Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Monday, October 29, 2007

StatCounter

I just checked out the StatCounter website for the first time since I placed the counter on this site. Turns out I can get loads of cool stats on who has visited and where they are coming from. Most people either come from my friends' sites or see me on the scrollbar of the blogger homepage. And I've gone global. The Mixed-Up Files has had visitors from France, Germany, and Brazil. Thanks to everyone for reading. This is pretty cool.

Recent Interviews

Someone finally decided to find out the truth about being a Mormon teenager. Being that I do a lot of work around interfaith relations I find this very interesting. The two girls interviewed might not be representative of all Mormon teenagers but they certainly give at least one end of the spectrum. They are extremely articulate in their answers, which received minimal editing. You can find the first interview here, and the second interview here.

Monday, September 24, 2007

New Site

I keep hearing about these things called tumblelogs, which are essentially old school blogs made up of quotes, links, pictures, etc. There is nothing lengthy about them and they have a very clean feeling. I've been meaning to start several different blog-type sites in order to guarentee that one of them will work in China, so I figured this would be a good opportunity. I've created a new site through Tumblr, which is the tumblelog equivalent of Blogger. (Ozimodo, on the other hand, is the tumblelog equivalent of Wordpress.) The new site won't have any lengthy conversations reviews or discussions. Instead it will aim to present a distinctive and interesting personality as a background for The Mixed-up Files. The site isn't up and running quite yet but it will be soon so stay posted.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

ADL disaster makes front page

The front page of this morning's Boston Globe featured an article on the disagreement over the Armenian genocide which resulted in the firing of Andy Tarcy. The national ADL, led by Abe Foxman, refuses to condemn the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in what is modern day Turkey. ADL does not want to compromise Turkey as one of the only Muslim supporters of Israel. Despite the national position, the New England division of ADL made their own decision to condemn the genocide and encourage legislation urging Turkey to do the same. This information was released by Andy Tarcy in a letter to the Globe.

All this is the result of a conflict between the New England division of ADL and the Armenian community in Watertown, MA. ADL runs a community program called "No Place for Hate" which Watertown withdrew involvement from after finding out that it was sponsored by ADL and that ADL had not recognized the Armenian genocide. Watertown has one of the largest Armenian communities in the country.

On Tuesday I leave for Camp IF, an interfaith youth leadership program also run by ADL. Through this program last year I was able to get to know Andy very well and recognized what an amazing human being he is. Without his support the IFYLP and Camp IF would never have experienced the great success that is represented by this summer's program. I am sure that everyone at Camp IF is thankful for the amazing experiences that Andy has made possible for all of us, fully funded. This morning's article described Andy:
Tarcy provided "moral leadership" and surely would have invigorated a new geration of ADL members in New England if he had been given the chance.
There is no question that Andy did inspire a whole new group of young people to work towards the bridge-building goals the ADL holds near and dear. We support Andy in his decision to do the right thing and will work toward righting this wrong. To everyone in the organization who may mistakenly think that the teenagers of the IFYLP are the future of ADL, let me correct you. We aren't the future, we are the present, and you have become the past. Please read the article here and join the Jewish and Armenian communities in supporting Andy Tarcy and the New England division of ADL in their quest to right this terrible wrong.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The End of the World As We Know It

School is officially over for the year. I took my last final this morning and now its on to the most kick ass summer ever. I'll be back posting full time and bringing you all the goods.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Importance of Being Bilingual

As someone getting ready to go on foreign exchange, I can appreciate this.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Woe is me

I am having an absolutely impossible time finding dresses for semi-formal and prom. I'm going to both this year and so I have to get two dresses. AAAHHHH!!! I've tried every store around and nothing yet. I'm not being picky either. I just can't find anything pretty that fits and doesn't cost some outrageous sum of money. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

State Debate

I'm going to brag just a little bit here. I am one of the captains of my school's debate team, which I also helped to found earlier this year. I really enjoy competing and have done fairly well this year. The state championship tournament was this past weekend. And after, six rounds and completely losing my voice, my partner and I came in second! This is absolutely incredible considering it was only our third tournament ever. So I'm second in the state and it feels pretty good. We compete in public forum debate which is modeled after the style of political talk shows. Check out more about the Massachusetts Forensics League because it may just hold the meaning of life. I'll post a picture of the trophy when I'm not feeling too lazy. I think all the matzo balls are making me tired.

