Yarsian Talks About...

The (Supposed) History Channel

2011-08-18T16:38:00.000-05:00

So, the other day I was watching the History Channel and it made me question the validity of their channel name.

The show I was watching was called Ancient Aliens, and it was on all day, the way History Channel has a 'theme' every day.

Now, in my more youthy youth I fully enjoyed the occasional ghost/alien/conspiracy theory special (...okay, a lot of them). The problem is even as a ten year old I had this wonderful ability called "Critical Thinking" and while it wasn't as strong as it is now I still had the ability to realize things that were unlikely if not outright impossible.

But, even then, I don't think that the crazy conspiracy shows were THIS freaking crazy.

I used to be able to get to about the 35-45 minute mark before conspiracies generally got too crazy (History Channel alien/ghost/conspiracy documentaries have pattern of starting tame and working their way up). Meaning I could tolerate a decent amount of crazy before the skeptical part of my brain took over.

Now, with the conspiracy shows (Ancient Aliens, Brad Meltzer's Decoded) start with the stretching that most shows didn't get into right away. And when I say stretch, I mean Mr. Fantastic style stretching.

Here are the tweets I made while watching this show when it was on: "Hey, remember when History Channel was about history? What happened? Ancient Aliens isn't history its baseless speculation, at best." "Seriously, I don't mind them showing alternative theories, but actually try to portray all sides fairly. Don't give into the crazy!" "It's almost like coincidence doesn't exist to these people. Seriously? Now you're trying to convince me a pharaoh might've been an alien? No" "No, no Egyptian pharaoh was ever an alien. No. Where is the sane archeologist calling out these idiots? Where is the science? DNA test even?" "Ancient Aliens, I hate you."

Yes, you probably read those tweets correctly, Ancient Aliens tried to say that Pharaoh Akhenaten (whose body we have probably found) was either an alien, or of alien descent explaining his unusual appearance (in artwork) and religion. This was Thirty minutes into a two-hour program. No expert was called in to say, "That's bullshit his DNA is completely human."

More on the decline of the History Channel later.

Bridesmaids (A So-so Film)

2011-05-24T08:28:00.000-05:00

I know this isn't an exactly timely review, but who reads this anyway? But, if you are, there be spoilers ahead.

The film I saw last week with my good friends was "Bridesmaids" and it was... all right?

The film had potential. It really did! However, I felt it squandered it trying to do the same things it did well. Let me explain:

I felt this film did a really good job of Showing as opposed to telling. In the film's opening act you really get a feel for who the characters are and how they are all, mostly, interconnected. You can feel the friendship between the main character Annie and her best friend Lillian. Also, when the rest of the cast is introduced you do get a feel for their personalities and what kind of plot you'll be seeing out of them.

However, this made for a very lengthy act 1. And I mean very lengthy. Probably 20-40 minutes of the total 125 minute run time. Normally, I wouldn't complain about a lengthy set up, but the payoff isn't there. The end is just kind of an end, no real resolution of plot lines. The only plots that are resolved are: Annie's fight with Lillian, Annie's fight Helen, and Annie's fight with Nathan. While that seems like a lot here are plots that weren't resolved, but set up: Annie's bakery, Annie's joblessness, Annie's living with her mother, Helen's comeuppance, Lillian's moving into a richer culture, the two married, to different men, bridesmaids making out, Annie's mom and the mechanic, and so on.

Seriously, this movie sets up a million different plot lines that go nowhere. TV Tropes, which as you know is a wiki so info from there is variable, says that this film is a deconstruction of the plucky girl who's life is shit turns it around kind of movie, and while I could maybe deal with that, the fact that it's a deconstruction doesn't mean a film can just not resolve plot lines willy-nilly.

Another problem with this film is that, for showing really well, some scenes drag on and on. While I understand "Crossing the Line Twice" I never felt some of the scenes crossed back over. The two scenes that really seemed to outstay their welcome were: The Engagement Party Speeches Scene and the Food Poisoning Scene. They started off funny, and established what the meant to do: Establish Helen's character for the former and be down right grossly funny for the latter. They did that at first, but began to outstay their welcome and should have been cut down, which annoys me even more because of the aforementioned lack of resolution.

The acting was brilliant, like I said about showing earlier, you could feel each character come alive and shine each time they were on screen, especially Helen, as played by Rose Byrne. Helen is the closest thing we have to an antagonist and damn I hated her, in a good way. The way you're supposed to hate a villain.

Overall, it's an alright, if sometimes oddly paced, film. I don't regret seeing it, but wait until it's in the cheap theatres if you're dying to see it.

Coming up later this month: Book Vs Film II: Howl's Moving Castle!

Unusual Role Association Because of My Childhood

2011-05-04T20:22:00.000-05:00

As much as we don't want to admit it typecasting happens to even some of the greatest actors. But I'm not talking about the normal kind of typecasting/role association. This is far more of a personal typecasting. You firmly get the idea of someone as a character and no matter what role they take in the future that role influences you to believe things about that character, even if it's untrue.

Because of this unconcious typecasting I've come to believe certain things bout certain actors. Here are just a few.

Derek Jacobi:

He may look like a friendly old man, and he probably is, but I will forever associate him with the role of Professor Yana/The Master from Doctor Who. It was the first role I saw him in and he can't escape it. I see him as a bad guy in everything. It didn't help the next role I saw him in was in The Golden Compass where he played a bad guy as well. Even when he was in the King's Speech, playing a fairly nice character, I interpereted everything he did as quasi-evil. All because of Doctor Who.

Tim Curry:

Going in the opposite direction I don't see Tim Curry as a bad guy on first appearance. I know, you're probably listing twenty different roles in disagreement with me right away. I can do that too: Frank N. Furter in Rocky Horror, Pennywise the Clown in IT, just about every role he's ever had ever.... I get that. However, I grew up watching Wild Thornberries. In this show Tim Curry played the kind and loving father Nigel Thornberry. Yes, you read that correctly, kind and loving. In fact, he was the goofy if slightly ineffectual parent, because he was the British one. I'm not kidding you. I associate his voice with Nigel Thornberry, one of the coolest dads I know.

Micheal Caine:

Micheal Caine has recently been known as the Bad-Ass Alfred in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. This was, while not shocking, an interesting break from his kind and thoughtful old mand appearences in the past, like in Cider House Rules While not exactly weak in either Second Hand Lions or The Prestige he still wasn't the former action man that he was in The Dark Knight or Batman Begins. However, the role I have of him permanantly lodged in my brain is a much younger role, that was Bad Ass. In the original Italian Job, Micheal Caine plays Charlie Croker, a criminal mastermind and ladies man(well, not really a master mind, but he does add a lot to the plan) and this doesn't really gel with his current persona. That is what I associate him with.

Roger Allam:

This is another perpetual bad guy for me. I can't help it. The first two films I saw him in were V for Vendetta and Speed Racer and he played a bad guy in both. He didn't play slightly evil people, he played truly heartless people. He played Royalton in Speed Racer (the big bad) and The Voice of London in V for Vendetta (where he played an evil general turned evil talkshow host). This colored my recent viewings of The Queen, where he played an aide to her majesty. Even though he just seemed quiet and had good intentions I still felt he was a jerk, even though there is NOTHING to support this.

I just realized this list is full of British men. I didn't mean it that way. It's just sort of funny.

More Shows I Never Want to Be On

2011-05-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

After chatting with my boyfriend about this post I thought of more shows I'd never want to be on, unoriginal I know, but schools almost out.

Wife-Swap/Trading Spouses- I don't know if these shows are even on anymore, but I'd never want to be on them. No one comes out looking good. The wives look like whiny bitches for the first half and then the husbands follow suit during the second half. If I ever get put on one of these shows it means I'm not willing to compromise or work with someone who feels different than me, or the few things I'm unwilling to compromise on will get blown out of proportion (curse crafty editing!). When I say I try and maintain an open mind, I mean it. I don't want to be caught in a lie.

Hoarders/Hoarding: Buried Alive/Confessions: Animal Hoarding: I'm already an untidy person, but I stop before things get too far. If I'm even considered for one of these shows that means I not only have a mental health problem, but I've let my untidiness get too far. Besides, there's a point where things are too gross even for me and I doubt I would let myself live in that unsanitary of an environment. Especially animals. As much as I love animals, if I can't count them all on one hand I'll know I'm in over my head (not counting fish/water frogs because they live in one tank).

Baggage- For similar reasons I don't want to be on any of the above shows I don't want to be on GSN's baggage. No one comes out of this show looking good. If you haven't seen it, by the way don't!, the premise is contestant A has one large secret, they sort through opposite gendered contestants B, C & D's small secret, then anonymously go through their medium sized secrets (one of which is chosen as a 'deal breaker') and eliminates one contestant. Finally, the remaining contestants big baggage is opened and contestant A chooses to accept one of the ramaining contestants baggage. The tables are turned however when the last remaining contestant examines contestant A's baggage and deciedes to accept it or not. The secrets, even the small ones, are deal breakers for me. Last night one small piece of baggage was "I eat dog food." I kid you not. If that's what passes for a small secret on this show I don't want to be on this show.

Tosh.0- If I've done something dumb enough to be on this show I'll die. I'll just die.

Again, any other ideas feel free to comment. I hope this will be my last post.

Shows I Never Want to Be On

2011-05-02T13:02:00.001-05:00

Secretly, almost everyone hopes to be on TV someday. Wether being interviewed for a movie or book or actually being a TV star people want to be seen on the television. I am no exception.

However, there are plenty of shows I will never be on, or hope to never be on. It may be any number of reasons I won't be on these shows so I thought I'd go over a few of them with you. Most of them are reality shows, so if you're a fan of the genre, here's your warning.

America's Next Top Model- Normally I don't mind competition style reality shows, because generally they involve some kind of skill. I'm not saying modeling doesn't take skill, but this show just bugs me. And really in the grand scheme of surviving the wilderness, singing, having an unusual talent, having intelligence, and dancing, where does modeling lie? Not only are the challenges utterly ridiculous and I'm pretty sure most don't have a lot to do with normal modeling gigs, but the way people are judged drives me up the wall. One week, a contestant is in trouble for not taking it seriously enough, but then a different contestant can be in trouble for seeing it as a competition and not trying to be friendly and just get the job done. On top of all this, Tyra Banks drives me crazy. She takes herself far too seriously (her ego dwarfs Seto freakin' Kaiba's) and she's the main reason for the judging being all over the place.

