SUPER SPECIAL EDITION

Yes! I am posting two things today!

I want to take the time to talk about the monster that is Kidz Bop. We all know Kidz Bop. We all remember seeing the commercials and saying to ourselves "Oh man....they made ANOTHER one?!". In fact Kidz Bop are still making lame commercials for their astoundingly horrible CDs still today.

I remember when I first started seeing commercials for these odd CDs. I was confused. I was terrified of the children dancing and the colors and odd imagery in the commercials. Singing "oops I did it again" with annoying little faces and annoying little kid voices. Honestly, when I think of Smash mouth's "All Star"....all I can think of is little kid voices belting out the chorus. I'm going to take you on a horrible ride now. Brace yourselves.

Yay...the first Kidz Bop was a hit with all that nonsense. They continued to take terrible songs and make them even worse and creating a CD out of it. A second one was produced with more awful songs. One Cd wasn't enough though...they made a 2 disc set.

Then to show how truly awful they were and much more awful they were to become, they decided to make a Kidz Bop Christmas CD. Who doesn't want to listen to robot children who can't quite understand the basic concept of what singing is sing lovable Christmas tunes? Honestly I'd rather listen to those Chipmunks on repeat.

Kidz Bop 3 was born and thus we all knew this was not going to end anytime soon. I was a little concerned that kids were singing songs such as "Whenever, wherever" too.

Oh God....then they sang "Sk8ter Boy" on Kidz Bop 4. I remember that commercial too. While the song "Beautiful" was playing in the backgroud...all the kids turn around and have those dumb glasses with the nose and mustache on them and they do this stupid hand thing. Seriously. Just look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CErzt7ngFs&NR=1 This was around the time where I almost wanted Kidz Bop to make a full music video...just so I could laugh at how horribly bad it would be.

FUN FACT: Kidz Bop 1-4 were certified Gold. Yeah. I know.

Kidz Bop 5. They sang "It's my life" by No Doubt. I remember being pretty mad at that. I kinda like "Hey ya"...it was catchy. Then Kidz bop ruined it and I forever have the 8 second clip of them singing it during the commercial embedded into my head.

Kidz Bop Gold. This was the first time they attempted to ruin the reputation of the Beatles. I'll talk about this later. This CD marks the first time that Kidz Bop decided they had enough of making bad songs worse....they wanted to make good songs absolutely horrible. It wasn't about making songs more kid-friendly anymore. Oh no. Kidz Bop formed an entirely new and diabolical plan: "Let us slowly ruin all songs that were ever made" they said while twirling their peach fuzz.

I don't remember Kidz Bop making a Halloween CD...but apparently they did. Oh no! They sang the Ghostbusters Theme song!? And the Addams family song?! and "Time Warp"?!NO NO! Don't ruin "This Is Halloween" too!!! AND THRILLER!? >:-( Good thing these are only 30 second samples I'm listening to.

Kidz Bop 6 is the one where they sang "Toxic". I felt really uncomfortable about that. Like...seriously uncomfortable. They add in random "woo"s in the song...which makes me more uncomfortable.

Kidz Bop 7 was also certified Gold and I don't know why. Maybe I'm just bitter they really made "Float On" by Modest Mouse sound really terrible.

Kidz Bop 8 makes me really acrid. They dare make fools out of U2, Gwen Stefani and Franz Ferdinand!? NO! BAD KIDZ BOP. NAUGHTY NAUGHTY.

Kidz Bop 9 featured more robotic singing and ruining of both really really bad songs (Beverly Hills) and good songs too (Feel Good Inc.). At this point I think we were all asking "WHEN WILL IT END!? DOESN'T ANYONE SEE THAT THESE KIDS CAN'T SING!?".

But no, I didn't think it was possible, but a Kidz Bop 10 was made. They sang "Pump it". Huh.

In Kidz Bop 11 they sang Justin Timberlake's "My Love"...can they do that? Well actually the kids just shouted the whole song. Added in a bunch of "Yeah!" and "Woo!" and such. They also did "Crazy"...I love that song! Don't judge me. They attempted to do the laugh in that song...and it made them sound demonic. Which they are. Song featured on here that I really hate but have a strong emotional attachment to? "Lips of an Angel".

What's worse than monotone demon children singing already bad songs? Those same kids singing country. I don't wanna talk about that CD. Let's just say I am really glad "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is not on that CD.

