B.E.A.U.tiful – ‘cuz i want it that way
August 23rd, 2010It is time for my last blog entry. I have no burning desire to discuss anything, and since any good piece of writing is better when it has focus, I have decided to focus on my friend’s twitter account today. Some background on my friend: He is a senior at Cornell (think about the Nard-dog’s Cornell attitude, I’m just joking) and he seriously thinks about his tweets. Whenever we hang out, he’ll bring the skeleton of a new tweet to us to analyze and criticize. He loves the words, loves bad puns, and I think it is hysterical.
Here are my top 8 favorite tweets of his. If you like it too, I suggest following @redrovergestapo
1. 007 was holding a knife and tripped onto a girl’s chest. Called himself Pierced Brasman.
2. What kind of gas does Mr. T use in his car? I don’t know, but i pity the fuel.
3.”I’m freezin me lucky charms off out ‘ere!” Must be a Dublin tundra.
4. Sat down with a box of Crayolas to try to think of a pun. All I got was a crayon words
5. In every movie he’s in, William always plays da foe.
6. Thinking up a pun is a rewording experience.
7. No corn for me, i’m allergic. Don’t maize me bro!
8. A pun so bad that it actually makes you cry: a punion.
After reading these, I don’t doubt you are enamored with his twiterary prose. I know I am.
Currently: Books – I Shall Live. Captivating. Great. Plugging a company book! T.V. – 30 Rock. Recently started watching this show and I like it. Warning: one of the minor characters in the trucker hat is a very boring comedian, I saw him ages ago. Movies – Switch. I’m seeing it this weekend. I can’t wait. Love Jason Bateman ever since Arrested Development.
Carol “it’s my last day blues” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – y’all come back now
August 23rd, 2010Hi y’all!
Today, we are going to throwback to our Sesame Street Days and have a word of the day. What is today’s word? Y’ALL. Why? Because I have been mocked numerous times for my liberal use of the word. Apparently it is not okay if you are not from the South. I will discuss this later on.
Y’all did not enter my everyday vocabulary until I entered High School, a.k.a. my formalities years. I was sitting in my Spanish class re-learning introductory Spanish. After taking Spanish once a week for five years in middle school, I had apparently learned nothing and had to restart the learning process. (This happened again in college, after not taking Spanish for a year, I got placed into the second-level course at my school. Needless to say, I dropped the language). As we were learning the different persons, it was difficult to understand how the “you plural” was used in everyday conversations. How often do you use “you all” in everyday speak? Rarely to Never. That’s when. So our teacher told us to think like we were southern and call it “y’all”. That was the beginning of my unnecessary use of the word.
Now I try and find every opportunity to use the word y’all. This has started to attract the attention of my peers, especially in text messages. Why should I waste my time writing “you all” when I can just say “y’all”? I shouldn’t. Y’all just makes life easier and it adds flair to your speech.
Here are some weird facts about the word y’all:
1. According to Wikipedia this word is pronounced ::yawl::
2. There is some discrepancy with the spelling of the word. Some people believe it to be a contraction of you all and therefore drop the “o” and “u” and replace it with an apostrophe. Others believe the word originates from trying to say “ya all”. Essentially, I have been spelling the word wrong for ages (since the later description does not seem credible enough for me).
3. Dictionary.com dates the use of y’all back to 1909. This word has been in use for more than 100 years.
4. There was a BBC article describing the exact situation where y’all is appropriate. ‘”Y’all’ should be used to address a smallish group of people; between one and five. It is an all-inclusive phrase in its ambiguity. It certainly comes in handy when you are addressing a group and you don’t want to use Yankee equivalents such as the New York ‘youse’ or the Boston ‘you guys’.”
5. Coincidentally, someone just called and said y’all on the phone.
That’s the end of my y’all-ing.
Currently: Book – Medea Euripides play from Greek mythology. Refreshing before my awesome film class in two weeks! T.V. – Melissa and Joey. It’s like watching a train wreck trying to be Who’s the Boss? and failing. Movies – Remember the Titans. I don’t think I will ever stop watching this movie. EVER.
Carol “i feel the stress of the year coming on” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – let me show you what you’re missing
August 20th, 2010Interesting things I’ve discovered over the last couple of days:
- Foursquare is becoming a thing. In May, Time Magazine declared it one of the Worst Inventions ever, along with Farmville. In addition to that I’ve recently found out that someone is the Mayor of Beaufort’s building elevator. An ELEVATOR? I’m confused as to how being mayor of an elevator is a positive thing. I guess it does create some kind of competition. After hearing this news, I wanted to join Foursquare and try and kick this Maurice out of the mayorship. Thankfully, I did not, because I feel like I would take Foursquare to an unnecessary level.