Supernanny- This should be fairly obvious. If I'm ever on Supernanny that means I've probably failed as a parent. I also might be slightly crazy or in an abusive relationship. I watched two episodes this weekend. Not only were the fathers of both couples featured absolutely nuts, they also seemed to be controlling and semi-abusive jerks. If your family is on that show, there is something terribly wrong with your family, and I don't want that to happen when I'm an adult.

Teen Mom- Similar to why I don't want to be on Supernanny. I don't want to be pregnant any time soon. Thankfuly I think I'm past the stage where I can be on it. I'm 19 and because I wasn't 16 and Pregnant I think I'm okay having missed this oppurtunity. I also don't want to be on this show because of my children getting knocked up. It'll again mean I've failed as a parent.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?- If I have to ask myself this I'm already in too deep. Secondly, though this doesn't happen often, some contestestants answer with an answer that's correct, but not in 5th grade level knowlege.

Million Dollar Money Drop- The whole premise of this show is flawed to anyone who isn't on the show. Contestants start with a million dollars, unfortunately the only place they can go is down from there. The show gives you a false sense of security by encouraging you to spread your money around onto more than one answer, thus causing you to lose money quicker than if you were sure of your answer and put all your money on it (even if it might be wrong).

To Catch a Predator- Do I need to explain this? I'm not a pervert, but I'd feel weird even if I just showed up in the background of a shot.

That's all I can think of for now, if there are shows you don't want to be on feel free to comment below.

A Tribute (Elisabeth Sladen)

2011-04-28T11:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, Sarah Jane Smith is dead. I can't believe it. She's been a part of my life for quite a while now and I need to do her justice.

I first met Lis Slade it was through Doctor Who, like so many people my age. She was the mom I always wanted and the person I want to most emulate when I grow up. Good bye Sarah Jane.

I know this isn't very timely or very well thought out. Honestly though, I can't compete with Tom Baker's post on his website. Go read that.

Film Vs. Book I: The Princess Bride

2011-04-27T21:46:00.000-05:00

As you've probably guessed by the title I'm starting a series of posts. These will be a comparison between books and their movie adaptations. These comparisons won't be a line by line dissection of differences between script and book, but a broader approach.

Major events and major dfferences in characterization are what I'm looking at. I probably won't be doing a thourough read through of each book before I start to try and maintain a big picture focus. At the end of the comparison I will say which works better over all and I'm not always going to side with the book or always with the movie. I plan on keeping things even. I'm not going to be overtly negative when I do these reviews, just an analysis (unless something doesn't work at all), after all I'm doing these for fun, not to be an angry little whiner. I'll also gladly admit bias when I write these reviews.

That being said, lets begin.

Many people are familiar with the classic film The Princess Bride. A movie released in 1987 directed by Rob Reiner it's witty comedy and memorable characters propelled this film deeply into the minds of the people who have seen it. It's not the most popular film ever, but those who have seen it are generally huge fans of it.

What many people don't realize is that is based off a novel of the same name. Released in 1973 this book offers a different look on the characters we've all grown up knowing.

I'll admit I've been watching the film since I can remember, but I only discovered the book a few years ago so I'll be biased toward the movie.

Without further ado here are some of the major differences:

Backstories: Everyone knows Inigo Montoya's back story. Hell, his most memorable line is, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." I'm not going to say this isn't in the book. That would be a lie, however after Inigo's story about his father's death the book goes into detail about all the fencing masters he studied under and why he was driven to drink and why he joined Vizzini. Similarly, Fezzick is given more of a backstory as well. His story tells us about his wrestling career and how everyone hated him because he was too strong. He turned to taking on large groups of ruffians and people warmed up slightly. He eventually joins Vizzini as well. This was not in the film, only hinted at with the line, "It's been a long time since I've had to fight just one person." While having these additional scenes is interesting, like learning something about a old friend, they would have bogged the film down considerably, and they bog the book down slightly as well. Here I prefer the movie. However one added piece of backstory certainly adds to the experience. I always wondered why Prince Humperdink wanted to attack Guilder so bad other than it being "Florin's sworn enemy." Well, in the book, Prince Humperdink was supposed to marry Guilder's Princess, however calls it off when he finds out she's completely bald. Feeling tricked, and now not getting his giant kingdom, he deciedes to attack them at his earliest convienence. That scene clears this subplot up immensely. It might not have worked in the film, but I fully enjoy it. It is one of the funnier parts of the book, so I'm going to go with the book on that. You get a little more info on Buttercup and Wesley too, but it doesn't really add that much for me, it mostly just shows Buttercup realizing she loves Wesley when Count Rugen's wife starts eyeing Wesley up and down when she and the Count happen to be riding by and pop in to see the pretty boy and girl working on a farm. Buttercup confesses this to Wesley and then he decides to go to America to seek his fortune to provide for her. This scene makes the romance make more sense and the scenes actually give Buttercup and Wesley slightly more depth than their film counter parts, while I acknowledge this scene may not have worked in the film I enjoy it too much so my first point goes to the book.

The Zoo of Death: If you haven't read the book, you're probably wondering what I'm talking about. I'm talking about where Wesley was kept when Count Rugen and Humperdink were torturing him. In the book Wesley is in the bottom floor of a secret underground facility (because what other kinds are there?) where ferocious beasts are kept. One level has a snake, one has bats, one is completely empty except for the venomous spider hidden on the door on the other side and the final floor was empty until Humperdink met his greatest adversary, Wesley. There are other floors, but I've forgotten them. Inigo and Fezzick fight there way through all the levels. It's really awesome set of scenes that let you see fan favorites kick ass and take names. While it may have bogged down the film it is an awesome addition to the book, so book gets the point.

Framing device: Obviously in a book one cannot have a grandfather reading the story to his grandson in quite the same way. And in fact the book has a COMPLETELY different framing device all together. The book tells the (also fictional) tale of William Goldman (author of both book and screenplay) having this book read to him by his father, then sending a copy to his son, only to find out that his father edited the story as he read it, the actual book being weighed down by social commentary on the ruling class of Florin and essays on trees. William takes it upon himself to edit the book down to the 'good parts.' I have to side with the movie on this one. No one really reads the Princess Bride for the framing story, but the one in the film is just so much more touching though we see less of it. The Grandfather truly cares about his grandson and takes his feelings into account. Meanwhile Goldman just sort of "takes a book" and picks out what he remembers.

Ending: When I say ending I mean from the wedding on. As I mentioned before William Goldman wrote both the book and movie and as such there is still a surprising amount of changes, even in the ending. When Goldman wrote the screenplay he patched up one major plot hole the book had. In the book when Humperdink marries Buttercup the characters just sort of hope he dies and run away. By the time William Goldman got around to the screenplay he figured out a better way of ending it and so just changed it. The film works a hell of a lot better. Similarly, the book ends on a cliff-hanger with everyone suddenly getting screwed at the last minute. There has been a sequel has been in the works for years and doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon. The film has resolution (mostly) and feels like a good ending for all the characters. So the film wins this as well.

Minor things: Here and there, as necessary with every adaptation little things get lost or added in the process. Some I can remember are: The book provided a helpful map. Shrieking eels are creepier than sharks. The first chapter to the sequel (dedicated to Andre the Giant) is nice and poignant. No matter how character decriptions varied from their movie appearances I still pictured them. Little things are a draw.

So my final verdict is: A Tie. While the film is a classic and no one is disputing that, the book is a nice addition to any collection, especially if you are a fan of the movie. The novel works as a novel and the film works as a film, what more can I say?

I Can't Believe I Watched the Whole Thing...

2011-04-18T15:40:00.000-05:00

So last night my boyfriend and I were flipping channels wating for our new favorite show The Borgias and Twilight was on. Normally I would have kept flipping through but my boyfriend, who has no real knowledge about Twilight other than what I've told him, said, "Oh, lets watch it for the hell of it."

I think he began to regret that decision almost instantaneously. Thankfully I knew what to anticipate. A little too well. I hate being able to quote movies I've only seen once. In fact one quote I made during the evening was, "I'm doing lines of Twilight....Is that like doing lines of crack?"

It really started with Edward's line of "I feel very protective of you." This line came before they even started dating and before she began to like him in that fashion. Later, Skippy (the boyfriend) started throwing a fit (about 2.5 on the Dune film scale) about Bella wandering off into the woods with Edward when she doesn't even trust him and is pretty sure he's going to kill people and has no reason to trust him.

He started asking why Bella was doing such stupid shit and I had to answer with the in-book correct answer, "She loves him." He seemed confused so I continued, "She's known him for a month and is head over heels in love with him. They're soulmates." Now I don't buy into this at all, I have mad my disdain of these books clear, but this was the intent.

We went the rest of the night making snarky comments about the questionable quality of the "Twilight Saga" (which is in no way a saga, but I digress). Mostly he questioned, "Why are things moving so fast?" "What was the point of that?" "Why aren't these valid claims being listened to?" "What happened to their powers?" To which I had entirely too much fun providing the 'in book logic' "Because it's meant to be!" "To show how "silly" they (the normal humans she shirks off) are." "Because that character is blonde, therefore a bitch." "Hell if I know. That wouldn't have worked in the book."

Yeah, on top of being based off a shitty book Twilight is an even shittier movie that defies it's own 'logic' quite frequently and if possible makes the rest of the plot even worse. Without the purple prose giving a false sense added time the movie moves at breakneck pace truly demonstrating the wrecklessness of the characters. God knows what this is going to do come Breaking Dawn.

This quickly turned into a fun comparison game between Twilight and the Borgias (most definitely not what Stephenie Meyer would approve of), which I will demonstrate thus:

Edward Cullen gives bad reasoning for falling 'in love' (The afore mentioned "I feel protective of you" line.)
Rodrigo Borgia gives bad reasoning for falling 'in love' ("She needed my help!")
Edward Cullen is an American played by a British actor, Robert Pattinson.
Rodrigo Borgia is a Spaniard played by a British actor, Jeremy Irons.
Edward Cullen is a man from the early 1900's caught in a modern world and is an outsider, who could easily rule the world.
Rodrigo Borgia is a man from Spain caught in the city states of Italy and is an outsider, who is the POPE back when that mattered.
Edward Cullen is a Vampire.
Rodrigo Borgia is a priest (same thing).

One of these men is romanceable, with reasoning behind his motives and an interesting, if flawed, character that allows you to question your morality and faith. The other is Edward Cullen.

