "won" the customer service war.

But I would call this customer service experience a wash. I'm really disappointed that my phone doesn't have radio. I'm really pissed off that they would rather send me a more expensive refurbished phone than send me a new version of my existing phone (which is currently for sale on their website). Also, because my warranty period expires in November, I'm fairly certain that the new phone will work until exactly the day after my warranty period ends, thereby forcing me to purchase another phone programmed to work for exactly 366 days before crapping out.

It's fairly ingenious: they don't even have to engineer obsolescence in the software, they just have to make something so mechanically inferior that it breaks every few months. Then they send "refurbished" phones over and over again until the customer's warranty period is up.

I'm on to you, AT&T. I know people with the original Nokia 5100s who are still using their phones almost 10 years later, because there was NOTHING you could break on them. Meanwhile, i have a $300 phone that has broken twice in a year. Sure, it has a camera (that I don't use) FM radio (that I do) and a snazzy ringtone, but it doesn't work for a damn. I'm not running to snatch up a Nokia 5100 anytime soon, but I propose that the degradation in quality of the phones produced over the last ten years is linked to the addition of "features." That's all I'm saying.

Status Report

Let's see, I've been home for a week, and my house is half-cleaned, my internship paper is half-written, I'm half-way through "Thursday Next: A First Among Sequels," I'm half-way through unpacking my stuff from this summer. Since we leave for Durango on Saturday at 6:00am, I think I'd better get my booty in gear.

I also have tickets to see Mel Brooks' new musical "Young Frankenstein" on Friday. I'm looking forward to that.

I finally finished re-reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. It was good. The final book was a bit slow to read, but I enjoyed it overall. It's kind of like the anti-Lewis. I'm surprised something so anti-Christian was a commercial success, not to mention being made into a major Hollywood film. I'm interested to see how the movie turns out. It can't do worse that Stardust, a movie only Steven and I seem to have been less than fully satisfied with. I'll admit that I loved Robert DeNiro and Ricky Gervais, but there were definite lulls, and the movie could have used another $50 million to make it a bit more magical.

I enjoyed "Rocket Science" despite the uncomfortable frequency of teenagers making out. It reminded me of "Thumbsucker" and brought back far too many unpleasant high school memories, but it was still enjoyable.

"Ratatouille" was pretty good. The level of quality in the animation is astounding. I don't know how Pixar does it, but everything they make looks completely beautiful. The rats moved just like real rats. It was amazing. The movie has also convinced me of a new vocation to strive for: "Global Technology Supervisor." I have no idea what the "Global Technology Supervisor" does, but it sounds like something I would enjoy. There's the whole global thing, which appeals to my ego and sense of self-importance; of course I love technology; and supervisors generally get to boss people around, which I am in favor of... but I digress...

I'm supposed to go see "The Nanny Diaries" this afternoon with the coolest middle-schooler this side of the rockies. All-in-all, it's been pretty much my ideal weekend.

Next year, I'm definitely going to try to go to the Penny Arcade Expo though. There were so many nerds in Seattle yesterday that even I felt cool. It was the first time I've ever seen a line to get inside of Gameworks.

Anyway, that's all I've got here from my couch on this ominous-clouds, super-dark-gray-sky-sun-still-shining-on-the-trees Sunday morning.

Seth, my norsk hero.

I'm feeling rather prolific to make up for my complete summer of non-posting. So I'm going to brag about my buddy Seth for a second.

First of all, Seth is one of the coolest people I know. I determine his coo-ality, and basically anyone's, using one key metric: independence. I love people who do their own thing. I love people who know what they want and go for it. I love people who are true to themselves no matter what. So while Seth and I have little in common other than a sketchy past in a collegiate a capella group, a love of all kinds of movies, and a keen intellect (if I do say so myself), I love him and put him in my top five friends any day of the week.

Seth is in Norway right now, at the beginning of an incredible six-year program where he is learning Norwegian (so he can understand his classes) and Electronics in lovely Trondheim. As far as I know, Seth has no ties to Norway whatsoever. He just found this program and has committed six years of his life to it. He's pretty much my hero for that. I'll miss him while he's in Norway, but I'll probably see him just as much as I did when he was in Boston and I was in Seattle (which is to say, about every 2.5 years).

