Today does not exist, at least not to the people of Samoa. When their clocks hit midnight on Thursday night the country skipped straight into Saturday. This is because the South Pacific nation has decided to skip to the western side of the International Date Line to coordinate more closely to nearby nations it deals with more regularly, such as Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Asian nations.
It makes me wonder, however, why they chose Saturday instead of a Monday. Who wouldn’t want to skip Monday? It brings to mind a line by Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day: Well what if there is no tomorrow?! There wasn’t one today!
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500 Days of Summer was an odd, quirky, and vaguely unsatisfying movie, but I thought Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a great chemistry. Of course that could be because I think Zooey Deschanel is interminably cute and perky in a way that out-Meg-Ryans Meg Ryan (especially lately). In any case, in case you’re in the mood for some ZD + JGL cuteness, here’s their cover of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve“. We knew Zooey could sing, but she also plays ukulele. and Joseph sings and plays guitar. Who knew? (Probably everyone but me.)
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Want to participate in the “Best X of 2011” in a way that will leave you smarter? Check out the “11 Must- See Science Videos of 2011“. Okay, I’ll admit that the “Dance your PhD” video was more odd than enlightening, but I still watched it all the way to the end, and I did learn a few things about problems in prosthetics.
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If you like science fiction and/or fantasy and are looking for to get a short fiction hit every two months, check out Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, an online sci-fi and fantasy magazine. It’s subscription-based, but they do have value-adds like e-book reader editions and audio downloads of at least one story per issue. Card contributes from time to time, with everything from Enderverse short stories to preview chapters from upcoming novels. I’ve subscribed, and I’m enjoying it so far. It’s also giving me hope that my writing is at least good enough to compete at this level.
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And in case you were wondering why we kiss our partner at midnight on New Year’s Ever, there’s this enlightening article. I didn’t know we needed encouragement to kiss.
Get with the times, brother. Zoey and Joseph have released three albums together now. Latest one is a Christmas album. And she can sing! I know they are on Amazon. Don’t know about iTunes.
Oops. That is with M. Ward. The name of their music group is “She and Him”.
She’s sung in every movie I’ve seen her in, and does well. And yes, I’m not with the times. Not with the Post, either. Ba dum dum!