Which really shows, if you are trying to create a romantic lead, he shouldn't be comparable to a borgia unless that's your intent (meaning intentionally creating a questionable figure, not creating a questionable figure and claiming he isn't.)

Never Have..

2011-04-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

I admit I haven't done everything out there. I am sad to admit that many things on this list are considered classics so I thought I'd list some things I haven't seen/read/played but know I should. Just to say I'm human too. I want to see/read some of these some day, but until then they'll stay on this list.

Mostly these are things I want to do eventually.

Movies:
Citizen Kane
Casablana
Brazil
Dream Girls
Ponyo
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas
Pulp Fiction

Books (*also includes books I started but haven't finished):
To Kill a Mocking Bird*
Hamlet
Phantom of the Opera*
Pride and Prejudice*
Les Miserables
Anything by Mark Twain (seriously have NEVER gotten through an entire book of his)

Musicals:
Mame
Hairspray (on stage)
Lion King
The Unsinkable Molly Brown

TV shows:
Babylon 5
Arrested Development
More Classic Doctor Who
Swiss Family Robinson

Video Games:
Any Final Fantasy Installment
Portal
Fable
World of Warcraft

Public Interaction

2011-04-14T22:44:00.002-05:00

Don't think you haven't suspected that someone talking to their friends isn't genuine. I know I promised no personal posts, but this was just a thought I had. I didn't actually make this poll, but if you want to give your opinion.

I see so many people having these public interactions that I can't genuinely believe are real. When I want to talk to friends I call them or text them. If I have to use facebook for something important I try to use private ]message first to not be public. Or do people really having meaningful interaction this way?

Is this actually a personal post? I'm not talking about any one and as you see by large black squares I'm protecting my friends. I also apologize for the wonky format, I'm having trouble getting it to cooperate.

Oh My God, Name Change!

2011-04-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

I changed the name and description of my blog. There are many reasons for this so I thought I'd share them.

1) Yarsian Talks About is a hell of a lot more google-able than that previous mouthful of a name I had before. Seriously you'd have to get like 30 words to make sure your search went well. You also might want to invest in a good luck charm of some kind, to be sure.

2) While the previous name was fun and snarky it doesn't reflect that many of my posts anymore. I've slowly been transitioning to a more thoughtful and easily approachable blog. It's become less personal and less whiny over the past couple of months so I thought I needed a new title to fit the new format. If I can find a clever name for that accurately describes the new changes I'll change it again, in the mean time it stays "Yarsian Talks About..."

3) It was about time. I was getting tired of the old title about a few months after I changed to it. So now that it's been a long time after that I think its as good of a time as any.

With a new title comes bigger changes too. From now on I'm going to focus soley on TV shows, movies, and books (and songs when I can think up enough material and video games I guess, when I can). My personal posts are done. Occasionaly I may ask some hypotheticals around my life as it is, but for the most part I'm going to keep things supremely vague when it comes to my personal life. If I want readers I need to get word out, and right now that means going to friends and family. I can't have friends and family reading my old whinings and expect to keep my followship up. So I'll probably delete/hide some of the older ones. If anyone actually has a problem with this, let me know. Silence is agreement in this case so speak up. I may save back ups of these somewhere, but don't count on it. They'll be gone by this time next week if all goes well. Besides the personal posts were really self-therapy anyway and I've found better ways to channel my emotions (well, at least more private ways). The only recurring character other than me will probably be my current boyfriend, because many of the things I watch I watch with him so his opinion will probably be heard a lot throughout this blog.

So how will this new format work? Pretty similar to what I've already been doing for the past couple of months. I watch/play/listen to/read/random verb something and then I talk about whatever strikes my fancy. It could be a simple review, basic rundown followed by my thoughts on it. I could occasionally get a little more in depth about why I think these thoughts (Like saying Speed Racer is underrated). I could analyze it more in depth (Like I did with Friday). Or I could go and create a zany, yet intellectual analysis (The Room). Similarly, I could just talk about something I like or dislike in general when it comes to movies (my least favorite cliches).

If my blog's popularity goes up soon I'll probably add advertisements to it, that way I'm actually getting paid for these as they take a fair amount of work. I'm not whining or asking anyone for money, I'm just saying that it takes about a while writing a decent post. And I'm hoping these will be better than decent.

Cliches That Bug Me

2011-04-11T15:47:00.001-05:00

Doug Walker, as made famous portraying The Nostalgia Critic, released a video stating his most hated cliches in movies (that can, usually, be applied elsewhere). This gave me the idea to talk about my least favorite cliches.

The Belief that popular=good looking & the corresponding losers=ugly. I've never been what anyone would consider popular, however I'm not ugly by any means. To prove this I'm going to take a picture of myself right now. No, seriously, right now in the middle of this post.

Seriously just took this. No make up. No Photoshop. Just hair dye.

While I'm not proclaiming I'm hot shit, I know it's not my looks that determine my social status. They might have done so in the past, but it's also my behavior, which I'll get into in a moment. I used to have braces and I didn't have contacts therefore I wore glasses, but I wasn't popular during the few years I had both. I also wasn't popular before I got my braces (I got glasses young enough it didn't matter) and my popularity didn't shoot up the day I got contacts or the day my braces were removed. Part of the reason Mean Girls (which is still one of my favorite movies despite this) 'works' is because Lindsay Lohan is far more 'beautiful' than the other losers in her highschool who she initally hangs out with. In movie-land this immediately keys the audience that she'll be climbing the social ladder soon enough. However as I hinted already there's another cliche that bugs the crap out of me.

Geeks like Star Trek and Star Wars and are all Science Nerds . In several films/TV shows/books/ect. the second most defining feature in geeks/nerds is that they are all really into science and math and classic literature. The few pieces of pop culture they are familiar with are generally nerdy shows and movies (and generally bad ones at that). Now, I like shows like Doctor Who, Star Trek, and X-Files over shows like One Tree Hill, Jersey Shore and True Blood. I like that type of show because I like that type of show. My social status never affected my interests, except for maybe giving me more time to enjoy the things I like. But I also shows like Glee, House and Say Yes to the Dress. These are all popular shows that normally 'nerdy' people like me wouldn't like in Movie-world. Also, my science and math grades are not what a normal geek would get. I'm right brained, therefore I'm better at art and more subjective things. Yes I like classic literature, but that's because I'm an English major (or I'm an English major because I like classic literature...) but it's my love of books I've had since I was a child that drives this. On the flip side, there have been plenty popular people I know who have done much better than me in certain classes. I knew people who were popular who were really into weird shows which were loved as equally by people less popular than me. Interests in real life have nothing to do with social standing. Again Mean Girls shows that the easiest way Cady is a "geek" is because she's good at Math, however her love interest is in the same math clas and while he's not great at it he obviously was smart enough to get into advanced math.

Geeks have No idea whats going on in pop culture. Just because I don't like Jersey Shore doesn't mean I don't know what it is. I may not be able to give a synopsis of everything that's happened, but I know who Snooki is and that she got punched in a bar one time. I also know what's going on in the world right now, probably more so than popular people. I don't know that many people who are considered 'popular' who regularly watch or read or listen to the news, but this may just be personal bias on this subject matter. However, I do know that many memes start in corners of the internet most non-geeks don't know about. Geeks were rick-rolling way before Oregon's state congress did it. Similarly, the V mask (or rather Guy Fawkes mask) has been the mark of anti-Scientology protests for quite a while, but I doubt any 'popular person' knows either what it is or where it came from. Or that it is actually Guy Fawkes.

Geeks are Loners. While we don't have quite the insanely busy social schedule as other people Geeks are not depressed and lonely (no more so than the average). While I do like to sit at home and read a good book or watch Myazki Films I like to go out and have fun too. I like to dance and act goofy with my friends as much as the next person. One of the nerdiest traits you can give a person in a movie is to have it come out they play Dungeons and Dragons. In the land of fiction this means they are loners. However, as any real D&D player can attest to, this is not true in the slightest. Dungeons and Dragons is played in a group, of at least 3 people but generally 4-5 is an ideal size. You hang out with friends, eat junk food, go on adventures and connect with your friends on different levels. This isn't what Hollywood thinks it is, but I think it's just an honest "We haven't played, we've only heard the name" misunderstanding and nothing malicious.

And now I'd like to try and move off this topic of Geeks vs. Popular people because honestly I don't know what popular people do.

The Completely Out of Touch Parent. This Cliche is all about parents 'who just don't understand.' Whether they be overprotective or just plain clueless as to what's going on with their child's lives. Apparently, in Hollywood a good parent doesn't exist. I know there are just as many examples of good parents in films, but they aren't as common. While I treat the threat of abusive parents seriously I feel that this kind of fictional parents are just plain neglectful. Whenever I see a film where the child has to be an adult because the adult is more like a child but the child seems completely normal and adjusted just mature it feels off. Just because I wanted to be an adult I still regularly relied on my parents for almost everything and they're still helping me out today (I am only a freshman in college). The only book I've seen handle this type of parent well was The Hunger Games. Katniss positively freaks out when her mom checks out and goes through all kinds of hell just scraping by caring for her and her sister and her mother. Similarly, the overprotective stereotype and the clueless stereotype are just that stereotypes to make the young protagonist look better in a lazy way.

The Spoiler Credit. This one mostly applies to TV so books/movies get a pass (generally). Back when I actually watched Heroes it was really obvious when certain characters would pop up because their actor would be listed in the opening credits. Like I don't mind if someone is in the credits and then they're in the episode for a while actually doing stuff in that episode. It gets annoying when credits list someone who is in an episode and the character showing up is a surprise/twist at the end of an episode. Yeah, there isn't a lot to say about this (I don't know if this is a cliche) but it sucks when this takes me out of an episode/movie series (maybe?) when a character is a twist that shows up in the credits. I realize you want to credit your actors and stuff, but seriously spoiling a twist is a pain in the ass. The only way this works is if you show flashbacks elsewhere in the show where you can hide it. Oddly, Heroes did this too, but too many times it didn't work right.

I'm having trouble thinkinging of cliches. I can think of the type of stories that bug me, but it's not the same as a cliche, but that's another post.

Like I hate Mary Sues, but who doesn't? I also hate title dropping (or in other ways alluding to other) great works of literature, especially when the author gets it wrong (Stephenie Meyer, I'm looking at you). I also hate seeing the same plots over and over in my films.