News Coverage

We have been getting major news coverage around here in the last couple of days. Check out these articles that were all published in MAJOR newspapers:
  • For Girls, It's Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too- this is all about the pressures of applying to college for high school girls, which I am all too familiar with. I know all the people who were quoted and mentioned in this article so you should definitely check it out.
  • How much school does $154.6 million buy?- This might seem funny to those of you out in the real world, but trust me, it's not as much fun to live through. Despite all of the school's problems, we have become very attached to it. It's not just any falling down old building, it's our falling down old building. I could have asked for a better place to spend these four years of my life.
  • Electives Required- It seems like we are always fighting to keep the classes that we love. They are what makes our school special. Again, I know the people featured in this article. It's a long battle, and almost all of it falls on the students.
Looking at all of this just reminds me how much I love my school and my friends. It's worth it to get to class at 7:50 every morning in a dilapidated, asbestos filled building, just to be part of Newton North.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Spring Broke

Threadless is having their Spring Broke sale. Head on over and buy some super cool tees for only $10. The sale ends on March 12th so get them while they last. What could be better than awesome tees and awesome prices.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Hits

I have been super busy lately so I haven't posted for a while. Anyway, today when I came to check on when my last post had been I realized than The Mixed-Up Files has broken 100 hits. Yea! And I wasn't even here to witness it. Thanks for reading everyone. In other news, I got my thesis back two days after I handed it in, so I'm still working on it. The final draft is due next Thursday and then I never have to think about it again. I was hoping to at least have a little break before making corrections, but what can you do? Oh well, at least it will be over with.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Announcement

I have a very exciting announcement to make. The rough draft of my massive junior thesis in finally finished. I have been working on this paper for months and on Monday I will finally hand it in. I have Deaf history spilling out of my ears but in the end, it really wasn't all that bad. Now all I can do is wait to see all the things my US history teacher will find for me to fix. Oh well. Good luck to all of my wonderful friends who are still working hard on their theses and congratulations to everyone who has already finished. We're all in it together and soon it will be a thing of the past. I think I'm going to go on a bike ride to celebrate.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Another Valentine's Day Post

So I'll admit my Valentine's Day wasn't really half bad this year and I sort of celebrated on Friday instead of on Wednesday because we were snowed in on Wednesday. Anyways, this is sort of what the night was like.



Well I guess this is what happens when you hang out with a bunch of teenagers. If you can't see the video then you can click this link to the Glumbert page.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

New Post

I saw this last week but the video wasn't working so I didn't want to post it.
Whenever I walk through the Union Square subway station, I have to navigate through all these vertical I-Beams that are all over the place. It always reminds me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Finally it dawned on me. It’s the first stage of the Death Star level in the Star Wars arcade game. Watch this comparison video.
I've never been in the station or played the game but this is the kind of stuff I live off of.

Soon to come: we are going to restaurant this week that could be the command center for several covert undercover agencies. Complete with waiters wearing walkie talkies.

Vacation

I am on vacation in Miami, Florida for the next week, which one would think would be an excellent time to work on my rather lacking posts, except that I am getting frustrated with the broadband connection on my Dad's laptop. I will attempt to post here, but it is easier said than done.

Firstly, I go on vacation during February most years, but this year I am not really on vacation. It is more just that I am in Florida, still doing all the normal work that I do at home. The main cause is that my thesis is due at the end of the week. I won't go into all the messy details, but it is a very long analysis of the effect of residential schools for the Deaf on the Deaf community in America. I have been working on this one paper all year from US history but the rough draft must finally get handed in, so it's crunch time now. So far, other from that, the vacation has gone surprisingly well.

We are renting a nice little house on Key Biscayne, and I have my own bedroom so I don't have to share space with my sister. This is a big improvement over the normal hotel arrangement. We are visiting my grandparents and trying to enjoy the weather, but it has been a bit on the cold side lately. Down here they think 50 degrees is cold but it is still an improvement over the New England snow.

