Last Month Online (November 2017)

I have a LOT more videos than usual this month, so let's just jump right into them!

Biggest news of the month: OK Go is back!!! MY jaw dropped to the floor and stayed there through the whole video. I am in absolute awe of their creativity. This would be an amazing video if they had shot on green screen and built all the effects with CGI and animation, but the fact that this is all practical effects, created with PRINTERS, and more specifically, PRECISELY TIMED printers, is just utterly astounding.



And speaking of people being back! Owl City is back! The first music video for his upcoming album dropped this month, and I love it! :D



Superfruit (Scott and Mitch of Pentatonix) have been putting out some extremely catchy music recently, but this video is one of my favorites. It has just the right amount of weird, random, creative catchiness. My favorite part is definitely the old granny mannequin/morph-suit person. :p



And speaking of Pentatonix, they have bumped up their content in the last couple of months, however most of it is Christmas music, which I am saving for a Christmas post later this month. This one, even though it is used as a Christmas song, is not traditionally a Christmas song, so I decided to include it here, and save the others.



I've never seen Steven King's It, and I don't really plan to, but this parody, starring everyone's least favorite Star Wars character, Jar Jar Binks, just absolutely cracked me up.



I don't think I've featured Alex Boyé in awhile, let's remedy that with his epic new cover of Imagine Dragons' Believer!



I. Love. Melodysheep.



I honestly never thought I'd feature this song on my blog. It was everywhere this summer, and I was kind of sick of hearing it, but leave it to Kurt Hugo Schneider, Sam Tsui, & co to come up with a version I really liked. :)



I'm sure you've never heard of Adler Davidson, he's a very small YouTuber, but he deserves to be bigger. I absolutely loved this video he put out, I've played it on repeat so many times. He is such a weird, hilarious genius.



Side note: I've actually had a customer get wildly, and furiously, offended at me for saying, "Have a nice day," before, because "It's none of you business what kind of a day I have." So that part actually made me laugh for more than just that it sounds ridiculous. It may be ridiculous, but it's also true. I don't know if that's hilarious or sad. Maybe both.

This is probably the least weird video that Poppy has ever made. But I still loved it for the song, despite the video's relative normality. It still had a semi-creepy face-less mop creature playing an electric guitar, so at least it had a little something extra there for me. :p



This extremely short video showed up online out of nowhere this month, and I fell in love. I've lost count how many times I've watched it and showed it to people. Who knew that a spider could be so adorable!?



This was originally an animation test by an independent animator, starring his nephew Lucas as Lucas the spider, but he has since rebranded the channel around the character and made another short! I hope he keeps going! I need a steady supply of Lucas in my life!



I already loved this song by Selena Gomez and Marshmello, but as usual, I think I like Mike Tompkins' version better.



I will never not be utterly amazed by World Order's (Dancing? Acrobatic? Choreography?) skills.



We'll end this post with another hilarious Studio C sketch. I never watch Saved By the Bell as a kid, but I loved this sketch. It perfectly captured the cheese of the era, and added heaping helping of Studio C's hilarious brand of brilliant weirdness.

Chicago: Day 1 - The Arboretum

I am FINALLY getting to my posts about Chicago! I can't promise to get to them all right away, but at least I'm getting to this first one.

On our first full day in Illinois, At this point it was just Wheaton, not really Chicago yet, we hung out with the family for the day. The main thing we did was go to an arboretum. It was really nice. It was kind of like a zoo, but for plants.

Here, Shaina defies a sign that clearly forbade standing on the table. Bad Shaina. Bad. Shame. Shame on you.

Okay, I confess. I told her to. I'm the bad one. Mwa ha ha ha ha.... >:D

 
Chris and Shaina examine a tree.

Sasha was enchanted by a flock of tiny mushrooms.

I can't remember what these columns were, but they were kind of cool.

There were a large number of wooden insect sculptures all over the arboretum. Shaina posed with most of them.

Yes, I know this is not an insect. Go away, trolls.

And here is where my camera battery died. We left soon after, so you didn't miss much. The rest of the day was spent shopping, and visiting the library where Aunt Linda works.

