YouTube

Meet Diesel, Our Up-and-Coming Star

By in Furry Friends Tags: , , , , , ,

We have a pet chinchilla named Diesel, and although he has a somewhat grumpy disposition, I still think he is the cutest four-legged creature to walk the face of the earth. He is a bit overweight for a chinchilla, weighing in at just over two pounds, and he often just looks like a ball of fur with ears and a tail. He brings out the Elmyra Duff (remember Animaniacs?) in me, and I just want to squeeze him and love him forever and ever and ever. Even friends who normally hate rodents like mice and hamsters are often won over when they see our Diesel.

Diesel is so adorable, in fact, that it would be a pity for his cuteness to go on unnoticed in the world. Recently, I’ve been plotting ways to make Diesel a YouTube celebrity, with his own channel full of viral videos and a fan base of loyal followers. We just have to come across the right ideas at the right time, and Diesel will soon be following in the footsteps of Panda Dog, Heart-kun, and Susan Boyle.

Here are some videos we’ve recorded over the past to test the waters….

Stay tuned for more from tomorrow’s YouTube superstar, Diesel!

Another Awesome Surprise Wedding Dance

By in Family and Friends Tags: , , , ,

There’s something about weddings that I just can’t get enough of. Being there to celebrate the love of two people who love each other is always enough to spring tears to my eyes, but what I also love is all the creativity that comes out of the couples. A recent trend that I absolutely love is the surprise wedding dance — where the couple’s slow dance suddenly breaks into a high-energy choreographed dance routine. It seems like it’s only really caught on in the past couple years, but YouTube is already swarming with videos of them!

My childhood friend Marie (or Moe-chan, as I knew her in Japanese Saturday School) was married to her husband Colin on September 26th in Washington, DC. Marie, our friend Erri and I all knew each other since first grade and were inseparable through middle school at nihongo-gakkou. I can’t believe that now the three of us are all married! (Erri, being the first to tie the knot, already has an adorable two-year-old.) I wasn’t at their wedding, but I just discovered through Marie’s Facebook their awesome surprise wedding dance. They got the whole bridal party involved. Here is the video. (The two-minute mark is where you want to be!)

Though it pales in comparison to Marie & co.’s dance, Dan and I broke into our own rendition of Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel during our first dance to Endless Love at our wedding, over a year ago. We practiced for more than a month, but they hadn’t been dress rehearsals, so I found it a lot more difficult to move in a wedding dress during the actual performance! A bit embarrassing, but it was still a hit with our guests. (Watch our video here)

For anyone looking for a way to shake up a wedding and stray from the snore-fest that is often the traditional first dance, surprise dances are a fun alternative. There are plenty of ideas on YouTube — ours was inspired by this couple (who are much better than our rhythmically-challenged selves, I might add), with some alterations here and there. It’s sure to invite laughs and tumultuous applause from your guest.