Deadly Mangoes!

As a child, I was allergic to poison ivy. Severely. Unfortunately, I’m a tree hugger who’s horrible at recognizing the wretched plant, so I got the rash all the time. Throughout my teenage years (and now early twenties—I feel old! haha), I didn’t really catch it. In fact, the last time I remember having it was a year or two ago, and then the rash went away after a few days. All this to introduce my absolute surprise when a rash that looked very much like my enemy appeared on my lips.

Now for the fun part. I posted about my puzzlement on the forum for one of my social networks (Ravelry, for the record, is my number one fav. source for information, especially after this incident). Just as I was ready to crash for the night, I opened the site again to discover someone had replied. She asked if I’d eaten fresh mangoes recently. So here’s the tidbit I didn’t know, ‘else I would’ve exercised more caution (and not purchased a fresh mango): mango skins cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis. To put it simply, since I get poison ivy rash, mango skin is a major red flag for me. Duly noted, I feel better about my new knowledge, less confused about my situation, and will continue to apply itch cream and allergy drugs till my lips are clear again.

“Alias” By Any Other Name

Pun totally intended. Three years after the finale of t.v. show Alias, I have finally managed to get through re-watching the entire series (which, for the record, took about two years before I could even fathom looking at them again). Though the last couple of seasons had many bumps in the road, the finale brought back—as well as brought a conclusion to—all of the moments that made me fall in love with the show.

I first watched Alias when I was sixteen, on a somewhat “boring” evening in Australia. My aunt had the television on and briefly explained the premise of the particular episode. It was all very foreign to me, but I remember the Passage well because it is essentially the one that hooked me—the epitome of what makes me love this show. It contains the action, the espionage, the family “bond” of the Bristows, and yet also includes good humor. All the necessary ingredients for a quality show worth my time and interest.

As with many of my interests, television in particular, it’s not easy to explain the emotional connexions I feel towards certain shows over others. Something about them just clings to my soul, preaching “This show will entertain you. It will reach you. It will inspire you.” The latter must be the most important aspect because every time I watch shows like Alias (or see films, or read books, or listen to music, etc.), I’m drawn to my own writing. In particular, the shows created by J.J. Abrams, as I mentioned in an earlier post , encourage me to try different methods with my writing. The pilot for Alias is a stellar example of this. In it, the audience is introduced to this young woman with bright red hair, trapped in a sticky situation and about to be tortured. She looks ridiculous, of course, and the scene immediately calls several questions to attention. A great hook, at least in my opinion. From there, the episode flashes back (a concept used several times over the course of the series) and slowly explains how the red-haired character came to be where she’s at until both timelines meet up again. I can’t place why, but this method of story-telling is intriguing to me. I’ve modeled a few of my own stories after this idea; I guess I figure if it works well enough to hook me, there must be something to it. Right?

Class Ring Decisions

I never went to a high school, so I never got a high school class ring. Maybe it’s a bit lame, but I decided a while back that I want to invest in a class ring as a memento for my university. Since I’ll be graduating in December, the window shopping for my ring has stepped up to “obsession” and I still find myself caught on what design/style to get. So, here are the finalists:

I’m sure there are several others out there similar to these that I can look at, but for simplistic reasons, these three are the general designs I’m looking at. Option one (left photo, aka “circular”) is mostly there for comfort reasons. I’m not a fan of jewelry and when I wear rings, I usually prefer that style because it’s simple and doesn’t annoy me too much. Option two (middle photo, aka “traditional”) has my eye because it’s the traditional class ring style and I like the image choices you get for each side of the ring, about which I’ve several ideas. Style three (aka “fantasia”) I like for a few reasons—first, it still has the simplistic style of the first one, but with a taste more suitable to me (hence the aka title). It feels very Elvish with its fantastical design and has nice font for the graduation year. The only thing that really makes me lean towards Traditional—it’s too big and clunky for my taste otherwise—is that it lets you put the images on each side. I’d love to have my major and the school mascot on each side, but at the same time, the other two styles better suit me. Here’s where everyone reading this comes in because you get to vote:

After you vote, if you want to comment on this post with details behind your decision, I’d be much obliged. Now I have to go back to work so I can save up the money to get this ring. ^_^