Kidz Bop 12 featured the song "Umbrella" (ella ella ella aye aye aye). Wow yeah let's buy this for kids to sing along to. .... I was also really really really really mad to see that they sang BREAKFAST IN AMERICA!!! One person remaking and ruining that song was bad enough! Kidz Bop doesn't need to get it's grimy little hands on it too!

Kidz Bop 13....why are they singing "Party Like a Rockstar" now? Kids should not attempt to rap or say "yeeeah" in unison. I hope they never said "holla!".

Kidz Bop then decided that it should go back in time and start ruining things in other decades. Kidz Bop 80's Gold. Lot's of random "woo"s in this CD too. Terrible. The 80's weren't really a shining time anyway though.

Kidz Bop 14....haha they're singing Fergie again. That's funny. I was happy to see Kidz Bop went back to picking on songs that weren't all that great to begin with. I've got a pocket got a pocket full of sunshine! ugh.

Kidz Bop 15...I don't know any songs on this one. I successfully cut out that kind of music out of my life. So I'm just gonna say something else now. I will be super acrid if they sing "Supermassive Black Hole". I was mad when Twilight used it and everyone decided to like Muse then. I was also mad when people decided to like Radiohead because "15 Step" was featured in the credits of Twilight.

Kidz Bop Greatest Hits was just another way to take your money.

Kidz Bop 16...this is a really sketchy CD. I see 2 Miley Cyrus songs on this CD..and Kanye...and Britney Spears. Wow...they made "That's not My Name" sound worse than when it's sung by the Ting Tings live. Impressive. I'm also wondering what kid listens to these songs.

OK MAIN POINT OF BASHING KIDZ BOP IN THE FIRST PLACE: KIDZ BOP SINGS THE BEATLES. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! BAD AND WRONG. These kids sing these songs with no feeling...no soul. They are children of the corn for goodness sakes! I don't feel like smiling when I hear this. Even Yoko made me smile when she sang with the children in "Happy Christmas(War is Over)". Why why why....why would Kidz Bop do this? This is NONSENSE. I grew up on the real stuff. I think other children should too. I hope no one really bought this for their children. I....I don't think I would have any hope for humanity anymore if they did.

Kidz Bop has the nerve to release yet another CD after that. Kidz Bop 17 is due to be out soon. Of course "Party in the USA" (way to make an annoying song even more annoying....atta boy Kidz Bop) "Fireflies" (good for you) "I gotta feeling" (of course) and "Paparazzi" (Um...I don't think children should be listening to Lady Gaga) are included.

Kidz Bop survives solely to take as many songs as they can and make them annoying and terrible. So far they've been doing a good job. To some, Glee is the savior that will stop this madness.

For me....I just don't know what to say. I try not to pay attention to these things.

~AM

Haircuts and Pants

I was a good citizen today and participated in my dorm's "Haircut for Haiti".

I have a cute haircut and I donated to a good cause. Go me.

So...my Sensei was trying to explain the Japanese expression of "sitting on your husband". She told us that it meant that the wife was the more assertive and aggressive one in the relationship. She asked us: "What's the equivalent here? Something with pants?". We told her the phrase was "who wears the pants in the relationship". She has a husband who is Minnesotan, so she attempted to combine the two cultures to create her own expression to use to tell her husband:

"I will wear your pants...and sit on you!"

Netflix. If you are ever in need of friends....get Netflix. Your awesomeness will go up 10 points because you have Netflix. Seriously.

~AM

Kind Of Depressing

I invite you to listen to these three songs in this order. If you don't feel incredibly sad after doing so, congratulations, you are a robot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ5IeZSSwFU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WROUOOtC7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

~AM

Trippy Things and Dramatic Sings

^I tried.

I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show. My reaction to The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "Um....what?"

That movie felt like an acid trip. I was physically ill after watching it. Tim Curry has nice legs though. I'm jealous. I'm starting to think you have to be on drugs, really drunk, really tired, or all three in order to fully enjoy that movie though.

My reaction to the song called Chant for Great Compassion: "Um....what?"