-As a corollary to my “making decisions” post, I have uncovered a few theories from my friends who cannot make decisions. We all came from what other people refer to as a “nerd school” (not that we received a superior education by ANY MEANS). It is theorized that coming from that school, which has a strong emphasis on math, technology, engineering, and architecture, we were taught to analyze a problem from all angles. So it isn’t that we are indecisive, we are just thoroughly weighing our options. I don’t believe this theory, although if I did, logically Applebee’s always won because it was a cheap group setting.
- I’ve recently rediscovered my love to Justin Bieber’s Eenie Meenie. I’m not a fan-girl (well I am, but not for j.biebs, yes I call him that) but this song is just so catchy and great. And hearing Justin call a girl “shawty” is hysterical all by itself.
- I have also recently created a new word: OB: the act or process of going to Applebee’s too many times and overdosing on the family fun restaurant. (I need to stop talking about this place!)
Currently: Book – Dancing in the Moonlight. It was free on B&N e-books. I can never say no to free, or to silly romance novels. T.V. – Parks and Recreation – recently discovered show which has its moments, but fell asleep during the episodes. Movie – The Departed. Love this movie. I always like Leo DiCaprio’s movies before, but I had never like him until this movie. On that note: I highly suggest watching Baz Lurhman’s verison of Romeo + Juliet.
Carol “im freezing in the middle of august” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – two is better than one
August 17th, 2010I joined twitter to follow @ActuallyNPH. I was decidedly against twitter, until that fateful day. Coincidentally it was the day of my interview at Beaufort Books, and after my interview I was meeting three friends for dinner. Three of us happened to be in the city that day and we all met at Union Square. We were just hanging out, people watching and squirrel chasing (not really), waiting for the last of our group to arrive from Jersey. We were there for two hours, a pretty long time. Lo and behold, the next day, I get texts from all three of them telling me that Neil Patrick Harris was in Union Square seeing an R-rated puppet comedy. He was there. I was there. It was destined.
That is when I realized the usefulness of websites like twitter. It helps the average person become a stealthy stalker. Case in point: Randomly browsing the web one day (I like to frequent sites like Oh No They Didn’t livejournal community, My Life is Average, Texts from Last Night, etc) and found myself on twitter. Since becoming a member, I have about 9 followers (–add me @deepsea61) and am following about 70 celebrities – one of them being Alyson Hannigan (of How I Met Your Mother, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the original American Pie series). She happened to be in San Diego when there was a tiny earthquake and tweeted about it. Worried, I immediately texted one of my friends in San Diego to make sure everything was okay. The response I got back was somewhere along the lines of “What? How did you know? It literally just happened!”
I don’t keep it a secret, this weird obsession I have with Neil Patrick Harris. I don’t know what it is, but I just want to be his best friend. On Twitter a couple days ago, he announced to the world that he and his partner of over five years (which before I would have said is a long time, but look at Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt) are having twins. Being the cutest couple means they will have the cutest kids. Despite never having met the man, I was thrilled since he and his partner are the cutest couple and I think he would make an awesome dad (again, without ever actually having met the man). Since his announcement on August 14, 2010, I have been getting numerous texts, posts and messages about him having twins. I view this as a good thing: it means my friends really know where my interests lie and they approve of this stealthy behavior.
On a side note, talking about stealthy stalking, my friend Ben told me about a website this weekend, where you can locate exactly where your friends are in the world, or in a five mile radius. His only friend on the site is in England and had just checked into Waterloo Station. It’s called FourSquare and suggests you join “to meet up with friends and discover new places”. On the homepage, it has people like John L. in Pigeon Forge, TN warning people about the slow service in O’Charley’s. This might be talking internet stalking to a whole new level. Here’s to hoping it never catches on!
Currently: Book – The Importance of Being Earnest. This is one of the funniest plays I have ever read for the sole fact that it is trying to be serious. Who wants to get called careless for having losing both your parents? T.V. – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My brother describes this show as Family Guy with real people, but I like it better. I watched an episode where they sang “Danny Boy”. Funny stuff. Movie – Watched Vampires Suck and Step Up 3D, neither were very good, but it was okay. I still want to see Charlie St. Cloud despite the bad reviews.
Carol “let’s go to the mall” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – she be sweet like banana
August 10th, 2010I’ve decided to dedicate a post to West African Literature. This is in preparation for the 2nd Annual Ghana Day Parade in NYC August 21st. It is also a result of people in the U.S. and Ghana who are slow at uploading their photos which has made me long for Ghana.
Since I am a voracious reader and we did not have internet in our dorms (mostly because of the latter then the former), I read some books for fun. Unfortunately I did not take the African Literature course at Ashesi or NYU for scheduling reasons, so I obviously did not get the full force of the literature. But I think I have a fair sample. *note: this is all fiction, I read a good bit about philosophy but chose not to include those titles*
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This is a classic. I first read it in 9th grade and was indifferent to it. Reading it while in West Africa made some of the cultural nuances make more sense. I was able to appreciate the novel more.
Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. This book was reminiscent of Things Fall Apart, and why I wrote my philosophy research paper comparing the views on religion in the post-colonial world. She is a great writer and really conveyed a sense of the current post-colonial world. It was like an update of Achebe. I’ve also heard her book Half of a Yellow Sun is good.
Amma Darko’s Not Without Flowers and Faceless. These were the first two novels I read and I thought they were fantastic. While Faceless is more of a mystery story, Fofo’s search to find out who killed her sister, Not Without Flowers is a more intricate look into the family, life, and culture of Ghana. Both books have intertwining stories, with endings that took me completely by surprise.
I would suggest reading any of these books. But then again, I rarely find a book I wouldn’t recommend.
Also, I would like to note, that while abroad I watched the Ghana Music Awards, which for $40 I could have attended. All the performers who were from Ghana, born and raised, were dressed sophisticatedly in suits and ties. The performers from Ghana who were heavily influenced by American and British style were dressed unimpressively with baggy pants, large shirts, and lots of bling. In all honesty, I preferred the performers dressed in suits – they looked so much better than the bums.
Currently: Book – Can You Keep A Secret? I’m re-reading my first book of Sophie Kinsella’s. It’s not bad for some very light reading. T.V. – Drop Dead Diva a light show which sometimes has deeper meaning, but is overall light and funny. Movie – The Invention of Lying wasn’t bad but it didn’t capture my attention. I was really trying to watch another Ricky Gervais movie Ghost Town and ended up with this.
Carol “getting ready for the move back to Baltimore” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – making decisions
August 3rd, 2010Boston is a really cool city. It was laid back, chill, and full of odd statues, which is great for taking pictures with. I spent the weekend there with some friends from high school, representing New Jersey. I discovered something about most of my friends in high school (a nerd school) — we are incapable of making decisions.
On Friday afternoon, three of us decided we needed to eat lunch. Food is a necessity for life after all. But where should we go? We had two choices: California Pizza Kitchen or Pizzeria Uno. Both are solid choices, satisfy any craving you have, and come with great pizza. But no one cared where we ate. No one had any preference for either. I tried coming up with deciding factors: price, location, desire. Nothing helped. Out of necessity, I stepped up and chose one.
It is normal to be indecisive, but what we did that weekend, didn’t really seem to matter to anyone, unless the answer was clear. When we debated going on a Duck Tour, just for fun, the idea was really enticing. Riding around in a car/boat combination through Boston seemed like the best idea in the world. But when we discovered the student prices were $27, as poor college students we could not rationalize spending that much money frivolously.
All we wanted was Applebee’s. But we couldn’t find one in Boston. This family friendly restaurant might be the cause of our indecisiveness. In our younger days, which is three or four years ago, we used to frequent Applebee’s every weekend. Their half-priced appetizers were cheap and it was a great location for everyone (since we lived all over the county) to meet up and hang out. Since then, every other place just doesn’t cut it. Our friend group has grown smaller, but the memories and the feeling of being in Applebee’s is still there. So on any random night, when we pile into one car, we sit around and ask “What should we do tonight?” There is a debate, probably for 30-60 minutes, about where we should go, or what we should do, because the suburbs of NJ are not all that interesting. We drive around, through the towns (Yes, plural. Our total route is probably about 20-30 mins) and always end up at Applebee’s.
Currently: Book – Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I finally finished! Well, I think the mystery has been solved, but I still have 150 pages left to read. I’m not sure what will happen in them. TV – Pretty Little Liars. It is this summer’s guilty pleasure. I just can’t stop watching. Movie – The Shining. I saw some of it on AMC this weekend, and I didn’t have nightmares. I might possibly be mature enough to watch this movie!
Carol “I’m a clever cookie!” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – rubberbands made me popular
July 22nd, 2010Hello World!
It’s almost the weekend. Yay! Let’s catch you up on my random thoughts of this week so far.
My cousin had his birthday party last Saturday. He’s only two years old. But in my traditional family style we invite everybody we know (and possibly related to us) to our houses to have a good time! Over 91 degrees outside? No problem, we can have a rockin’ bbq! Suffice to say there was a lot of people (at least over 50) crammed into a small deck/pool area. It was nice to see all my almost relatives, but I kept getting those “future” questions. Apparently my parents have made new friends since I went to college. New friends with small children. It was hectic, noisy, but good times.
I caught up on some of my must see movies. Inception, which was good, although I’m not 100% sure I understood it. But I guess that was the point. Also saw The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Which was so bad, I was laughing the whole time. Best line of the movie, when Jacob tells Edward “Let’s face it. I’m hotter than you”.
