Slumdog Millionaire

Another one down off of the motion picture winner list - Slumdog Millionaire! A great movie; it definitely deserved the honor of being the best movie of the year. Matt and I have been trying to see this movie since it came out - we rented it once from Red Box and kept it for a few days, and even checked it out (twice) from the library. And yet somehow we never saw it. Thankfully, Blockbuster Express still has it, so this week we joined the millions of those that love this movie.

If you haven't seen it, you need to. The movie flicks back and forth between current day and the past of a "slumdog" that led him to being - and succeeding - on the Indian gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I saw that this movie was dubbed the "feel good movie of the year", which is a little funny to me when I think about how to describe the plot. Matt pointed out that it shows every type of person-on-person injustice you can think of: slavery, torture, sex-trade, theft, gangs, mob violence, and more. Yet it does so in bite-sized pieces that don't leave you feeling sick, but oddly...empowered, maybe? Like you can conquer the world. Like you can overcome any obstacle. Like you are more aware of the evils around you, but you can wade through all the bad the world gives you to reach the goal.


It also makes me a little ashamed of myself. It reminds me that my bad days are nothing like the bad days so many experience. I don't live in fear of hunger, of homelessness, of violence, or of everyone around me. My problems are minuscule. And yet sometimes I become consumed with my problems and what I am going through. This was a healthy reminder that I need to be focused outward and helping and loving others, because I have been given so much.

Diet Coke + Mentos Experiment - Check!

I have always been fascinated by all things science.* So it comes to reason that I have been wanting to to mix Mentos and Diet Coke since I first saw the video of an epic mixing of the two. Had this come out when I was in school, it definitely would have been my science fair project. But as I am many years out of school (though I often consider going back for some type of science degree...besides the political type) I had to take things into my own hands. Therefore, please accept this as my adult mini-science fair project.

PURPOSE**
In my words:

Check off one of the things on my Thirty Things To Do Before I Turn 30 list.
Experience the awesomeness that comes from the mixture of science and food-based volcanoes.
Have fun.

In science fair-speak:

Determine if the portrayal of the result of mixing Mentos and Diet Coke in the videos is achievable by anyone.

Hypothesis**
Based on other videos I have seen on YouTube, I believe anyone can create a soda volcano using these two items.

Materials and Procedures
Needed:

6 2-liters of Diet Coke (apparently any soda would do, but diet is less sticky)
6 Packages of Mentos
3 People (me, Matt, and our friend John who happened to be spending the weekend with us)
A place where no one would be bothered by Diet Coke and Mentos spraying everywhere and cleanup would be minimal.

Procedure:

Drop Mentos as quickly as possible into the Diet Coke, the more the better.

Materials gathered.





Place acquired. This is actually a beautiful gazebo where one of my best friends got married, but that day...it was our laboratory.

Experiment




















I should note that the one is empty because we tried to dump more Mentos in to see if it would respond again. Not so much. So we dumped it out. It made sense then.

Results and Data
Each of us were successful in causing a reaction similar to what is seen in the videos, with the apex of soda reaching a height of about six feet, with maybe half of each Mentos package making it into each bottle.

Conclusions
It is indeed possible for anyone to elicit a reaction by mixing Mentos and Diet Coke. The science behind it is pretty interesting and seems to be somewhat of a mystery until recently. It comes from the rough surface of the candy and how quickly it drops to the bottom. Read more here.
The experiment is slightly addictive.
We should have had a better method for putting the Mentos into the bottles, like the test tube used in this video. Next time.



*My dad is a science teacher, so any time I had questions about how things worked growing up I always got an answer right away...and believe me, I asked a lot of questions. He has always been great at making science relevant and fun, and is still my Google for all things science and math, as my mom is for English and Bible.

**I think I always word the information for these sections incorrectly; I put what in my mind would logically go with the word, but it somehow never is what is required. But it's my blog and I give myself an A for Awesome on this experiment.

Bouncy Ball Race - Check!

When creating this list, one of the things suggested was a bouncy ball race, paying homage to the tv series Friends. In Season 7, Phoebe completes her list of things to do before she turns 30 by going a mile on a Hippity Hop (she later finds out she is actually turning 31, which I know I am not...though I did turn 28 twice). As Friends was a happy part of my current 30 years, it easily made the list. And, last week, one of my fabulous coworkers/friends came in with two bouncy balls so we could complete the task!


She got me the Marvel Superhero Squad - as my husband is a superhero - and she got herself the Disney Princess - as she is a princess. One of the things I did NOT realize when adding this task to the list was the price of bouncy balls...they run in the mid-twenties. Who knew this task would be so expensive!! But Jen had found these at Ross at a most affordable rate (thanks, Jen! Always looking out for me). Just one thing...


They were the infant size, just barely bigger than the size of my foot. Which only served to make it awesomer.

Friday just after 6pm we decided the time had come. We valiantly did our best to get warmed up for our big race and, after some squealing and some almost broken ankles, we began.