So nobody knows what this song is except the choir I'm in. Let me try to explain this trippy song to you. So we're all humming at the beginning and there is text being read that is all "I left....and now return...." and cheesy sounding stuff like that. Then we start singing in Chinese and the altos start chanting things like "We will risk this blood that flows! from one hundred thousand skulls! and thus exert the strength to turn! the cosmos back in place!!!". Then a bunch of clashing notes ensue and we have no idea what we are doing. Basically, pick a note and you'll be ok. None of us know what's going on in that song.

aha! an mp3! http://www.abbiebetinis.com/sound/betinis--chant_for_great_compassion.mp3

Like it sounds cool sometimes....but it's mostly impossible to learn how to sing.

Then there's this overly dramatic song we're singing called Joy. My reaction to this song: "Oh, so they made a musical out of Lifetime?"

Ok...so here how this song goes:

I am wild!
I will sing to the trees I will sing to the stars in the skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
I will sing!
I am wild!
I will sing! I will sing!
I am loved, he is mine.....Noooow at last I can die!
(violin plays a lot of stuff)
I am wild!
I am sandaled with wind and flame.
I am wild! (ugh we get it already!)
I have heart-fire and singing to give (what?) I can tread on the graaaaass or the staaaaarrrrs
I am wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild!
Now at last I can (overly dramatic pause) LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Yep.

~AM

Bite Me

So...I was curious about what in the world this nonsense was about. Over the past couple months I’ve been seeing notifications on facebook that say "Such and such found a homeless hottie who needs help! Such and such was just hanging out, like, fighting the evil undead and stuff, when Justin wandered into her apartment. Justin's parents kicked him out, and he needs a place to crash. Can you help?"

I thought to myself "What the..." and was very confused by the whole matter. I decided to do a little research.

According to the fan page, Bite Me is "A strategy RPG set in a world of hipster vampires. Work your way to the top of the vampire underworld, and look fabulous doing it!" um...ok?

Although, my favorite description of it is "some vampire [CENSORED BY 4KIDS] game in which it's cool to get kicked out of your house for being a little bitch and then picked up by some random stranger who happens to be a vampire... "

The first thing I discovered was the excessive use of the word "Thralls". That’s not a word you hear everyday. I don’t know what exactly they were talking about because it looked like this to me: "blah blah blah blah thrally-thralls! Blah blah Thralls blah blah, blah blah vampires blah. Blah blah blah blah blah Thrall blah. Blah blah blah Thralls blah blah blah Thrall blah. Thralls!"

Anyways, in order to get a basic idea of what this game was about, I realized I had to do the unthinkable: add the application. I was cautioned "BE CAREFUL YOU COULD GET AIDS".

This made me wonder...do vampires know of the dangers of AIDS? Vampires better be careful who they bite. Seriously. Watch...there will now be a movie like "Philadelphia" only with vampires.

Anyways...here is my thought process going through the game:

Oh look a picture. Weird looking not-so-hot people. Yay.

Oh no! I awoke from a nightmare of battling monsters and UNHOLY TERRORS. –I want to know what these "unholy terrors" are. Terrorists? Communists? The Star Wars Christmas Special?

Anyways...that’s okay because I had the power of (CHOOSE YOUR FIRST POWER HERE)-I chose "wolf bite" because...maybe I’ll be a werewolf. I hope so.

OH LOOK! CUSTOMIZING TIME! KIDS LIKE THE WORD CUSTOMIZE!

After making myself look like an emo kid...all of a sudden there’s this guy with a sword standing in front of me. Great. I already got guys brandishing their swords at me.

Apparently the dude thinks I’m like a newborn though...weak and hungry. What a jerk. He tells me he has "just the thing for me" and that I shouldn’t disappoint him. That...is one big ol’ cup of creepytime tea.

OMG A BLOODSUCKER IS AFTER ME! I MUST QUICKLY USE MY CLAWS TO SCRATCH HIS EYES OUT SINCE I APPARENTLY DON'T REALLY HAVE THAT WOLF BITE ABILITY! -I was highly disappointed that I still looked like an emo girl with long nails engaging in a catfight instead of a werewolf.

Yay the dude with the sword thinks I might be worthy of him now that I killed something. –I’m thinking this relationship isn’t going to work pal. Put your sword away.

Then this fun notification came up:
Ruby just became a sexy vampire in Bite Me!
For a dead gal, Ruby looks pretty damn hot. Snacking on the blood of mortals gives her that youthful glow. You should team up and fight the evil undead together in Bite Me!

