Random thoughts that only make sense if you watched Survivor last night

I kept thinking... if a contestant died on Survivor, we'd have heard about it in the news... right? No one died on last night's episode, but Russell (also known as OtherRussell and LeaderRussell) got pretty close. Jeff Probst was pretty adorable with his nurturing bedside manner and fatherly pep-talk.

A lot of people (on the internet, in forums) have said that Russell was really stupid to not sit out for the challenge, but I disagree. On Survivor, I don't think a tribe ever really votes someone out for being weak, losing food, or losing the team challenge. Those are just convenient excuses for voting out a person they were planning on voting out anyway. Russell really should have sat the challenge out, but I think he correctly ascertained that he was on the outs with his tribe. They were already murmuring about Russell not choosing the tarp, and about him working a little too hard. The team was looking for a reason to vote him out. I think, had he sat out of the challenge, the team would have pounced. They had been told that they had to vote someone out that night no matter who won the challenge; so sitting out, playing the strong people and winning the challenge would not have saved Russell. (The winning team would just get to eat pizza while they voted someone out.) In the end, Russell had to leave the game anyway and no one was voted out. Jeff obviously thought that Russell really had a good shot at winning the game, but I disagree. He might not have been voted out this time, but I think he'd have gone before the merge.

If you read the fan reaction online, it's kind of funny that most people are outraged over the fact that Jeff Probst didn't just let everyone have pizza. I thought the exact same thing. The editing was great this episode. At the end, both teams were at tribal council, and you could hear the rain start to pour. Again. After several straight days of it. They kept cutting to individual reactions of people looking up at the sky in hopeless sadness. These people not only willingly signed up for this, but they consider it an honor. A great life achievement. But you couldn't help feel so bad for them! Please Jeff! Let them just have some pizza!

Some of the music I like

Here are some videos of music I like that I found through Pandora or emo tv shows.

"Closer" by Kings of Leon


"Fidelity" by Regina Spektor


"My Skin" by Natalie Merchant


"Buttons" by The Weeks


"Lazy Eye" by Silversun Pickups

All that Bet Red / Tomato Nation / Donors Choose stuff I've been tweeting about

So I've been spamming all my social networking outlets with links to the Donor's Choose: Bet Red (Tomato Nation) contest. The couple of people who have responded to my links seemed confused as to what I was talking about, so here's some further explanation. And another shameless plug.

First of all: Donors Choose. It's one of my favorite charities, along with Kiva. With Donors Choose, teachers post funding requests for a specific need their school or classroom has. They outline all of the costs, explain why they need what they are asking for, and submit it to the website. Donors can browse all of these projects and chose to donate to whatever project they want. Like Kiva, it puts the donor in (almost) direct contact with the recipient. It's all fairly anonymous, for safety reasons, but you - the donor - have complete control over where your money goes. It's a lot of fun. You get to help buy band instruments, or help beef up the sci-fi section of a library, or buy math games, or even an air conditioner for a classroom in Texas. (Could you imagine going to school in Texas without an air conditioner?) There's a lot of variety. Browse through the projects, I'm sure you'll easily find something that resonates with you.

So what is Tomato Nation? Tomato Nation is a blog I like to read that encourages its readers to donate to Donors Choose during the month of October. You can read more about it here. "Bet Red" is their slogan for 2009. It's great if you donate at all, but donating through Tomato Nation's contest page has definite advantages. For example, earlier today, Sars (the tomatonation blogger), informed her readers that a particular donor was willing to offer a matching donation once our total donations reached $90K. At the time, we were at $83,106. If we met the goal by Friday, the match would be $4K. By Thursday, $6K. If we got to $90K by Wednesday at midnight, they'd donate $8K. At that point, I posted links on facebook and twitter, hoping some people might chip in a few dollars, if they could. (Jill did! Thanks Jill!) Turns out, we got to $90K before midnight TODAY. With 25 hours to spare! I think that's pretty awesome. Besides matching donations, Sars offers lots of fun mini-prizes along the way. Check her site regularly for more details on those.

So while the urgency for this particular deadline is gone, I still think it's a great charity and a great contest. You can search by state and donate locally, or search by subject matter and donate according to your passion. Excited About Encyclopedias! was the project where I chose to contribute. It's in Utah, and it's in the language/literacy category... both of which are important to me. Their goal is not yet met, so if you want to donate, this would be a great place to do so. I'd really love to see them get what they need, and the finish line for that particular project is within reach. And if you can donate through the Tomato Nation "Bet Red" link, that would be even better! (If you want to pick another project, through Tomato Nation, you can use this spreadsheet to sort by state and subject. And if you want nothing to do with Tomato Nation at all, but still want to donate, that's fine too... use this link.)

