Daily Archives: April 1, 2009

Good News!

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I’m happy to announce some very good news today.

It may come as a surprise to you folks, but I have been dating a great guy for more than a year now online. We have only met a few times in person, what with budgets being tight and all (stupid student loans). I’ve never felt so connected to anyone in my life and I can say without any exaggeration that Sergei (he lives in Lomonosov, Russia and teaches programming at the college there, btw) is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

We’ve set the wedding date for June 12 next year. It should be a small wedding, since I hate big fussy events, but I’ve already started looking for a traditional Russian wedding dress. This is not as easy as it sounds, so if you readers can hook me up with a name and a website, I could use the help. Fortunately my wonderful mom is taking care of most of the big issues like flowers and booking a place for the reception, so I’m not worried about any of that.

I’ve already found an awesome (and ginormous) silver plated samovar so that tea can be served in the traditional Russian way. It’s funny, but the German-Norwegian half of this partnership seems more interested in the Russian traditions than the actual Russian. I think Sergei just wants to be left out of it as much as possible, frankly. I know I do, but someone has to take care of all this stuff. He just thinks the marriage is more important than the wedding and I have to say I agree on that.

I’d elope, but my family would kill me.

That is, if they don’t kill me for posting this. Happy April Fool’s Day, folks. Sorry about the joke, but I couldn’t really help it. Now tell me, were you fooled, or did you not believe a word of it?

Hindu Philosophy and Bad Bad Words

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Here are a few more lists, for the list-obssessed (like me). The title of the post comes from the time when I was studying Hindu philosophy in college and was appalled to learn how much of it consisted of lists. Five ways to do this, four meanings of that, however many positions of yoga… lots to memorize there for a test! But here are a few more benign lists, no memorization required.

First, a list of words it is not okay to ever say.

This is not my list; if I had a list it would begin with the word "commentators," which is not a word, because the word is "commenters." There are plenty of stupid words on the list, though, starting with webinar (which I do use, but wish there were a better word for).

Second, a list of ways to be cool. Seriously. Someone wrote these out, from "wearing a leather jacket" to "learning to play the guitar" to "wear cologne" and "mowhawk." (sic)

My list would be very short: "Stop trying to be cool."

And here are a few literary lists you might like, both of which revolve around second novels. Some of the second novels are spectacular and do better than the author’s first novels (like Pride and Prejudice). And then there is the list of "Cursed" second novels, of which I have read exactly none.