Just for Fun

2011-04-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

So I was just goofing around on facebook when I saw my friends were playing with this Einstein picture manipulator. I thought it was kinda funny, so I went meta with the whole thing and made this image:

Grammar issues aside I thought it was a clever little thing and will probably use it when I'm an RA next year.

But this wasn't the fun image I made. There's a side link for a dumbledore image manipulator. I clicked on it, and it was Richard Harris's Dumbledore. I had too much fun making this image:

Oh Camelot, will you ever stop kicking ass? I don't think so. So yeah, not serious post is not serious, but at least I'm not whining about my friends.

One of the Most Underrated Movies Ever (Speed Racer)

2011-04-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you did a double take at the title of the blog post you are exactly the kind of person who needs to be reading this post. Well, maybe not needs, but strongly encouraged to read and understand.

Speed Racer is (originally) an anime from 1967. Because it was one of the earliest Japanese programs brought over to the US, it has left an indelible mark on it's culture. This is perhaps assisted by the delightfully cheesy dubbed dialogue (that rarely matches the lip flaps and is ridiculously fast paced and contrived) as well as insane plots. In Japan it was called Mach Go Go Go! If you have ever seen an anime parody that featured terrible dialogue (that didn't match lip flaps at all) featured a ridiculous plot and had bad animation and it was before the big anime boom it was probalby making fun of Speed Racer.

On top of all of this: it was awesome. Warning: Spoilers past this point for those who don't want to know the plot.

The plot centered around a young man by the name of Speed Racer. He wants to be a race car driver, but his father is strongly against it because Rex Racer (Speed's elder brother) was in a terrible crash that he miraculously survived. Pops was furious and forbade him from ever racing again. Rex, having none of it, ran away and adopted the secret identity of Racer X, Speed's chief rival (who, just in case the viewer forgot, had narration every time he came on reminding the audience that unbeknownst to Speed, Racer X is secretly Rex Racer). Through out his career as a professional race car driver Speed faces many interesting foes, such as Snake Oiler, Captain Terror, and other gimmicky names. The races themselves were always dangerous with rain, snow, and collapsing rocks.

An interesting feature of this show that is impossible to ignore would be the cars the races took place in. Speed Racer drove the most popular car, the Mach 5. Not only could these cars hit ridiculous speeds and looked nothing like normal cars, they could also do amazing stunts. The Mach 5 had jump jacks, a homing pigeon robot, bullet proof dome, the ability to go under water, super grip tires, saws that popped out the front and seat two people comfortably and fit a child and chimpanzee in the trunk! There was rarely an episode where Sprite and Chim-Chim, Speed's little brother and his pet Chimp, snuck into the trunk of the Mach 5. Racer X drove the almost as iconic Shooting Star, which is the most masculine yellow car ever. Perhaps the true second most iconic car was the mammoth car. It was nearly as long as a train and made ominous noises, on top of this it was driven by mobsters. It was later revealed the car was secretly made of...get this....solid gold. You find this out after it crashes and catches on fire. Have you figured out what kind of show this is yet?

The show was slightly more violent than many other cartoons at the time (dealing with violent car crashes and mobsters trying to fix races). People actually died and would stay dead. Guns were fired (thus the need for bullet proof glass).

This show was delightfully cheesy the way Doctor Who used to be (and to some still is, but that's another post) delightfully cheesy. If delightfully cheesy isn't your thing then I cannot help you. You'll always hate Speed Racer.

In 2008 the Wachowski Brothers, of Matrix fame, released a live-action adaptation. And they meant Live-Action adaptation of Speed Racer.

The plot of the movie is slightly different than the description of the anime above. Speed is a rookie driver who is taking the World Racing League by storm driving a car of his father's creation, the Mach 6 (the Mach 5 is a street car in this continuity). He is offered a spot on the Royalton Racing Team by corrupt corporate excutive, Royalton, himself. After Speed turns him down Royalton reveals that racing has been fixed for years and that since Speed is turning his back on a corporate sponsor he's giving up the ability to win a race ever again. Speed begins to believe Royalton after he fails to finish his next race, just as Royalton had predicted. Shortly afterward Speed is approached by Racer X and a fellow driver named Taejo to race in the rally, Casa Cristo 5000, the same rally that killed Speed's elder brother Rex after he stopped racing for Racer Motors. IF Taejo can win this race, he'll testify that Royalton fixes races. Pops forbids Speed from driving in the race. Trixie and Speed sneak off to compete in the race anyway and are soon found out by his family. They agree to let him finish the race. After many dramatic race scenes, as well as a fight with a ninja, Speed, X, and Taejo win the rally. Taejo's father then sells his company for a lot of money, and Taejo reveals he was never going to testify. This pisses Speed off and he drives around the track Rex used to take him to. He meets X there and X reveals he is NOT Speed's brother.

Shorly afterward, Speed almost leaves his home the way Rex did when Pops tells him Speed is always welcome back (a flip from what he told Rex all those years ago). Taeko's sister, until now a fixture in the background, gives Speed a ticket to the Grand Prix (the big final race). Despite having a MILLION DOLLAR price on his head he not only gets tied for first in record time, he then restarts his car, through just sheer will power and WINS the race! Racer X watches the whole thing and reminisces about how he had plastic surgery and had to leave his family behind, his family being the Racers, duh. Speed changes racing forever and Royalton goes to jail. YAY!

That right there is just like the TV show. Sure the plot isn't a masterpiece, but it was fun and had energy. The way it slightly tweaked the formula of a Speed Racer plot worked and updated it for a modern audience. The race scences were dramatic and had lots of fun especially the insane visuals that happened during them. Every character was true to form and yet highly enjoyable. Even Spritle and Chim Chim who I didn't like that much on the TV show.

The amazing parts though are the editing and the visuals. I think I'll tackle the editing first. All exposition and various edits are done in a full rotation. The camera will start on a character and it will rotate to either back story, or a different view. It is handled particularly well especially in cases of exposition. It shows how the flash back actually is affecting the character having the flash back. It is spread out enough it doesn't feel weighty and yet it comes quickly enough you don't feel left out.

And now to the visuals. The visuals were stunning, if a little overwhelming at first. The colors are hyper saturated. The sky is blue. The clouds are white. I realize this all sounds incredibly obvious, but this film is colorful and fully uses the brightest colors it can. The world is a live action cartoon minus actual cartoon characters, so basically it was Avatar before Avatar (James Cameron not Nickleodeon). The world draws you in and blinds you for looking at it. I know words are failing me here, it's just very hard to describe Speed Racer without seeing it. All I can say is that is is a live action cartoon with all the silliness that generally happens in this type of cartoon.

In many ways the Avatar comparison works really well. Both had immersive, fully CG worlds. Both would benefit from 3D technology (Avatar is better in 3D and Speed Racer is the one movie that may actually be improved with Hollywood's 3D obsession.). Both have more focus on the visual over plot. Both plots are old and used. The problem is Speed Racer was slightly ahead of it's time.

So, if you like fun movies with cheesy plots or if you just want to see the insane visuals I cannot recommend Speed Racer highly enough. I'm not saying it's a perfect movie, but I love Speed Racer for what it is. That's why I love the movie.

Shameless Pimping, Away!

2011-04-05T23:25:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was a little show called "Whose Line is it Anyway?" every Thursday night at 8 on ABC. Yeah, I go that far back with Whose Line. It is honestly one of my favorite shows. I love it so much I still watch reruns either on ABC family at 11 o'clock or I'll watch some of my favorite clips over and over on Youtube.

There was a British veion and later an American version. I'm obviously talking about the American version, though the clips of the British version I've seen are also really funny. I'm only going to be talking about the American version today.

The show featured great comedians doing improved scenes. The show was hosted by Drew Carrey (during the time that The Drew Carrey Show was popular) and featured some great improvers. You may know some of their names from other shows or films. Here is a small smattering of their names: Colin Mocherie, Ryan Stiles, Chip Esteen, Wayne Brady, Greg Proops and even Stephen Colbert himself was on an early episode.

Why am I going on and on about this old show that hasn't put out a new episode in years (Not counting Drew Carrey's Green Screen Challenge, which sadly was on TV when I couldn't watch it)? Because a new show is coming to GSN called "Drew Carrey's Imrov-a-Ganza" and I'm so excited for it.

I really want this show to succeed. I love improv and I love Whose Line so I want it to succeed so badly. If I have any followers at all, and if I can ask you to do me a favor: Please watch this show. I promise you'll find something funny, or at least something that impresses you. After all, "Everythings made up, right off the top of thier heads."

Another Friday Analysis

2011-04-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

Hey Guys! I found yet another analysis of Rebecca Black's 'Friday' online and I thought I'd share it with you all: Friday Analysis.

My thoughts on this analysis are as follows: I thought my analysis was dark, but this one beats mine. Hands down. Even my second look at the song. It dove much deeper into the darker themes then I had and found new ones. Kudos. I enjoy dark and depressing things so I throughly enjoyed this analysis. Yeah, it may be a joke, but I think it hits on stuff that is in the video and music video whether their intentionally or not. Probably not, but still.

I also just want to reiterate something thay may have been lost: I don't hate Rebecca Black. I don't think this song was her idea. I think she's just a victim of a particularly evil corporate machine (I'm also not saying all businesses are evil, but ARK Music group....) and parents paying $2000 to try and raise a star. If it was her idea, then I apologize to her parents. I would also like to say I never thought she herself wrote the song. As seen in my analysis I fully blaimed some coprorate executive.

That's all I'm going to say about Friday for now. If more stuff comes up, I may talk about it, but until then. Toodles.

Lisa Was Justified (The Room)

2011-04-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

April Fool's day was not to long ago and for those in the know that meant marathon showings of the infamous film, "The Room" from Tommy Wiseau on Adult Swim.

For those of you who don't know: "The Room" is an independent movie that was first released as a drama in 2003. After being critically panned and also reviled (or more often than not, loved for it's terribleness) by audiences director/producer/star/executive producer/writer (as listed in the opening credits) Tommy Wiseau attempted to rebrand this terrible movie as a "Black Comedy" and fooled no one but maybe himself. I say maybe because he still reacts poorly when anyone is making fun of the film without 'permission' despite reviews and parodies being covered under Fair Use Laws. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I get some take down notice or request for writing this analysis.

For an excellent review of this film I suggest the Nostalgia Critic's as he nails several of the key points of fail and provides a better summary of the film.

