Corn... vegetable or grain?

I never felt true, nearly tangible jealousy until my friend told me he was going to the World Cup.

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It would be a complete understatement to say that I love seeing this much football on AMERICAN TELEVISION. I love it so much. ESPN made a wicked good decision to not have pairs of crack-ass American pseudo-football-announcers (who are probably mostly just American football announcer converts) do the announcing and commenting this time around.

I love I love I love soccer and the World Cup. I must say, though, living in America around a bunch of Americans who only get excited about "soccer" 1 month every 4 years and spend the rest of the time bad-mouthing it is frustrating, to say the least. No, of course it's not everyone; there are plenty who keep up with everything... I just feel like most Americans are soccer prostitutes: they devote their lives to American sports for 3 years and 11 months and then suddenly "Oh, yeah! No, I know, (fill this space with Brazil or some well-known European team) is going to win, and America sucks at soccer, man"... soccer whores?

Yeah, I'm a bit of a football snob, and no, I haven't been this into football my whole life, and, believe me, I know that it's a hell-of-a-lot harder to be a soccer fan in North America than it is elsewhere, but give me a break. To thine own self be true. If basketball and baseball and American football are your thing, that's cool, yeah? Now don't pretend like you love soccer. You're just tricksing yaself, yo.

And yes, clearly, I'm a bit bitter. My solution to all of this? :

Dear American Television (part 2),

Please show more soccer on yourself. I might propose that airing English Premier League games might be a good start. Why? Because even Americans know names like "Manchester United" and... well, yeah. They know Manchester United. So that's a good start...

Sincerely,

CK

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Gemma Hayes FTW

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You say that I only hear what I want to, that I talk all the time. I thought what I felt was simple, that I just don't belong, but now that I'm leaving, I know that I did something wrong 'cause I missed you.

And you say I only hear what I want to, that I don't listen hard, that I don't pay attention to the distance that you're running to anyone, or anywhere.
I don't understand if you really care; I'm only hearing negative...

So I turned the radio on, and I turned it up,
and this woman was singing my song, where the lover's in love, and the other's run away, then the lover is crying 'cause the other won't stay.

Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was dying since the day they were born; this is not that- I think that I'm throwing, but I'm thrown.

And I thought I'd live forever, but now I'm not so sure... You try to tell me that I'm clever, but that won't take me anyhow, or anywhere with you.

You said that I was naive, but I thought that I was strong. I thought, "Hey, I can leave" ...but now I know that I was wrong, 'cause I missed you.

You said, "I caught you 'cause I want you and one day I'll let you go." You try to give away a keeper, or keep me 'cause you know you're just scared to lose.

And you say, "Stay."

Lisa Loeb's song "Stay", edited and rearranged for no apparent reason

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Why is being overweight or obese and feeding one's child(ren) the same food that one feeds oneself not viewed with the same (or more) disdain as smoking and emitting second-hand smoke with one's child(ren) in the vicinity? How can children learn healthy eating habits if their parents are teaching them to "finish their plates" of crap food?

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Challenge of the day: go to your pantry. Pick up a loaf of store-bought bread- whole grain, whole wheat, white, whatever. How many nutrients does it have? As in, vitamins. As in, at the bottom of the "Nutrition Facts" label thing? Alright, now how many of those nutrients do you think are actually naturally found in the grain, and how many of those nutrients do you think were added into the mix artificially?

Finally, which of those foods is more nutrient-dense- vegetables and fruits, or bread and grains (even those grain sources fortified with minerals.)

*Shrugs shoulders*

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Click on this

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This is cool

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"If loading takes forever, why did they even make it?"

-Boss' 7-year-old son waiting on his Star Wars computer game to load...

That's a good question.

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This post is quite bitter. Just imagine me laughing and smiling and you'll remember that I'm not always bitter.

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Sara Groves- You Are The Sun

"The softness of my heart is tainted by the world which seeks to harden it"

I find that the girl of whom I dream is but a shadow of the real one, and I like the shadow more.

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I don't understand how believing that America is a nation "set-apart", that America is somehow not only unique but also better than other countries... I don't understand how this isn't racism.

America is, indeed, unique, but, just as I am not better, just as I am not vindicated in telling my Chinese or Korean or Mexican friends what to do or how to do this or that or how to be or do anything ever based on my own "better-ness" as an American, so America is not better than every other country

Furthermore, I find that it follows that, if you do believe that America is "set-apart"-a holy nation, if you will, there's a chance you might be a racist.

...and you might wanna check on that.

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I wrote a 3500-word paper at the end of last semester. Anybody who has ever received a personal e-mail or Facebook message from me knows that I can't not write a lot. A lot.

Suffice it to say, not exceeding word or page limits for school papers has been an issue for me since high school. Hence, one can imagine that the prospect of writing a 3500-word paper was somewhat enticing because I figured there would be no way I could possibly exceed that many words... and I figured wrong.

I finished the paper with more than 3700 words, and I didn't even bother trying to get the word count down to 3500... who knew I could write so much about Confucianism in Modern Chinese Literature?

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Whose idea was it to put North Korea and Iran's pavilions adjacent to one another at the World Expo in Shanghai?

I don't mean anything by it...

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I hope Liverpool does better next season. In the meanwhile, though, we have a little thing called the World Cup to keep our attention. My boss said I can watch scores on the computer while I'm working. I have a feeling that it's going to turn into me just staring at the score update window and not getting much of anything done... and in no way is that a bad thing. ?

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Please don't be a racist.

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I have no shame in admitting that I believe that Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" is a complete jam.

Read: songwriters Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, and Jessica Cornish and other people in the studio and behind the scenes did a fine job. Sure, I might have appreciated it if someone else had actually performed the song, but, regardless, "Party in the USA" is a quality pop song.

No shame.

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Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

-Ernest Hemingway

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Why do we say, "Here goes nothing..." when we really mean, "Here goes everything!"?

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Every time I get deja vu, I get the feeling that, the last time "this" "happened", things didn't turn out well, but THIS time, everything's going to be just fine...

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Unhealthy people make a lot more noise than healthy ones. Don't believe me? Next time you are in some fairly quiet place with a lot of people, just listen and watch.

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I appreciate the way that, on many non-American radio stations, the music seems to automatically go quiet when the DJ talks. If you've never heard that, I don't know how to explain it... but I like it.

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If you take issue with something you read here, don't shut up. Tell me, if you want. Comment, or something.

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Uffie- Our Song

Uffie- Art of Uff