I finished reading things I was behind on, such as Never Let Me Go (which my roommate and I are reading together even though we’re miles apart – like the Yellowcard song), but somehow Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been pushed into the background. This reminds me that I started reading 1984 in 7th grade, but never finished…
I was teaching lessons to these small children at camp the other day, and I am a hit! They always want to swim with me, and refuse to go with the other instructors. Want to know my secret? It’s the Silly Bandz. I started wearing two in the beginning of the summer, just to see what all the buzz was about. And it has totally increased my popularity with the little children. Currently I am wearing a purple pineapple, which I switch off with a blue elephant and an orange turtle. Keeping it simple for now.
Currently Book – Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I will finish it! T.V. -NCIS with marathons of re-runs on USA Network, who can’t watch this show? Movie – Toy Story 3 – Woody, Buzz, Mr. Potato Head and the gang? Can’t Wait!
Distraction for the weekend: http://bit.ly/9W9l27! It’s great!
–Carol “I would really appreciate a comment” Monteiro
B.E.A.U.tiful – technology makes me feel old
July 13th, 2010While doing research for a project, I stumbled upon this statement in an article in the Michigan Journal from 2005: “You are what you eat. That’s so 90s. Today, you are what you use.” That is so true. Technology is taking over our lives.
—For the fourth of July weekend, I was packing for a weekend trip to Baltimore to see my friend who was about to leave for the Peace Corp and what did I need to bring? Cell phone. Laptop. Nook. Ipod. Oh and I had to throw in some clothes. Just, you know, so I wouldn’t smell funky all day. Maybe that just seems ridiculous to me, but those are what I thought were the essentials to packing.
—At my cousin’s birthday party, I received a call from my best friend. My cousins snatched my cell out of my hand and started talking to her. He’s only two years old. Seizing the opportunity, my aunt and uncle called his grandmother on their house phone, hoping he would talk to her (she lives in India). It didn’t happen. He would not relinquish my cell phone and just threw his home phone on the ground.
—Social Media is changing the world. There, I said it. I just never wanted to admit it. Yesterday I entered a contest on Twitter. First 10 people to send @Psych_USA a picture of them with a pineapple won a free copy of the 4th season DVD of Psych (one of my favorite shows, you should check it out). I participated, kept refreshing the page, and was disappointed when I didn’t win. This shouldn’t have been surprising, since it took me a good 3 minutes to figure out how to post a picture on twitter.
On a completely other note. The Harry Potter trailer was just released. And it looks epic. Despicable Me beat Eclipse in the box office (hoooorrraaah!!!). Inception comes out this weekend.
My mother asked me when I was graduating on Saturday so that she could book a hotel for the visit. Graduation. The school year hasn’t even started. I still have 312 days until that happens. Now I’m scared and worried that I won’t have a job or a life plan or anything. To top that off the last Harry Potter movie comes out July 2011. After that, what can I look forward to? The two-part New Moon saga (yuck), the Karate Kid 2 (without Ralph Macchio and Mr. Miyagi) or maybe the next Dan Brown book (which will probably be the same amount of suspense and action as all the others). It’s sad, but my childhood will officially end after Harry Potter 7, part two. The only solution I can come up with is watching Hey Arnold! on DVD.
Currently: Reading – Speak by Laurie Hale Anderson, solely because the Lifetime Movie version starring Kristen Stewart was on last night. Television – the premier of all the shows I love on USA Network – Psych, White Collar, and I’ll even give Covert Affairs a chance. Movies – I really want to see Charlie St. Cloud, even though I know it will be a tear fest, since the previews made me cry a little.
–Carol “I really want to see Harry Potter land in Disney” Monteiro.
B.E.A.U.tiful – the new intern’s first blog
July 6th, 2010Hello World!
I am the new Beaufort Intern and I am ecstatic to be here. I won’t keep you long today since I’m not really sure what hard hitting topics to talk about but here are some basics you should know about me.
1. I am obsessed with books, television, and movies. (Hence the title of this blog is from Jim Carrey’s popular movie Bruce Almighty)
2. I am still in college (ONLY one more year left! ::gasp::) and just got back from studying abroad in Ghana, which to my friend’s despair is all I will talk about.
3. My current goal in life is to meet Neil Patrick Harris. It would be “legen…wait for it…dary”
4. I love swimming, reading, and long walks on the beach 
Currently (Book) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Apparently is all the rage now since I have seen at least three people reading it on the subway daily, so far I’m captivated. (T.V Show) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Having missed out on most of the ’90s, I am trying to find the antithesis to the ridiculous Twilight craze. (Movie) All About Steve. There is rarely a movie I don’t like, but this might be on that list. Fell asleep while watching it, but that might have just been exhaustion from the Fourth of July Weekend.
I hope this will be the start of a B.E.A.Utiful friendship!
- -Carol “recently rediscovered my love of fig newtons” Monteiro