We had wanted to do it outside, but a day or so of stormy weather made that a no-go. So we ended up indoors in a cramped hallway. Needless to say, it was not a pretty race - Jen almost lost a toe, I was being weird about it, there was much falling, we restarted a few times, etc. - but it was indeed a race, a fun race, with a start and a finish. A winner, you ask? We were both winners for finding our inner child.


I have a feeling there will be a rematch soon, with our coworkers involved and more favorable conditions. Will let you know.

Watch an entire TV series - Check!

This has been probably one of the craziest weeks I can remember. Travel, new allergies, God "coincidences," South Africa, and so much more (and yes, I'm going to leave it that vague). Needless to say, my completion of the list hasn't been happening. Thankfully, I have one in my arsenal I had finished when I started the blog that I have been keeping for just such a dry spell. Because I know you don't want to go too long without a new posting, right? :)

When we used to peruse Blockbuster on "what do you want to do?" nights, I had always been intrigued by a TV series called Dead Like Me, which was about an 18-year-old girl who died (hit by the toilet seat from a de-orbiting Russian Space station) and was tasked with being a grim reaper. Despite the story framework, it claimed to be funny, and I wanted to see what it was all about. Alas, it always got passed over, and then our Blockbuster went the way of Mervyn's, so I thought my chance was lost.

But, huzzah! Netflix brought the possibility anew, and when it popped up as suggested I knew it was time. Being just two seasons with a closing movie, it seemed like the perfect length for this list.


You should know that it is a Showtime series, so the language is very adult, as is the subject matter - it is death, after all - and discussions among the characters. But it was done very tastefully (except the movie, more on that disaster later) and while the story was set around "reaping" what carried it was fantastic character development. You really end up caring about this group, which gathers every morning at Der Waffle Haus to receive assignments, and watch as each reaper tries to come to terms with their own past, present, and future. The humor comes from the fact that, while doing their "eternal" job (to be ended at some point, they know not when), they still have to earn real money to live. So, while they may be running out at lunch to find the person who will die in a bank that day, they still have to punch the clock as a meter maid, a staffing company representative, an actress...or doing whatever else they can to make cash. It also deals with the "living" side of things, following the main character's family as they cope with the loss of their daughter/sister.

It does not move you to rethink what happens after death (at least it didn't for me), but like all good fiction it does move you to ponder how you are living your life now and see things in a way you might not have before. For me, it was appreciating the small things. And it made me wish I had a breakfast group. Of course, that would require waking up early...

As for the follow-up movie - if you ever decide to watch the series, leave it at that. If there were ever anything I could be allowed to un-see, this would make my top ten list. It was made five years later, with different writers, a different actress for one of the characters, a different set of rules, and allowed things that just should never have been and visuals never used in the series. I wanted just a little extra taste of the series, so ignored all the warnings about it and watched it anyway, figuring it couldn't be all that bad. Yes, yes it can. While it clears up the relationship between the main character and her sister, it does so poorly and answers none of the important questions. If you decide to watch the series, skip the movie. They have almost nothing in common.

Go skiing - check!

At the beginning of my second year of high school I discovered I could no longer do sports or be very active without extreme pain in one of my legs. Consequently, while I went on several ski trips in high school and early college with my church groups, I never actually went skiing. I did not begrudge the fact that I couldn't join everyone on the slopes and made the best of the trips - sledding, building snowmen, and hanging out in the lodge (I pride myself as one of the best bag-watchers out there and used to play a mean game of cards).

So, when I finally got to go skiing in 2008 (after two surgeries), it was a pretty big deal to me. And I loved it. Therefore, it gave to reason that I would add it when compiling this list. I just didn't expect it to get checked off so quickly!

Over the holidays we had talked about the possibility of going on an extended weekend vacation with my brother- and sister-in-law, which could include skiing, and at the beginning of January everything came together to go this past weekend. We ended up at a nice resort in the mountains of Virginia, staying for free at the house of a kind benefactor who was out of town. We went skiing Friday night, as we wanted to take advantage of recent snow and the prices were more reasonable on weekdays than on the weekend.

I did pretty well, staying mostly to the green but venturing to the blue slopes a few times. My having been sick caught up with me at the end, though, as my legs started to just give way. Not while I was skiing, mind you...but while I was just standing there. The first time it happened we had just gotten off of a lift, and were discussing which slope to take. My husband and brother-in-law had gone a little ways away, and I stood there and slowly just fell over for no good reason - I later realized my boot was loose, and someone pointed out that having been sick my equilibrium was probably off, but at the time it was just hilarious to me. As I lay there, I lost it laughing at myself, and my compadres just pointed and laughed. This resulted in a nice kid named Logan awkwardly, unexpectedly helping me up, resulting in a story that got more elaborate through retelling as all good stories do. I found the next few times of falling to be equally as funny and called it quits not long after.

The rest of the weekend was heavenly. I completely unplugged, and we spent our time watching movies, eating, going for a walk along the beautiful snowy mountainside, and playing games (from whence Sandy the sock puppet emerged; I highly recommend the game Quelf. And Batman UNO). A wonderful break from the craziness of life. A wonderful time with family.