No. 27: Pop Culture. In [almost] all its forms.

Last night, we invented a new game. (I guess this is as opposed to inventing an old game...which would just be re-inventing. But sentence rhythm, okay?) The automatic title of this game (due to unintentional constant use during the invention) was "Ergo, Buffy!" It's played in a manner very similar to Six Degrees of Separation--only the end is always Buffy the Vampire Slayer (ergo, "Ergo, Buffy!"). This started because an Oral-B commercial reminded Ginger of That Thing You Do! We can do it from Burn Notice, Lost, Titanic, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, The Hangover, and George Clooney. The only one we cheated on was Snoopy. (Go ahead, you try it!)


We also (we, again, being Hayley, Ginger, Sarah, and Emily) like to do our best to include nerd chic pop culture into our school/everyday lives. For example: Emily is in Basic Econ this semester, and the class roleplays on an island. Emily is waiting for the perfect moment to stand and announce, "If we can't live together, we're going to die alone!" or "Don't tell me what I can't do!" Another example: Sarah and I (Hayley) have recently gotten way into The Big Bang Theory. Today at lunch we played "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock."


Name some pop culture entertainment proper noun (e.g., movie, tv show, actor) in the comments, and we'll get to Buffy. Promise. :)


**Burn Notice to Buffy

Burn Notice. Jeffrey Donovan. Monk. Tony Shalhoub. Spy Kids. Antonio Banderas. Shrek. Cameron Diaz. The Holiday. Jack Black. Community. Owen Wilson. Night at the Museum. Ben Stiller. Zoolander. Billy Zane. Titanic. Leonardo DiCaprio. Inception. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (500) Days of Summer. Zooey Deschanel. Emily Deschanel. Bones. David Boreanaz. Ergo, Buffy.

**Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock (rules)

scissors cut paper

paper covers rock

rock crushes lizard

lizard poisons spock

spock smashes scissors

scissors decapitate lizard

lizard eats paper

paper disproves spock

spock vaporizes rock

rock crushes scissors

No. 21: This Friday

Finals are this week. I've been thinking a bit lately about the purpose of finals. Most of my professors treat "finals" as just the next test in a series of sectional exams.

The psychology final I just finished consisted of 45 multiple choice questions about the last three chapters of the semester. It was the easiest psych test by far.

My roommate's final today, however, was for human growth and development. They had a sectional exam on Wednesday, and then a comprehensive final this morning. I've been racking (literally, torturing, as in "on the rack") my brain trying to figure out the purpose behind this. Sarah's theory: education professors are sadists. I'm tempted to agree. The students have already been tested over this material. Some of it just three days ago!

Now, I have a Middle Ages exam on Wednesday (at 8 am!), and he told us we should be aware of previous material (since it's a history class, and history is by definition comprehensive), but that we would be primarily tested over what we've learned since our most recent exam.

So, my little rant on comprehensive college finals. Silly. Also, I think some professors weight the final and others don't. Why?

But with Thursday at midnight comes Iron Man 2 and the end of our first year of college. If we can survive until then. :)

~Hayley