Here's a synopsis for those who haven't seen "The Room": Johnny (who is totally not Tommy's Mary Sue) is a 'sucessful' 'banker' who is engaged to Lisa who's 'computer job' cannot support her on her own. Johnny is also helping their neighbor Denny pay for school because his parents are MIA (we assume because NOTHING is said about them). Lisa gets bored in her relationship and has sex (repeatedly) with Johnny's best friend Mark. Eventually, after about a million and a half pointless scences and random subplots that go no where, at Johnny's surprise birthday party Johnny figures out Lisa is sleeping with Mark. Johnny goes nuts and destroys his apartment before turning a gun on himself. The next day Mark, Lisa and Denny find his body and scream at eachother while deciding what the fuck they'll do now because they have nothing. Fade to black as police sirens wail.

However instead of rehashing some of the same parts every other review has done ("You're Tearing Me APART, LISA" or "I did not hit her, I did not. Oh Hi Mark!"), in my brief viewing of a few scenes of "The Room" on Cartoon Network I noticed something different than all that. This was about the character Lisa (Johnny's fiance).

The main thing I noticed is (as you've probably guessed by the title) is that Lisa's affair is almost completely justified, albeit in an accidental sort of way. You can tell from the dialogue that Lisa is supposed to be the supreme evil being in this film, barely passing for human. Her stated justifications for her affair are that she's bored and she doesn't love Johnny anymore. In movie and TV land, these are generally unacceptable reasons for divorce, much less cheating therefore, for this movie, she is evil. She states she's unhappy in this relationship and wants out of it and is willing to manipulate Johnny and Mark as well as a few of her other friends to get what she wants, even if it's just this vague idea of 'interesting' she keeps going on about.

However, the clumsy writing of the script actually gives Lisa far more justification that Wiseau ever intended. Oh Literary Criticism, I love how at times you can just throw out authorial intent. Almost every character who talks to Lisa about the affair talks about Johnny and his feelings. The secondary and minor characters thoughts are all variations of, "You can't do this Lisa, you'll hurt Johnny's feelings." This applies to Mark and Claudette (Lisa's mother) as well. Mark has to constantly remind Lisa that he is Johnny's best friend, even after their first time together and then he's still blase toward her feelings and enjoys screwing with Johnny more than loving Lisa. Claudette is the only person to remotely consider Lisa's feelings and her thoughts are, "Love doesn't matter, money does. You just have to put up with it" and then she too joins in defending Johnny and his feelings.

Lisa is trapped in an unfair relationship. Everyone loves Johnny and will do anything to make him happy, even if it includes trapping her where she doesn't want to be. The universe's fixation on Johnny leaves Lisa completely sidelined. Most real world relationship advice boils down to, "do what's best for yourself" and no one ever tells Lisa this beyond 'get his money first.' Every one focuses on Johnny and how he feels (or would feel) about the situation. No one is looking out for Lisa but herself. This is what drives her to do some of her more questionable acts (Making out with Mark at the party, slow dancing with him, saying she's pregnant when she's not) she's calling out for attention to herself and not Johnny for once since they started this relationship. Hell, I bet that if we would've seen much more of this some characters would say things like, "This pregnancy is going to be great for Johnny! He'll be such a good father." and other such bullshit.

Other evidence for the "crying out for attention' theory can be found when Lisa (falsely) accuses Johnny of hitting her after getting drunk. Claudette's first instinct is to immediately state, "Johnny doesn't drink." This shows Lisa her mother is more interested in Johnny's well-being than her own daughter's. I mean really, her daughter may be in danger from physical harm and her first reaction is that her fiance is uncapable of doing such things. If Lisa inherited her mother's drama queen tendencies it explains things, but still you take violent threats seriously. This is is even more troublesome when later in the film he pushes her down into a chair during an argument.

Hell, the entire cast takes Denny's encounter with a drug dealer more seriously than her own personal struggles, even her own mother. She has to repeat her her problems with their relationship over and over to try and get through to people, but it's to no avail. The lie about the pregnancy was infact the final straw for Lisa. It was probably her final experiment before going public with her affair in the way she did. It was proof to her that she wasn't nearly as important as Johnny in the relationship and therefore needed out in anyway possible. Cue self-destruction at the party by jumping all over Mark and then after the party calling him while Johnny can here.

Whether her intention or not, Johnny's suicide gives her that independence she wanted, however she then clings straight to Mark because she still honestly can't take care of herself (or believes that because of the reinforcement of identity issues).

Now, I'm not advocating infidelity. Lisa went about things poorly and really hurt people with her actions (including causing Johnny's death). I do think she should leave Johnny if she's obviously that miserable which I believe she is. Her life was not her own and she took ownership of it. It's like Tommy Wiseau accidentaly wrote a horrible update of Madame Bovary.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

Humorous News Flash/Thogughts on TV while sick in Bed

2011-03-31T12:12:00.000-05:00

As you have gathered from the title of this post I'm sick in bed trying to find something to watch on TV and some interesting things have come up and I'll just lump them all together here.

I was flipping channels and came across a movie channel I generally have luck with and I saw an add about John Travolta. Now, I don't have a problem with John Travolta, he's a decent actor and isn't too terribly crazy. The ad was all about some of his more recent great roles (the ad even said some of his best) because they were having a Travolta-Thon soon. Now what confused me was the following: they left out Hairspray but kept Battlefield Earth. Yes. The kept Battlefield Earth... Words fail. I get they were advertising action movies and therefore wouldn't want to show him in drag, but seriously keeping what is widely regarded as one of the worst movies of all time in your marathon and a prominent place in the advertisement for it? Why? Why? Why?....................Why?

The other day I was trying to decide wheter to watch History Channel or OWN. They were the only channels with something good on that day. History Channel was showing Apocalypse stuff, which I maintain is not History in the slightest. Oprah was showing Mystery Diagnosis. Now, nothing against Oprah, but I think History channel has a serious problem when HISTORY channel is losing the fact war to Oprah Winnfrey.

Which brings me to this problem: When did History stop being history? I mean sure, when I was younger I enjoyed the Nosteradamus special they showed on that very day. The differences are 1) I was thirteen. 2)There was actual fact to Nosteradamus as in he was a real person and his prophecies may (in hindsight) be applicable to certain historical moment as well as plenty of people who debunk this sort of things providing both sides of the argument. Now a days: The newer specials (especially the ones about the Mayan Prophecy) have very few skeptics and debunkers and when (and IF) they are featured are on for a little bit and not featured well at all. Yes, History Channel, is resorting to basic Creationist tactics. I honestly was watching a show called "Ancient Aliens" and the whole premise of this episode was "What if Angels were Aliens?" And that's it. Just a bunch of people talking about the bible saying, "Well, you see it makes sense if angels were aliens because... because!" and "It's obvious they meant aliens because humans couldn't have done any of this on their own and wings represent flight not actual wings." I don't see how this is historical in anyway. The Bible is not an accurate historical recording, even the parts that try to be. On top of that there was no evidence, just speculation. Following that interesting program I watched two episodes of "Brad Meltzer's Decoded" where one episode ignored history until the very end (This largely consisted of the eponymous Brad with his fingers in his ears going "NO, IT WAS THE MASONS!" which it wasn't.) and one episode that actually did stuff and proved some history, so at least that show was 50/50.

More thoughts in another one, because this post is too long.

A Case for Season 2 (Glee Rant)

2011-03-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

I watched a couple of Tuesday agos night's Glee the following Wednesday night (I was busy Tuesday, sue me). My mind was blown clear out of the water and it fell into small pieces on the walls of my Residence Hall Rooms. (And I wrote part of this post a long time ago, can't you tell?)

The thing is, I don't understand how people don't like this season of Glee. I mean I've heard the complaints but the complaints I've heard from classmates and friends aren't articulated that well. What I've been hearing is "It's different."

And yeah, it IS different, but I realize this is all a matter of opinion, but MY opinion is that it isn't really THAT different and the differences are a step in the right direction. Glee now is what Glee has been aiming for since it began.

What I've noticed this season is more of a focus on the ensemble of the show not the "Will Schuster and Rachel Berry Show with cooky guys Kurt Hummel and Finn Hudson in recurring roles and Sue does things" the first season had a feeling like. Sure the first season had a few episodes here and there where Artie, Quinn or Mercedez centric episodes here and there but season one focused on things Rachel did and things Mr. Schuster did, occasionally Finn's decisions and Kurt's life or Sue's evil machinations would affect the over all plot but at the end of the day the questions that drove everything were "What's going on with Schu? What's up with Rachel?"

I cannot make a claim without proof, so here's my proof: The reason we were interested in Quinn's pregnancy was because Quinn was dating Finn, who Rachel was attracted to and wanted to be her love interest.Quinn, along with Santana and Britney, joined Glee club because Quinn wanted to make sure Finn didn't up with Rachel with the added bonus of spying for Sue. Mercedez's temporary crush on Kurt had an attempted interruption by Tina and RACHEL. Finn finds out about the true father of Quinn's baby is through Rachel. She drives and is the reason for lots of drama. Except for shippers of quirky ships the source of a lot of the DRAMA of the first season (school kid side) was 'Will Rachel end up with Finn?' and all the questions that need clearing up to get to that point such as 'Will Finn find out the baby isn't his?' and 'Will Puck actually be able to make a move on Rachel?' This continued into the second half of the season. 'Will Rachel and Finn get BACK together?' 'Will Rachel see Jesse is an ass?' 'Can Rachel find her birth mother/' are big sources of drama in the second half of the season beyond the road to Regionals.

Will drove other parts of the plot of season one much the same way Rachel does. The main source of Will drama are his feuds with Sue, his sham of a marriage and subsequent 'pregnancy' with Terri, and finally his extramarital attraction to Emma and of course holding his rag-tag bunch of misfits, the Glee Club together. The Will Schuster circle of plot influence is more equal than Rachel's. Sue starts grubbing all the budget in the school leaving Will to fight her for everything Glee club has. Sue is perhaps the only person, Schuster/Berry duo, who has direct influence on the plot and drama of Glee though generally it's in retaliation/reaction to the Will and the club. Even when it seems Will is fighting back with Sue, it's her reaction to his reaction that truly drives the plot (The Madonna episode anyone?). Terri and Emma though, only react to Will, or act on their own attraction to Will. Terri drives Emma to Ken because Terri is attempting to save her relationship with Will. Will's attraction to Emma drives Terri to fake her pregnancy to keep Will. Terri, Emma, even April only exist in their relationships with Will. Their plots genrally only add to the drama of "Will Will end up with the 'totally deserving' Emma?"