If you have questions about any of this, check out one of the billion links I put in the post, or just ask me in the comments. :)

Oh no! Don't eat me!

The best Halloween candy ever? Boo Peeps! They just might be the best candy ever, regardless of holiday. Not just for taste (though sugar coated marshmallows are quite delicious), but for cuteness and overall eating entertainment.

Oooh noooo! Don't eat me! Noooo!

The worst candy ever? The life-sized gummy severed foot I saw at wal-mart. I can't find it anywhere on the internet, or I'd post a picture. Maybe that's for the best. It was quite disgusting.

My spare frog club, pending

A short while ago, my supervisor at work offhandedly mentioned that she thought my bedroom looked nice. Apparently, she had a seen a picture of it, somewhere on the internet. Understandably concerned, I asked a few followup questions. From her description, I realized it was a picture of my bedroom at my parent's house. The room that is now Jake's room, which is now a festering mess of old socks and bedspreads that will continue to fester until Jake gets back from his mission. Even though I no longer lived there, I was still unsettled. Where on the internet was a picture of my old bedroom? "Oh, it was on your blog," she answered.

So... I have a lot of blogs. I'm not interesting enough to justify that many blogs, but nonetheless, they exist. I really enjoy the layout aspect of blogs. Sometimes, when I hit a blog funk, I blame it on the layout, open a new account, and play around with a different look, feel, and blog theme. Sometimes I stay there, sometimes I get bored and go back to the old blog. It's a cool story, I know.

I looked through all the blogs I could remember creating. No picture of my old bedroom. My supervisor couldn't remember the web address. I had resigned myself to the fact that there were pictures of me and my things floating around the internet. Since I am in no way famous or noteworthy (yet, anyway), I was reassured that while I couldn't find all of the pictures, I was likely the one that uploaded them in the first place.

But then, I found it. Not too long ago, I was poking around my hotmail account and I found it. It wasn't on a blog, it was on my msn profile page. (Why? I don't know.) So here it is, my old room.

(In case that link doesn't work.)

These are all the blogs I've opened (that I can remember). I know I should delete a bunch of them, but I don't know... I kind of like them all. I'm the same way with journals. I have over a dozen different journals, each with random entries in no logical order. In fact, I remember with one journal, I decided to write my "bad" feelings (frustration, anger, sadness) starting from the back, turning the journal upside down. I envisioned a completed journal, each page with writing on both sides: one upbeat and positive, the other depressingly emotional (and upside down). That didn't last long. But I still like each of these journals, and each of these blogs. In 10,000 years, they'll be a fun challenge for any archaeologist.

Fire up the grills, it's a blog party! Woo!

• Stalling - You are here. Right now. Really.
• Waterford Writers - Work-related creative writing blog.
• spare story parts - A project I'm trying to work on, based on the video in this post.
• WELL I NEVER HOW CRUDE - The bestest blog that ever blogged. VIPs only, though.
• Enrichment Book Club - An idea Jill and I had. We'll follow-through one day! Also exists on livejournal, here.
  
• Cool story, Katie Holmes - The first version of the project in spare story parts. I almost forgot this blog existed, actually.
• My Blue Chair - My main blog, for a while. Not updated anymore.
• Highway Crossing Frog - Same as above.
• [title pending] - Holy crap. I tried to do the NaNoWriMo challenge once. This blog is what happened. If I was going to delete any blog, this would be the first to go.

Because, for some reason, it isn't obvious

New Rule for the universe!

When in a public restroom, you are NOT allowed to talk to your stall neighbors.

Apparently, this isn't some instinctively understood code of behavior. I have had this happen to me THRICE in my lifetime, the third time being today. And I'm only 27. That means, if I live a slightly longer than normal life time, this could happen to me nine times. That is nine times too many. So I'm taking a stand. Talking to the person in the bathroom stall next to you is NOT ALLOWED. And yes, [name removed], this rule applies to sisters.

My perfect rainy day

I was woken up by thunder this morning instead of my alarm. I should find an alarm clock that sounds like thunder, because it was very pleasant. Not pleasant? Driving to work through deep puddles and heavy rain. There is something about this kind of weather that makes me want to just burrow further into my bed and not come out until it clears. On my perfect rainy day, I would stay in pajamas and slippers, snooze in between thunder claps, and eventually roll out of bed to watch a Law & Order marathon while eating crockpot soup. ("Crockpot soup" is one of three recipes my mom knows by heart, and one of the few that she passed down to me. It was a regular staple in the Saunders home. I'll type up the recipe below.)

So what is your perfect rainy day?

