Call Me, Maybe?

Hey, you just got here, and this is crazy, but here's my blog, so subscribe to me maybe?

That's right folks, this post is about the entertaining and utterly catchy song 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepson.  Now, before you turn away, this isn't about how much I love this song or how amazing it is.  It is, instead about just how many other recreations it has spawned.

I don't believe that the lyrics are the best ever written, but the tune itself is outrageously catchy and the song is just fun.  Not to mention the cute video that goes along with it.

The song was originally released in Canada in September 2011.  It's major popularity began when fellow Canadian star, Justin Bieber, uploaded a video of himself and a few other celebs dubbing the song. 

Soon after this was when the mayhem began.  Parodies appeared everywhere, videos of fans dubbing the song began appearing at an alarming rate!  It was madness!

And then came the memes.  For those of you who don't know what a meme is, according to Urban Dictionary, a meme is "A pervasive idea within a given culture. The idea may be spread through all channels of communication (word of mouth, photography, ad campaigns, television, &c.). The goal of the meme is to change the thought patterns of the populace."  The ones I usually find most amusing are in picture form.  Take the following examples:

And even after all that awesomeness, I still like this video the best...

Now that you have had an obscene dosage of Call Me Maybe, it is time for you to go forth into the world and sing it ALL DAY LONG!!  Have fun!



P.S.  If some of you out there have never seen Labyrinth with David Bowie, it is officially time to do so.

U is for...

Unicorns!!!

Every little girl's dream!  Wait... that's not right.

That's more like it.  Every little girl's dream!  A magical creature combining a horse with a narwhal!  Clearly the best genetic combination ever (though closely tied with the Pegasus, a horse with wings).  I really don't know what else to say about the topic.  It's a unicorn.  What else is there to say?  I suppose I could go into the history behind this majestic being, but I'd rather show you some pictures...

S is for...

7th Rrrrregiment!!

Like that wasn't obvious!!  The 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps is an Open Class drum corps based out of New London, CT.  They were founded in 2004 and continue to push their way to the top every season since.

Now, I'm not biased or anything like that, but I absolutely love drum corps as an activity.  It combines the best of... everything!  It has music and arts and dance and athleticism and pure entertainment!  Not to mention the family and friends and memories and jokes and everything else involved with living/ working with people for an absurdly long time.  I myself have been with the corps for the past four years, and this season, 2012, will be my fifth and final year with the corps as I am aging out.  As per DCI rules, anyone ages 12-21 can march, and I have finally reached the magical age of 21 and will thus be ending this chapter of my life at the end of the season.  Yes, this is upsetting, it's been the majority of my life for five years now, but it's also a little freeing.  I can now go on and explore other interests.  Of course I will miss it, but there's not much I can do, so I'll make the best of it.

For those of you who don't know, drum and bugle corps is a performing arts ensemble consisting of only bell-front brass, percussion, and colorguard.  They are independent organizations dedicated to developing strong leadership, character, and integrity in young adults.  During the summer they travel across the country, competing against each other and performing for thousands of fans.  I like to describe them as marching bands on steroids.  But whatever you do, don't call them a band.  They are corps, plain and simple. 

Unicorns of the Sea

So I am really enjoying this post about topics thing that I've re-instated because now I can write about anything. For the past few months I've been relying on my experiences to determine what to blog about.  And those experiences were severely lacking.  But no more!  And in honor of that today's post is about (Drum roll please)... NARWHALS!!!  With which I have absolutely no experience.

So for any of you out there who have never heard of or seen a narwhal (scandalous) here is a lovely picture for you...

Now that is clearly one of the coolest animals on the earth today.  Narwhals are basically the unicorns of the sea, except they're real!!

Now you may be wondering exactly what is that thing protruding from it's head?  Well, sadly it is not a horn.  It is, however, a tusk.  Otherwise known as a tooth.  That's right, the narwhal's giant horn is actually a tooth that grows through the porpoise's upper lip.  The tooth originates from the left incisor, and it is a rare specimen that will grow a tusk on both the left and right sides.

The tusk can extend up to 8 feet on the male and is spiraled.  Females will also grow a tusk, though it will be smaller and straighter than the male's.  Though scientists have long debated over the exact purpose of this extreme tooth, is it used for breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, wooing females, defending baby narwhals or establishing dominance in social hierarchies?  Not exactly.  In recent years a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology discovered that the tusk is actually an sensory organ.  This means that as the narwhal is swimming through the water, the tusk is sending information from the environment, such as subtle changes of temperature, pressure, and particle gradient, to the brain.  And while it's not exactly known why the whale needs to know all of this information, there are a few theories out there.

As previously mentioned, the narwhal is a porpoise rather than a whale.  As such, they are related to bottlenose dolphins, belugas, harbor porpoises, and orcas.  Like some of these other sea mammals, narwhals travel in groups to feed, typically in numbers from 15-20, though sightings have been reported with up to 1000 whales.  Crazy. The narwhal is native to the Arctic, specifically around Canada and Greenland, though they have been spotted as far east as Siberia.