Sure sub plots exist and sometimes get more screen time which hints at a wish to be more of an ensemble cast type show. I always thought this would be a step in the right direction as, despite some of the obvious moments of absurdity, a fairly realistic show.

The second season mixes this up a bit and you get more of that ensemble feel. The show allows you to think of different couples through out the first season. Artie is now dating Britney and that is going well (well, except for the Santana drama), Will seems like a good match for Holly, and until Quinn went queen mega-bitch (which wasn't really that bad from her point of view, but it tore up Rachel) on Rachel I thought she and Finn might actually get back together. The subplots are more broad reaching. It doesn't feel like a specific Artie episode or Kurt Episode and like that. The large plot is much more spread out and feels grander in taking on the whole Glee Club (Plus Kurt and Blaine). Mr. Schuster's plot has also slowed down considerably. He has no rush to get back with Emma (as she's been showing up less and less) and it allows him to see more people. We also focus on Emma as a person and her deep problems with life, specifically sex.

Because of the slower feel things feel grander. When Emma still has the hots for Will despite being married to Carl, it's considered shocking because it's been a while since we've focused less on that and haven't seen her as much. It wouldn't be as surprising if he were hanging out with her every episode talking about their lives. When Rachel and Finn have a moment despite not being together or hanging out for a while, it leaves you questioning and it's surpising. Not to mention Kurt's subplot (from Kurofsky to Blaine), being used SO sparingly, has created some of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the entire show because by showing us so little we know what big of an impact it actually has on him.

This is my defense of season two, I'm not saying there haven't been missteps or an eyebrow raising moment here and there, but over all this is a good direction for the show to take and I'm excited for the few remaining weeks of Glee once it comes back.

Frustrated and Confused

2011-03-29T08:47:00.000-05:00

This may seem hypocritical at first, but bear with me while I sort myself out.

Why is it that whiny, long facebook status posts are frowned upon for some people, but other people can not only totally get away with it, they get comments and likes and everything?

Or do I just save my whining and carrying-on for here? I mean, we all like to air our dirty laundry in various ways whether we admit it or not. People journal (classic), livejournal or blog, write semi-autobiographical coming of age novels, make horrendous movies about a Mary Sue, write Mary-Sue fan fiction and much more. If I can carry on here, some people feel they can carry-on on facebook without worry.

Maybe I'm crazy but I think there are some things you just don't do on facebook and other social networking sites. For example, I don't use people's actually names on this blog and some stuff I don't even talk about here, lest someone I know in real life find this who doesn't read this blog. I want to vent my feelings, not cause people to possibly lose jobs in the future.

But there are people who seriously whine all the time. EVERY single post they make is something like, "my life is terrible. I hate this. This sucks." I understand that sometimes things just don't go your way, but really, people make it seem like NOTHING GOOD happens to them, when you know they are just want all attention on themselves because that's what they do.

I'm not saying something I should, that might make me a little less self-righteous and a little more vindicated in my feelings, but perhaps a little evil for even bringing it up. See, I'm too nice to even bring up something terrible about someone I really hate and have every right to bring it up. Here it is in the fairest way possible:

The person in question is a drama-whore (Bear with me on the fairness, it's coming). I'm trying to use non indicative gender cues, but I don't think it's working. Everything must be about them, and if anyone has any other 'drama' or REAL things happening to them they are quick to comment how they've gone through something terribly similar and go into minute detail about a story that may be only tangentially related to the original story. These were things I noticed while we were still friends.

The thing that crossed the line, wasn't when we had a public fight. I was ready to walk right past that. Fights happen and I am more mature than to let a fight get between me and a friend stop us. In fact, I apologized to the person about the entire situation almost immediately after it happened, both via a mutual friend and an email that I know she received, because they replied in length. In the email the person accused me of faking depression (or at least the incredibly depressed feelings I've fought with because I've never been officially diagnosed) that crossed a line from friend to jerk. The fall out of this fight isolated me for the rest of my senior year, a WONDERFUL time to feel isolated let me tell you.

So yeah, I'm biased when this person whines up and down her facebook like she has absolutely nothing going for them. I've talked with other friends and they agree when they say she needs attention constantly on her.

But back to the original reason for this post, is it acceptable to whine in front of all your real life friends like that? Especially if it is just for attention?

Is it any more acceptable to whine here? Or Twitter? Or writing semi-autobiographical fiction?

Why am I writing these questions? If a blogger posts a question but no one follows her is there a sound?

I Lied/Pokemon Geek Out

2011-03-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Yeah, my "Lenten Promise" has kinda been full of fail. I wish I could say I was sorry, but really I have so few followers I don't care that much. If you care, comment.

I've been playing Pokemon more and more. Yeah, that's one excuse as well as general schooling.

But anyway back to Pokemon. I've been playing through Heart Gold and I have a confession to make: I still haven't beaten the Elite Four, ever. I've tried many times, this game alone, and I still am falling behind. So, I've been training like no other and I'm hoping to beat the first half of Heart Gold today or tomorrow.

But the other Pokemon news I have started Pokemon Ruby and I've been considering doing a Nuzlocke Challenge. That basically means fainting=death of a pokemon and you must catch the first pokemon you see in an area. While it is an interesting, and perhaps realistic approach to the Pokemon Universe, I'm apprehensive. I already form ridiculous emotional attachments to computer generated characers in games.

I've never intentionally killed a Sim, I hate it when I lose too many Pikmin, and Pokemon... I hate it when I white/black out. I feel like I've failed as a trainer already when they faint, I can't imagine what I'd do if fainting equaled death.

Next in my Pokemon journeys are to buy Platinum and Black version. Hopefully I can finally start beating elite fours soon.

More Friday Thoughts

2011-03-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I've been watching the video more and more. There's just so much to analyze here that one post just won't do.

According to Twitter this is Rebecca's 160 character bio: Rebecca Black is a fun, loving, 13 year old. She loves to sing, dance and act, and she is always looking to try something new. From los Angeles Ca.

She's 13?!!! That's not old enough to have a friend who drives, unless she's some kind of super slut who sleeps around with older kids, or the older kids have no lives. Seriously there is something messed up there, but I can't figure out what. Although this explains why everyone in the video did not look old enough to be a "teenager."

Another thing: In the second verse when she sings, "Fun, Fun, think about fun!" it sounds more like a reminder to herself to keep her same half-smile thing, not an order to the audience anymore. I swear she's just a stepford smiler and one wrong step she'll crack and sit in a corner sobbing about how her parents never loved her. There's some skeleton lurking in the closet there, if only I could investigate it.

It's so weird that her bio says she likes to sing, dance and act. Can she not do them all at the same time? Seriously, she was barely singing in the song, but there was no real dancing whatsoever or acting as previously discussed. You'd think they'd try and work in all these "abilities" she claims to have.

Friday (an analysis of a viral song)

2011-03-15T10:41:00.002-05:00

So yeah, if you haven't heard this song by Rebecca Black called Friday is being called the "Worst. Song. Ever." To be honest, the lyrics definitely put it as a strong contender in this wonderful category.

Witness it for yourself here:

Wow, go take some ibuprofen before the stupid headache gets you.

SO I'm going to provide an analysis from an English Major's perspective, because it's too fun not too. I'll start with a verse by verse break down and then do an overview because I'm cool like that...

The first verse explains her morning routine and unlike Ke$ha's (for the time being) immortal "Wake up in the Morning feeling like P. Diddy/ Grab my glasses I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city/ Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of jack/ Because when I leave for the night I aint comin' back." This leaves no interest in Rebecca's life. I don't care that she has cereal for breakfast or goes to the bus stop everyone does that until they get a friend with a car, which she then meets her friends with a car and can't decide where to sit (because the fate of the world depends upon where she sits). I don't know that many people who want to feel like P. Diddy or brush their teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels, that's interesting. The curiosity we, as listeners, feel toward Rebecca's daily routine is the fact that she can't make up her fucking mind about where she wants to sit in her friend's car. Which in the music video is even more peculiar as there is clearly only one seat available in the car (and most cars of that size really don't have a third seat in the back like the video suggests, nay is hoping you'll buy without worrying too much).

The first chorus has her repeating the title of the song ad nauseum and reminding us that she's "gotta get down" today. Because NO ONE parties at all on Saturdays.... She also reminds us everyone is looking forward to the weekend. Which I thought that "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" ? or am I just crazy? She then talks about, no, just says "Partyin'" over and over and everyone in the car agrees with her, though their shouts don't match what you'd think they'd sound like and really don't sound that enthusiastic either in acting or voices (seriously their 'voices' sound like some demon from Hell, possibly Legion). Her friends never just have quiet weekend get togethers where everyone talks and creates meaninful relationships, just partyin'? How superficial, but of course this is studio manufactured music.

Second Verse and I'm already aching for alcohol for this girl, not me. She talks about cruising down the highway so fast she feels like flying. In the music video she's doing that 'cool' thing where you stand in the back seat of a convertable (By the way: how many teens do you know have brand new convertables?) and stand above the rest of the car which is generally only done at slower speeds because it's a fucking dangerous move. Cars, while fun like toys, are also to be treated with respect because they can kill you. She's just asking to die hanging out of a car going fast down the highway. Remember: she's probably going 55-70 mph so if she falls she's splattering on the ground. She then wants us to think about fun, which is so fun as opposed to going out and actually having fun. She reminds us "I got this, You got this" (don't ask what 'this' is, it's never explained) and then points out her friend is on her right. Now normally I could forgive a nonsequiter like that because sometimes a writer needed an easy rhyme, however that line goes with nothing, not even a half rhyme, it is completely pointless. On top of that she has another girl on her left in the music video who just gets the shaft. I guess they are just superficial friends. And then we know this. Know what? The epitome of bad song writing? She then shows that she can't make her mind up about what seat to sit in AGAIN! Despite being IN a moving car "in" a seat already and it's been the same seat all fucking day despite someone else driving the EXACT same car in front of a very obvious backdrop.

Why yes I'm getting more and more aggitated can you tell?

The second chorus is the same as the first lyrically, but the backdrop is more confusing. She's now at the party (oh thank God she doesn't have to worry about which seat to sit in in the car anymore!), but she's not ineracting with people that much. She waves at one person and some guy touches her shoulder right before it cuts to another scene where she doesn't interact with people except when they shout their standard "yeah" in agreement with her statement of "Partyin' Partyin.'" While the actors shouting "Yeah" are slightly more enthusiastic, the vocals are still the half-enthused non caring ones we heard before.