Rainy Day Crockpot Soup
(Note: I never measure when I make this recipe, but these are pretty good guidelines. You have to just experiment and decide what proportions are right for you.)

6 cups boiling water
3 8-0z cans of tomato sauce
2 packets (1 box) of Lipton onion soup mix
1 lb. hamburger
1 potato, cut in pieces
2 carrots, cut in pieces
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil

Brown the meat, then put everything in the crockpot. Cook it for about 4-6 hours, or until the veggies are tender. This is especially delicious with Parmesan cheese on top and crusty rolls to dip.

Holy good tv, Batman!

Great tv this week. One very promising series premiere, a season premiere from an old favorite, and a mid-season episode that was truly jaw-dropping.

Community- Thursdays, NBC, after The Office (8:30 Utah time)

I missed the initial premiere and didn't watch it online until last night. (Thanks insomnia!) This show is funny. Better than The Office, better than Friends... we're talking 30 Rock / Arrested Development level funny. I had just seen The Informant! (don't forget the "!") the night before, which also stars my tv boyfriend, Joel McHale. In The Informant!, it was really odd to watch McHale act. I don't know if his character was too bland, or if his tv personality (from The Soup) is too hilarious. Either way, it was hard to watch him pretend to be someone else. He's supposed to be making fun of skanks and Ryan Seacrest! Not interviewing Matt Damon. But Community did not have that problem. McHale's character is a raging douchebag with an enormous ego, no moral compass, and a ruthless sense of humor. That's not too many steps away from his "real" personality on The Soup! Perfect fit! Plus, the supporting characters are also funny and full of interesting potential. Watch this show! You can still watch it free on hulu.com!

Best line (that I can remember... it was 3 am): "If it's serious they should call it meningitis."

Survivor- Thursdays, CBS, 7 pm (Utah time)

If you don't already love this show, you probably never will. I don't think I can ever not love this show. This season, it's in Samoa. It was one of the most interesting season premieres that I've seen on this show. After a ridiculous amount of seasons (18? 19?), one player comes up with a completely new strategy for winning the game. If you watched it, you know who I'm talking about... Evil Russell (not to be confused with Leader Russell). He's secretly sabotaging his tribe (pouring out water, burning socks) in order to create stress and drive everyone to discontent. His plan to is to put his tribe on edge, sit back, and watch them destroy each other. I think this plan could work, but not with Evil Russell. He can't sit in the background. I think it's only working now because at this point in the game, everyone's strategy is "vote out anyone that isn't me." Once alliances form, and people spend a few more days together, he will be gone. (Hopefully.) Just when I thought no one could be worse than last season's Coach, the very next season proves me wrong.

Person I want to win at this point (after one episode): Betsy! (Female cop with good instincts, yellow tribe... I think)

Mad Men- Sundays, AMC 8 pm (Utah time)

I've raved about this show on here before. It is my favorite show currently on tv. This week's episode was really something. The entire series is fantastic, but this episode was a definite stand-out. I'm not sure I can really comment on it- I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it and I'm not quite done processing it just yet. I may have to watch this one again in the next couple of days.

Quote of the episode, probably quote of the season, and possibly quote of the series: “That’s life: One minute, you’re on top of the world; next minute, some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.”

If you like tv and have time to watch it, check out those shows. While my rambling recommendations may not be useful, I made them all very linky. And hyperlinks are always useful.

Irrational Fear

I like to take walks through the Salt Lake City cemetery. In fall and spring, I often see small groups of deer munching on grass. Since deer often wander down from the mountain, I wonder if mountain lions or cougars occasionally follow. I have this irrational fear that I'll be walking through the cemetery and see a cougar prowling around the headstones.

When I have this thought, I immediately look around and try to figure out what I'd do if that happened right then. If I ran, would I make it inside the little brick bathroom? Would I be too petrified to run? If I found a big stick, would I try to hit the cat in the face? If I saw it go after someone else, would I run away? I'm sure my instinct would tell me to run away, but I wondered today if that was what I should do. So I pulled out my trusty old internet and found out what to do if you see a mountain lion. Pretty much: DO NOT run away. Open up your jacket to look bigger, throw rocks, make noise, and give plenty it of room. But do not run away. The more you know!

To all of my readers

All both of you. For October, I am a guest host for a book club on my friend's blog. We are reading Mama Day, by Gloria Naylor. Holy crap, you should read this book. After I read it, I immediately bought and read Lindon Hills and Bailey's Cafe, two other fantastic books by Gloria Naylor. But Mama Day is still my favorite.

So read it by October 31, then come comment on my review over on Jessie's blog. Make me look really popular and awesome. I will post a link to it when it's up.

Look! There's lightning! And hands! How can this book not be awesome?!