I'll keep thinking warm thoughts of him (I understand it's cold in Norway), and hoping he doesn't get arrested for dumpster diving, or kill himself trying to play Ultimate Frisbee indoors. If any of my dear readers would like to read more about his adventures, he's blogging about it at Norwhuh? Be warned... Seth takes a rather free-form approach to blogging (actually to just about everything, now that I think about it [including his facial hair, which is getting rather impressive]). It's not for the faint of heart.

Hard Knocks

So, I've been sitting at home a lot this week, and I have a new favorite television show.... It's going to surprise anyone who knows me, because I don't give a damn about football.

I am completely in love with "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs." It has re-affirmed for me that football is basically a fraternity for giants, but I have somehow come away from the whole viewing experience completely endeared to the team and with a more open mind about football in general.

First of all, the photography in this series is AMAZING. Obviously who would know how to make a television show about football better than NFL films, but I can't get over the production value. It makes every other reality show look disgusting (which of course, they are.) But NFL films has taken reality television to high art with "Hard Knocks" and even a non-football fan can enjoy the show. I was so sucked in that I found myself experiencing real pathos when the team didn't win their pre-season matches, and I'm the girl who is perfectly happy to spend the Super Bowl perfecting the art of the appetizer and only wandering out of the kitchen for the commercials. Good work, HBO.

Rant of the Day

So, as I'm gearing up for my summer job, I have a LOT of errands to run. In a car.

In no other city that I've ever lived in, have I seen such complete ignorance when it comes to pedestrians--and I lived in Boston, so that's saying a lot. For a city that prides itself on being "green," Seattlites don't deal well with non-drivers.

Here are my gripes:

• There are almost NO pedestrian-only lights downtown. Instead, pedestrians are expected to cross when cars are trying desparately to make right turns, directly into the pedestrians. As a result, during rush-hour (which is pretty much all day here) an average of one car per light can make a turn, and that's generally right as the light turns red, encouraging other cars to plow into them.
  
• Secondly, in an effort to be nice, stupid people in cars will allow pedestrians to cross in front of them in the middle of a busy street, NOT in a crosswalk. This is a dangerous proposition for everyone involved. Drivers have no expectation that people will stop in the middle of a block. In this day of cell phones, in-car mascara application, and coffee obsession, you should not be stopping abruptly in the middle of the street, cause someone might rear-end you. In so doing, they can cause you to smash right into that pedestrian you were trying to "help." This particular phenomenon happened to me twice today. In one example, I almost rear-ended someone who stopped (abruptly) in the middle of a block to let a pedestrian cross over to Starbucks. To the pedestrian, I'd like to say: "Hey dummy, walk the 1/2 block to the crosswalk and cross safely please, or next time, I'll rear-end the car in front of me for giggles."
  
• In places where there are designated bike paths, some cyclists INSIST upon riding on the road. This is also dangerous for everyone. There's a reason we have bike paths. To you cyclists I say: "I get it, you commute on a bike--aren't you super cool. Ride on the bike path when there is one, and ride on the road when there isn't." And all you stupid people walking your dogs on leashes on the part of the "sidewalk" that has a picture of a dude on a bike on it--you deserve to get mown down for your ignorance.

It's called darwinism, and I'd like to see some more of it.

On the other hand, there's an adaptation I've been forced to make in this city in order to preserve my own life that I'm just not happy about. When a light turns green, I find myself waiting and looking around to see if a bus has decided to disregard the red light--again. Today, during my cursory 3 second wait, I watched a double-length bus go from a complete stop on a yellow to "full-speed ahead" after the light turned red. I see this all the time, and there seems to be absolutely no recourse. Bus drivers in this city ignore the light color completely. God forbid a pedestrian took that walk sign literally and stepped out in front of that bus before the driver floored the gas pedal. That would have been an unpleasant start to my day.

Stupid HTML

I spent ages formatting the previous post with some nice indentations to improve readability. I previewed the post before publishing, and it looked just the way I wanted, but when it finally came up on the blog--nothing!

Thanks a lot, blogger.