The Bridge: Oh the infamous bridge. In this lovely infamous bridge she goes over the days of the week, but not all of them, because that MIGHT be helpful in the long run. Because the youth of America are struggling in school and someone thought it was a good idea to put in a little reminder of the days of the week like the bridge of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" reminded everyone how to spell "bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" which admittedly is a fucking catchy way to spell bananas. It's almost like Arthur spelling "aardvark" in that one episode. However, the key difference is kids know days of the week, I even learned them in song, but the difference is the catchyness. While "A-A-R-D-VA-RK!" and " B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" are quick and catchy, this is long and droning and says it is Friday, which it might not be whenever you hear this song, thankfully (or not) the music video has a constant reminder while attempting this really bad rotoscoping, flip book thing that is distracting. It's like they were trying to repeat Ah-Ha's "Take On Me" and failing spectacularly. Then out of left field she loses her ability to use grammar properly. Seriously she just starts repeating "We, we, we, we" like a broken record before finally finishing her thought "so excited." And just when you think she made a mistake because of an actual broken record she repeats, "We so excited." She had grammar before, faltingly so, but now it's just MIA, maybe a POW of the war on America's sanity...? It gets WORSE when she then says "We gonna have a ball today." Yeah, grammar is gone, dead, no more. Then we go back to our days of the week lesson. You know, the Animaniacs did a better job of teaching things in song, bring them back! She then shouts, "I don't want this weekend to ENNNNND!" My stuffed dog started howling... Obviously a bad sign.

Now for the obligatory rap part, because that's what you do in this kind of music! Yeah rap in this crap fest. Some gangster just cried out in pain and didn't know why, this is obviously the reason. Let me put on a sideways hat and analyze this. The rapper is someone I've never seen before, and his name isn't listed anywhere I can find on the video. He drives while he points out Rebecca's initials and her name, Because we needed to point out more obvious things in this song. He then (oh my god NO!) repeats the front and back seat and back seat thing and celebrates it... Head meet wall, ouch, but not as painful as the song. He goes on to advocate more dangerous driving such as switching in and out of lanes at highspeeds. What is it with this song and dangerous driving? I think the lyrics then imply he has a narrow miss with a car to his side because he hasn't been checking his blindspots. Way to go idiot! All he can say is "Woo." Yes, nearly side-swiping someone is something to "woo" about. It may be a near miss "woo" but he doesn't adjust his driving habits. He then complains about getting stuck behind a bus worring about all the fun hanging with tweens he's missing out on, still hopin he'll have fun this Friday.

The Chorus comes back again, twice. This time at the party which is made to look like it's in full swing. However, everyone has their hands awkwardly placed, generally down by their shoulders, because if they were to put them up they'd be in our little manufactured starlett's face. This is demonstrated the first time the crowd shouts "yeah" and fist pumps and covers her face. However, this wasn't corrected immediately and there are a couple awkward shots where her face is covered for a second. They obviously saw this problem and corrected for the second repetition of the refrain where everyone's hands are far out of the way of her face, even during the fist pumps. Why didn't they fix it in the first part? If I knew anything about this video I wouldn't be making this post. I forgot to mention she's on a stage above her peers, obviously providing the entertainment for the party. Oh, that's why she hasn't been interacting, she's the hired help. Seriously, who'd rather perform than have fun with their friends? Maybe her only friend is her roadie? This is interspersed with clips of the rapper guy driving in his car and largely doing nothing other than reminding us he's there and our little "starlett" in another part of the world. Where she's over-emoting some lyrics I can't make out. If she had just been emoting like this the whole time I wouldn't mind, however this super emotion is really weird and out of place comparison to her vague smile throughout the rest of the video. The video mercifully ends and the party goers applaud while she laughs in a a show of humility.

Overall, there were a couple of disturbing things I noticed throughout the video that were alluded to above but should still be addressed here in my general critique.

The song is incredibly formulaic: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, rap section, chorus x2. While normally this wouldn't bother me, as structure can be a useful tool (Look at Shakespeare and the sonnets) it doesn't work when the lyrics have nothing behind them and generally suck. I feel like the song writers deceided, "What do teens like? Friday. What about Friday? Fun and the weekend. What's fun about the weekend? Parties. We need something for the bridge! Just list the days of the week. Ooh kids like rappers and driving fast how can we incoporate this? Oh we can have a rapper rap about driving fast. This is clearly song writing gold. Wait! we can't start with the party, we need a narrative of SOME kind. Just have her talk about her morning routine and tough decisions when going to school."

I also hate how this song kept reminding me of the great songs they were trying to bounce off of. They say bounce off, I say rip off. If you really stop and think about all the better songs they ripped off it goes from bad to horrendous.

I'm also really aggitated by the singer's voice, which I only briefly alluded to in my critique. It's very flat an monotonous. I don't know that much about music, but it sounds auto-tuned to hell and back, or she's just a robot. There is most definitely a metallic tinge to most of the song. Except during the parts where there's a back up singer (implied to be her) that sounds okay, not great but tolerable. She also sounds average when she holds a longer note, but nothing amazing.

The acting of both Rebecca and the extras was abysmal. Remember what I said about her boring monotonous and emotionless smile, she has it throughout the entire music video (except precious exception, duh). Even when complaining or worrying about which damn seat to take she smiles like she secretly has a million worries behind her. The extras are no better, just watch the second verse and watch her friend on the right. By the way everyone in the back seat has the same hairstyle as her, which she apparently had to straighten like no other in the morning. Because individuality or having curls is a problem.

Again, the advocating of the dangerous driving bugs me, but I'm a car fan who like to drive my car properly, if fun, not like a fucking maniac.

That's my overly long break down.

TL;DR: This already formulaic song rips off actually good music, features a girl who can't sing and has terrible lyrics on top of everything else.

Rambling on King's Speech

2011-03-10T23:03:00.000-06:00

I finally saw the King's Speech last night, I say finally because I felt like I saw a ton of Oscar nominated movies this year but took forever getting around to The King's Speech.

It was an interesting and moving experience.

Why that choice of words? Because my boyfriend also stammers.

So as you can see I had a really personal connection to this film. I think that may have taken me out of it/put me into it too much.

I found myself really identifying with Helena Bonham Carter's character, The Queen Mum Elizabeth. I felt myself thinking "Oh, I never realized that's how he feels" or "I know exactly what this feels like."

I realize that this should make me like it more, but I don't know, it felt too real sometimes. I was over associating my boyfriend and myself with these characters.

I'm not articulating this well I realize, but what can I do?

Let me say: I loved this film. I thought it deserved all the awards it won, and more. Helena and Geoffrey definitely deserved oscars, even though they didn't win.

I just feel like I need to see this film over and over again.

Maybe I did like it.

I'm confused.

Job Search?

2011-03-09T23:00:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what I want to do thsi summer about getting a job. I have yet to find a normal 'job' I tolerate or enjoy.

Last summer I got lucky and worked for my then-boyfriends mom, but now that he's my ex I'm not sure if I would want to do that, besides the commute was pretty long. Office work was fine.

I've also had another summer job, but i didn't enjoy that one either. I'm not going to go into details right now.

The other factor is my school year job requires a ton of training that will be done over the summer. I'm going to be an RA at my school and that obviously requires a ton of training. I don't know my summer training schedule, but I have a feeling once I figure that out I'll make a firm decision on what job I want to go for, if I do.

I want to be able just to write and hang out all summer, but I doubt my parents would let that happen. What my parents don't realize is that I never want to have a 'normal' job. I like having flexibility, yet accountability. That's why I set up my "Lenten" resolution. I have enough accountability to get my stuff done, yet it's my own schedule.

Maybe I'm too independent. I don't like people looking over my shoulder making sure I get my business done. I can get things done when left to my own devices, its when people poke and prod me to do things when I sieze up waiting for the next command. I'm fine on my own.

Lenten Challenge

2011-03-08T14:35:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I don't actually celebrate Christian holidays if I'm not doing so for my parents but heres the deal:

I want to blog more regularly. I want to vlog more regularly. I want to write my stories more regularly. The only way to accomplish this is to make myself do them. The best way for me to do these this is to force myself, what better way than to do so for Lent? You get Sundays off (I'm not taking them off though) and 40 days is plenty of time to create and reinforce new behavior (thanks Intro to Psych!).

The rules which I made myself live to are: text blogs have to be over 200 words; vlogs have to be a minute long; if I miss a day/week I can make it up the next day/week by doing double duty (two seperate videos or two blog posts); it must be the immediately following day/week.

I've added a few more guidelines that aren't strictly rules: Vlogs should be about books/movies/TV and not about personal life/friends unless relevent (my upcoming Twilight video) or my explanation video. Blogs can be anything I want but not hey look I posted a video unless fufilling other requirements as well. I'll try to have Blogs and Vlogs talk about different things, especially the same day posts. For example: I'm not going to bitch about my technology problems with video making right now as I kind of did that in my video.

So yeah, there it is, gauntlet thrown. I hope it all goes okay.

(FYI: Excluding this, this post is 260 words.)

My Life Goals

2011-03-08T07:42:00.000-06:00

I've realized something over this first half of the semester: I won't be a good journalist.

This does not affect me that much.

You see, I never WANTED to be a journalist. I just sort of joined Newspaper last semester on a whim so I could meet people. It worked. I met people, and I admit, I had fun. However, the fun was found in class, with other English Majors just talking about anything and everything. Talking with like minded people is always fun. Going out and doing interviews, writing short choppy sentences just because, that isn't me.

I don't have time to do interviews this semester. I'm taking the same number of hours, but it's SO much harder to get in time for interviews this semester.

I know who I am. I'm not outgoing/interested in journalism to do that for my life. I think it would be easier to do interviews if I had a work time to do it, but I don't know. It doesn't feel like me.

What I want to do for the rest of my life is write. Whether novels or films (my friend who is a film major and I have been talking...) or short stories, FICTION or at least Narratives are what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I know me, now I just have to get through this semester.

I Used to Not Mind

2011-03-04T18:58:00.000-06:00

I used to not mind politician/Fox News person Mike Huckabee. He always seemed like a decent guy. He'd sit down and talk rationally with people on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Seriously, anyone who has ever seen him on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report knows he can be a completely normal guy when he wants to be. I didn't (and still don't) agree with him on almost every issue, but he seemed rational and calm when defending his issues and that is something to value in a world with Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins.