The biggest downside so far is that my iPod broke. This has happened before because I have the older 20G Photo model. I am very fond of it and I really don't want to have to shell out $300 dollars for a new one. So far Apple has been great about fixing or replacing it whenever it breaks but it is no longer under its extended warranty so I am a little worried. Usually I would just listen to CD's until I could get to the Apple store but this is especially frustrating because I am on vacation. So I have nothing to listen to while doing work or while I am on the plane. Plus we have no music for the car because we usually use the AirPlay to listen to music over the radio. I guess I'll just go back to the stone age for a while and listen to the radio online while I work.

On a slightly different note, I have a great travel story from last night. We went to the Winn-Dixie grocery store (in the very large mini van we rented) to get everything we need for the house. Now we needed a lot of stuff: not just food for a week, but toilet paper, laundry detergent, and everything else a rented house doesn't have. We spent quite a bit of money, despite all of my mother's comparison shopping efforts. The cashier asked us if we had a Winn-Dixie card and of course we didn't because we don't have Winn-Dixie in Massachusetts. Well, it turns out that the supervisor was bagging our groceries and he noticed we would have saved a full $20 with the card. Being a good person he offered to scan his supervisor card so we could save the money. I was shocked. Nobody at home would ever do such a nice thing. He even told us that if we came back again for more milk or whatever just to come find us and he would give us the discount. It's so encouraging to see real people doing the right thing and rebelling against big businesses.

It's always quite eventful going on vacation with my family, so I am sure more stories are on the way. Of course, how could they not be when you are travelling with four people, six large duffel bags, and two sets of golf clubs.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Candy

Although it is a bit belated, this is going to be my Valentine's Day post. One of my friends for Valentine's Day this year brought me a piece of candy of a delightful variety that I had never before experienced. Being Canadian, she explained that in Canada they have Smarties, instead of M&M's. It is essentially the same idea except that Smarties come in different colors, are slightly larger, and I think they taste better. I am sure that you can find them somewhere in New England but for now they remain to me a Canadian delicacy. Anyway, what she brought me was not just a pack of Smarties but was instead a heart shaped piece of milk chocolate with a pink Smartie in the middle. I consider myself to be a bit of a Candy Freak, but this was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. If you are up in Canada, don't miss out on this piece of confectionery perfection.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Get Vertical

I thought they had figured out just about everything with wheels that you could ride in a skate park, but apparently I was wrong. This dude uses the skate parks features in his wheelchair. I was sort of shocked that nobody had come up with their before, being that a wheelchair has wheels and all. The whole thing is pretty rad and he's mastered some impressive stunts. This would be a great way to get kids stuck in wheelchairs into playing sports and stuff. Make sure to watch all the way to the end where he introduces a younger kid to the sport as well.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Song of the Day

For some reason this song perfectly summarizes what I am feeling today. The weather, the people, and the activities all seem to line up perfectly with this vibe. So today's song of the day is "The Entertainer" by Bill Joel. If you don't own it, you should, so have a listen today.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Street Art

I am a huge fan of street art in all forms and a while back I found something particularly unique that I had never seen before. The site is called Little People and that is exactly what it is. I don't know all the details but you should check it out for yourself. Here is the first piece of its type that I saw and it really caught my attention. There's a lot more on the site too and its quite amazing stuff.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Selfless Plug

I wanted to give everyone a heads up about a friend of mine who just got his stuff up on the web. His site isn't fully functional yet but it will soon have all his great cartoons and other work available to view. And of course, I am linked on his site which is reason enough to check it out. It shares a name with his comic in the works, both called Tales of a Bored Ninja.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Opening Credits

It may just be me but when I saw Casino Royale in theaters the opening credits seriously reminded me of the opening for Catch me if you can. Both videos are posted here so you can decide for yourself. Maybe its the falling objects and drips but the two just seem really similar. Although Catch Me If You Can was a better movie, I think the credits for Bond may have been a bit better.

Here is the YouTube video for the opening credits of Catch Me If You Can.

Steep and Cheap

I found this new website in Outside Magazine, which I've been subscribing to for several years. It's called Steep and Cheap and offers outdoor equipment and apparel at discounts of 50% or more. The catch: only one product is offered at a time so you have to keep check back or sign up for their alerts by IM or RSS fee. All the same, it seems worth it and you can have them e-mail you if a product you've been looking for goes on sale. Worth checking out for any outdoor enthusiast or gear nut.