The Honesty Box

I just added a new application to my facebook page, it's called the Honesty Box. Whether anyone will use it remains to be seen, but the premise is simple:

People can use the honesty box to post things to me anonymously. It's a perfect opportunity to air your grievances--think of it as a passive-aggressive festivus ritual.

Of course, I'm pretty sure you have to be my "friend" to post something, and it does narrow it down by gender, so I'd probably be able to guess who posted, thereby elminating the need for the thing at all.

So why bother? Those of you who know me realize that I operate at a different level of honesty than most, and that makes some people uncomfortable. Now those people whose feelings I have hurt (for example, by telling them that they have a booger sticking out their nose, or that the layout of their webpage is total crap) have an outlet for venting their frustrations with a slight pretense of anonymity. They'd at least have plausible deniablity.

At this point, the only thing I can imagine someone posting there is a message from a friend saying how pissed off at me they are for basically disappearing for the last month and a half.

Here is my not-so-anonymous reply:

Dear Friend:

Yes, I have your book. I'm sure I'll wind up mailing it to you at your new home. I'm sorry that I'm a jerk. Hope the magazine turned out well. Good luck in the real world. Perhaps we shall cross paths again someday.

Signed,
Stupidhead

I imagine the original intent of the app was to allow people to reveal their secret crushes. If I were to use someone else's honesty box, I would probably use it for good, since I'm perfectly willing to do my own grievance airing the old-fashioned way. Here are some things I could imagine saying via the honesty box:

Your hair looks great today.
You should wear more yellow.
I wish I had your eyelashes.
You are an amazing dancer.
Your butt looks great in those jeans.
You make me want to be a better man.

Sometimes when I try to say things like that in person, I think I sound creepy. So now I will limit my use of bizarre compliments to the Honesty Box. Feel free to deliver mine in person if you prefer, I know that I can handle it.

I really do believe that people need to be completely honest with each other, and that only good things can come of it. Even if something apparently bad happens as a result of honesty, at least it's real. You know?

Day 2 of my life in the blogosphere

So, last night I had a wonderful time with my main Seattle homie, Steven. We went to Machiavelli in Capitol Hill, where we had the spinach ravioli and the spinach lasagna, then we went to Neumos to see Yacht and Architecture in Helsinki.

a) this concert made me feel old. In fact, we were approached by another oldster, who asked us if she was "required" to go inside when the doors opened, or if she could just wait and come back when the show started. Then she made some kind of comment about us all being old. I'm sure she was trying to instill some sense of comeraderie, but it was lost on me, as I was busy being perplexed by what kind of person over the age of 16 doesn't know how a concert works.

b) that place is f*ing hot. And I don't mean that in a "good" way. I mean hot, like sweaty, smelly, tight, cramped, strangers rubbing their sweat on you--hot. I'm so glad I stood on the old people balcony and wasn't down on the ground slogging it out with the kiddies, I'm sure I would have punched one of them in the face.

c) Yacht was strange. He's apparently the same age as me, which makes me feel a little proud to be a 10th year college student, because there are so many other (strange) things I could be. He basically dropped some beats on his Mac, sings the same 10 words over and over, and runs around the stage like a maniac. I didn't know how to feel about all of this. I just don't understand what the kids are listening to these days. I felt like maybe it was all some elaborate joke. Like in 10 years, we're going to find out that Yacht was a performance artist whose motivation was to see how much BS people would pay $15 to see. As far as I could tell from the balcony, he did have exceptionally nice teeth.

d) Architecture in Helsinki was pretty good. I really like their sound, it reminds me a little of some 80's groups that I LOVE, although I fail to see the "grunge" influence to their sound. I can't imagine someone who likes Nirvana, for example, also liking Architecture for Helsinki, or being pleased to find it recommended to them on Amazon. First of all: they wear too many colors. Their sound is way more psychedelic than grungy. Okay, maybe they're not totally obsessed with showering or shaving; but I'm pretty sure that's not the sole requirement for grunge.

As for Teen Witch, there is one movie that stands the test of time. It was already ridiculous in 1989, so in 2007, it's awesomeness is just magnified to the Nth degree. As far as I remember in 1989 (and bear with me, I was 9) when you became the "most popular girl" you didn't have signs with your name all over school. I'm also pretty sure that there was no spontaneous choreography, or white-boy rap battles, although I really wish there were.