I got a new battery in the meantime, but I only ended up taking two pictures.

Her library is huge! It literally had three floors! I could just live there. I love libraries. :)

And that's all for the first day. More to come soon!

2 Countries 8 Facts

I am getting down to the final stretch! Next week is finals week and I have been studying harder than ever this week trying to get ready. Today I never left my room, except for, you know, eating and stuff… I’m still in my pajamas from last night, and it is currently… Um… Very, very late at night… Again… :p But it was all worth it because I completely finished a huge research paper and an assignment for Geography where we were to find 4 facts each about two different countries. (Though because I am somewhat of a nerd, I beefed up all the facts, so they each contain a bunch of sub-facts. Maybe I’ll get bonus points! :D ) The countries could be anywhere in South America, Europe, Asia, or North Africa. Since I know you are all dying for some interesting Geographical trivia, ;) I decided to share my findings with all of you. Aren’t you excited? Hooray for knowledge! :D

For my first country I chose Latvia, as I have friends whose family immigrated from Latvia, one of whom has now returned, having married a Latvian, and they are currently raising a family there. The second country I chose purely because I wanted to incorporate some aspect of Cryptozoology into my report. I chose Nepal, because it is one of the two counties in which the Himalayas are located. The Himalayas being the home of the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. :p

You guys are all lucky because, as this is my blog, I decided that I would illustrate my report for you. So much more interesting than the one my teacher has to grade! :D

Latvia

The name Latvia is spelled Latvija in the Latvian language and this comes from the ancient Latgallians, or Letts, one of four tribes, who formed the ethnic core of today’s Latvian people. In written sources, they are first mentioned in the 11th century, but not much is known of the origins of these tribes.

One of the staples of the Latvian diet is Rupjmaize, a dark bread made from rye.

Using rye bread for something other than sandwiches would be pretty unheard of here in the U.S., but in Latvia, it is used to make Rupjmaizes kartojums, a traditional Latvian dessert. Layered like a trifle, this dessert uses jam or preserves, along with a rye bread crumb mixture and whipped cream.

Often it is garnished with more bread crumbs and fresh fruit to give it an attractive appearance.

Latvia's national bird is the White Wagtail, so named for the way its tail moves as it runs along the ground.

No one knows why the wagtail is constantly wagging its tail, but reasons for it have been hypothesized, from a submissive signal to other wagtails, to a sign of vigilance that deters predators.

Although the origins of the Christmas tree are disputed by historians, one of the first documented uses in history is from Latvia. In 1510 an evergreen was erected for their celebration in the town hall square in Riga, Latvia.

The grandest building on the square, the House of Blackheads has a domed plaque in front of it, marking the location of this first celebration.

 

Nepal

Early sources refer to the country as Nepala, and the name Nepal is believed to come from the word "Nepa" referring to the Newar Kingdom, which is the present day Kathmandu Valley. Local legends say that a Hindu sage named "Ne" came to the valley in prehistoric times and that the word "Nepal" means, "The country looked after by Ne".

Nepal contains some of the highest mountain peaks on earth. One of these mountains is Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain in the entire world.

Although the height is disputed and Nepal is planning a new survey, the current accepted height of the mountain is 29,029 ft. The mountain is the home of what may be the highest non-microscopic life form on earth, the Euophrys omnisuperstes, a tiny jumping spider.

It is thought that the spider may feed on small frozen insects blown there on the wind.

Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular in shape.

The red in the flag stands for courage, and is the color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, and the flag's blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the calm nature of the Nepalese people, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of the Nepalese warriors.

Nepal is one of two countries said to be the home of one of the most famous legendary monsters of today, known as the Yeti, or, more popularly, the Abominable Snowman.

The Yeti is said to live in the Himalayas, a mountain region spanning both Nepal and Tibet. The name Yeti comes from a Tibetan word for bear, as some believe that the Yeti is a Man-Bear. Most descriptions given of this creature make it out to be a giant ape, similar to the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North America.

So, there you have it. All you never knew you needed to know about Latvia and Nepal. :)