That’s right I look hot. I don’t think I snacked on the blood of anything though. I just kinda...scratched them to death somehow.

So...now I’m in this apartment that may or may not be mine. And there’s a bed with the sheets all messed up. I leave quickly.

Some chick has been expecting me. She wants me to... be an exterminator? Who does she think I am?! Some emo werewolf (possibly?) chick who just does chores for people? Hell no!

I was under the impression that I would be going through some epic battles and taming dragons and transforming into a werewolf! I did not see these things happening anytime soon. I didn’t know I’d have to please a guy with a sword and do whatever chores this chick wants me to so she can party all the time. If that’s how they want to “train” me (more like EXPLOIT), then count me out...especially if I'm not really going to be a werewolf and instead just some emo chick with long nails.

I still don’t know where or how these "homeless hotties" come into play either. So I just invite random guys to stay with me? I don’t think that’s a very good idea letting strange people into my apartment to chill with me. It just seems really sketchy.

There are just too many ways to get STDs in this game. Honestly. I'd rather not be an emo kid with numerous STDs.

*delete application*

アリサ(Arisa) Fails

I'll go more into detail later about specifics...I just want to give you a rough idea what I've gotten into for now.

So I'm taking this Japanese Language and Society class. It's basically a linguistics class I guess. The course description said you didn't need to know Japanese. So cool. I'll take it...sounds interesting!

After the first few days of class, I've realized that you kinda need to know Japanese....or at least be an anime freak to get you by. Actually, you just needed to know stuff about Japan prior to this class and you would be fine.

I went into this class with basically no knowledge of Japan. This is all I know:
Ninjas! They speak Japanese! It's this island that was once isolated but now it's not so much! Pokemon! Anime! Axis power! Atomic bomb! Pearl Harbor! Tokyo! Mt. Fuji! Gwen Stefani likes Japan! Gardens! Sumo!

So yeah I basically know lots of words.

In the past 3 days I have roughly learned how to tell the difference between Katakana, Kanji and Hirogana. Don't know what those are? I didn't either 3 days ago. What I wrote a rough translation of my name in(that I figured out all by myself thank you)is katakana. Kanji is the really hard Chinese character type deals. Hirogana is...*mumbles* curvy...phonetic *mumubles*.

I also have learned basic Japanese grammar which I promptly forgot because we went over it really fast. Pretty much everyone else in the class has taken Japanese and so...we don't go over such simple things as that. It was like "remember this? okay moving on!". So..hopefully I won't need to know that so much?

My homework is filled with Japanese words and concepts that I don't understand. I have no background in Japanese culture. I've never read manga. I haven't really watched anime. I wasn't ever obsessed about Japan that I had to know everything about it.

I thought this class would ease me into Japan and Japanese things. Nope. Part of the problem is they meshed the class that required no experience in Japanese with the class that has had experience in Japanese. I'm not sure why.

No, I'm not going to drop the class. What I have been understanding has been interesting. I took this class for a reason. It's not ridiculously impossible...yet.

~AM

Pork? Lamb? Pork?

So today I tried...Pork? or was it Lamb? At first the person who was working with me thought it was pork. It looked like pork...people were saying it tasted like pork...so we said it was pork. Then people pointed out that it was called "Al Pastor" which apparently implied that when the meat was alive it lived in a pasture. So then we were like "oh....then it must be lamb". So for the last half of dinner we were telling people it was lamb. As you can guess, no one really wanted to eat it after that. So right before my shift ended, the girl who was working with me got me to try it. It tasted....eh.

So I get back from work and wikipedia this "Al Pastor" stuff. It's pork.

Either way I kinda had a moral problem eating whatever I ate. Although, I'm really really glad I didn't eat a sheep.

I also learned that people don't like trying new things even if it looks good. People even preferred me telling them I had no idea what the meat was over me telling them it was lamb. Maybe if I called it "sheep" it would have sounded better.

Helpful Advice for the Day: DO NOT google "eating lamb". It sounds harmless enough, but stupid google wants to show you what you can find on google images. I wanted to tell google "no...please no...I did not want to see what google images could offer me....why did you do that? I just wanted to know other people's opinion on eating lamb. Not....that."

~AM

Incoherent Babbling

That's about all I can do at this point.

~AM