Enter the upcoming Presidential Election Year...

Twice this week alone he's said things that rub me the wrong way entirely.

First: The whole Barack Obama growing up in Kenya debacle. While I could understand occasionally saying one word when you mean another (I do it all the time) his statements literally make no sense if you just insert Indonesia where he said Kenya. The whole story falls apart. It's like saying Harry Potter wasn't a wizard, he was a ghost. The story stops working the way it should. This irritated me, but I just figured Huckabee felt the need to toss his hat in amongst the Tea-Party for easily secured votes.

Second (The reason for this post): Today I found an article about comments he made about Natalie Portman being a bad role model for "glorify and glamorize the idea" of being an unwed mother. First of all, if there is someone to look up to in Hollywood it's Natalie Portman. She's a great actress and she hasn't been caught in any kind of 'scandal' except for the scandalously bad Star Wars Prequels. Hell, she paused her career to focus on college when many actresses in her place may have just skipped college all together. What's not to like about that? More and more people are having children and relationships out of wedlock, it's just a sign of the times. She's not the first, nor will she be the last single mother. On top of all this: She's engaged to the father of her child and seems head over heels in love with him. It hardly seems like she's sleeping around willy-nilly. She's in what looks to be a committed and stable relationship and will love her baby. I ask again: What's not to like about that?

So, Mike Huckabee, you have fallen out of favor with me, a young and excited voter. If you honestly feel this way about these two issuses I no longer respect you. And if you said these things to garner tea party support, I respect you even less than that.

An Explanation

2011-03-03T19:32:00.000-06:00

Last semester I dealt with a pretty bad roommate situation. People often wondered why I put up with the crazy things I did.

They wondered why I put up with the storage of alcohol in my fridge (we're in a dry dorm), the complete mess her side usually was, the guys in my room at 2-4 in the morning, sometimes vomitting, the drunken stumbling in early in the morning, the missing objects that were mine, the complete disrespect.

Because I read a story. I think I came across it my junior year, maybe sophomore, and it is truly the worst roommate story I have ever heard in my life.

Worst. Roommate. Ever.

Be warned, not for the faint of heart or the germaphobic. Rule of thumb: More disgusting than ~~most~~ any of the episodes of Hoarders, even the episodes with animal hoarders.

Random Thoughts

2011-03-03T16:10:00.000-06:00

M. Night Shyamalan was never that good to begin with. He based the Sixth Sense off of an 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' episode. This "downward spiral" is simply a product of earlier events.

As the World gets smaller the easier it will be for one person to control as I am experiencing with College. Because of this I am afraid for the future and hope decency will save the day.

Jesus Christ didn't say all that much when compared to the entirety of the Bible and we don't know how much he actually did say. So much is forced into his mouth though, almost enough to feel bad for the guy.

It's not Scientology people hate, its just crazy people in general. Example: Will Smith-Scientologist-well liked. Tom Cruise-Scientologist-went crazy temporarily- still recovering in eyes of media.

A computer just cleaned the clock of two Jeopardy champions, mean while robots get more and more realistic. Cylons are only a matter of time. Thank God we haven't treated our robots too bad, yet.

10 Influential Books

2011-02-25T07:24:00.000-06:00

Stole this from Alicia Blade's Livejournal:

I was thinking about The Giver a few days ago and how much that book had impacted me as a young reader (I first read it in 4th grade), and that got me thinking about other books that had taught me something about reading or writing. Pretty soon the list started to grow. I could probably go on forever, but ten sounded like a nice, wholesome number, so here are ten books that have had the greatest impact on me as a writer.

Well, sad to say I've never read The Giver, but here are some of my favorite books (in no particular order) and most influential none the less:

The Belgariad/The Malloreon: No matter how used the plot is, the dialogue and characters make or break the success of the story.

Harry Potter: Story is more important than the careful crafting of each sentence.

The Hunger Games: Not every ending needs to be incredibly obvious, or one of two options. The Third option is alive and well.

Jane Eyre: Just because it's classic doesn't mean everyone will enjoy it. Some people will love it though.

Kamikaze Girls: That a plot with very little actual action can be just as engaging as one with a lot of action.

The Princess Bride: So much more can be explored in a book in addition to the 'main' plot.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: True resolution may not be the most fitting for your story.

The Lovely Bones: No matter what your intent in writing, people will make of it what they will.

Memoirs of a Geisha: You can strech a will they-won't they romance across a whole book and keep the reader guessing.

Pride and Prejudice (Free Kindle Edition): Formatting DOES matter.

Just Be Yourself

2011-01-22T07:59:00.002-06:00

I know who I am, at least, I'm pretty sure of it. I just wish more people would figure out who I am already.

Many people see me as a quiet goody two shoes who will gladly sit at home every weekend night with a book or movie. They think I'm sweet and angelic and wouldn't dare go to a drinking party, especially one filled with strangers.

However, I also could not be the opposite of that. I couldn't go over to to a party every night of the week and get hellas crunk on a regular basis. I wouldn't keep alcohol in my refrigerator or bring puking guys into my room.

I am in between. I do like to have quiet nights alone with a book or movie, but not every night. I'd gladly go to parties, even if I had to be the designated driver. Some one just needs to ask me, or let me know where parties are.

Unfortunately, people have difficulty seeing my bad side. Maybe its because I'm shy. I don't act like a person who would get drunk on occasion. Generally I hold myself to high standards. I generally try to dress well and I'm polite and alert. Does my common sense and self respect prevent me from having college fun?

Sometimes I wish I could hide behind a mask, that I could be a raving party girl (after I've gotten my homework done) and show people I know how to have a good time. But masks have never really fit me well.

Nothing On

2011-01-19T21:41:00.002-06:00

There is nothing on TV worth watching on Wednesday nights. The only things on are fully disgusting shows or re-runs, or the end of movies.

For instance, I went channel surfing and found Toddlers and Tiaras. I absolutely hate pageants and pageant moms, so watching the show is an easy way to make me value my mother. I am eternally grateful that I was not subjected to this kind of torture. Normally I would have just watched this show, as I have the past two weeks, but TLC or my cable was having problems that made this already scary show even scarier. Seriously demonic stage moms twitching like the a possessed demon is frightening. I'm going to blame TLC, or just a bad connection from the satelite on campus because the channels on either side were working just fine.

I tried every trick my tech savy father would have used. I tried to tighten the connection, I re did the connection, I refound the channels. Nothing worked.

So I channel surfed. I found the last 10 minutes of Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Yay, I can watch Borromir, a great character, DIE!). I found the last half hour~45min of The Princess Diaries (So most of the funny bits and Julie Andrews parts are over--the boring Mia finding herself bits).

I finally have come across something more terrifying than Toddlers with Crazy Moms. I found a History Channel Documentary on hell. The problem is I've seen very little History. There is some history to some obscure beliefs from various cultures, but when a History Channel Documentary is actively wondering if some Volcano in Africa is a true portal to hell and comparing it to Dante's inferno (Which was filled with mostly ironies and little actual fire) I draw a fine line.

For anyone wanting information on the actual biblical Hell allow me to direct you to a great youtuber's video on it.

So, yeah, I'm stuck in my own version of hell until cable works properly.

In other news I might have a snow day tomorrow.

You raised me well, too well

2011-01-09T08:26:00.003-06:00

Last night I had a breakthrough: My mom and I had an honest discussion about my upcoming (well, 3 years away) wedding to my boyfriend.

There were problems, no arguments, just problems.

My mother doesn't realize that when she raised me with good taste she also took out a lot of the 'practicality' she has.

Some examples: Having a reception in a gym, while practical for size,location and cost effectiveness is not cool, in my opinion.

I don't think walking down a side aisle is cool then out the other side is cool, especially because family will probably be sitting center.

DIY Everything seems a bit extreme and unreliable to me, as I'm a perfectionist if I'm doing it myself.

I don't find most reception halls tacky.

I really don't want to get married in a church, especially my parish because of said side ways church problem. Not getting married in a church is out of the question.

I don't want my reception in the local hotel.

That's what I realized last night as we finally discussed my wedding. Normally I wouldn't feel so bad about some of these ideas, but recently my fiance's mom had a relatively large wedding reception that seemed to cost way more than what my mom is willing to spend on my wedding. I hate to make this sound like a competition, but I feel my wedding should be better(or at least equal to) than hers.

That sounds really bitchy or bridezilla-esque, but I mean, I want a nice wedding, and (from the few pictures I've seen) she had a nice wedding.

Part of this is, I'm not entirely sure what I want yet, but I know I want my wedding to be nice, and when she constantly suggests DIY this and "We could do that ourselves" it gets a little frustrating. Maybe this wouldn't be such a problem if her wedding hadn't been entirely DIY (seriously she only had flowers and photography professionally done, and I'm not even sure about the flowers...)

I'm not saying my mom's wedding was nice, I'm just saying that we have a bigger budget, let's show it off a little.

Of Men and Women

2010-12-03T12:51:00.002-06:00

While I am generally for guys displaying emotion now and then there is a line that can and needs to be drawn. Usually this line is called "Rational Thinking" but there are obviously people out there who do not use such wonderful gifts as rational thought to their advantage.

This is particularly bad when your emotion girl friends are whispering, "He acts more like a girl than we do" behind another friends back.

He is all over the place. He get's insanely jealous when we mention other guys or express interest in other men, even ones we know we'll neuver meet ala Charlie McDonnel. He wants some good friends. He wants to take pictures with you awkwardly. He wants you to read things. He wants them back. He wants to sit and watch cartoons while you work furiously on papers. Little, seemingly inconsequential things that make him seem down right frustrating to the people who have to deal with him, namely his friends and at this point that's the MOST any of us want to be with him.

This sort of thing really dovetails nicely with what I've been studying in one of my literature classes. Until the 1800's men were always thought of as "rational beings" and women were "controlled by their emotions" yet there has been a shift in thinking that basically boils down to: men want sex, women want money and stability in their lives. This demonstrates a complete reversal in the way we think about the world.

I've seen both, men with cool, calculated outlooks on life and women who fly off the handle at a moments notice the same time I've seen guys flip out over nothing and girls laughing at them for being so silly.

SO I've got to ask a few questions:

Is this method of thinking (men rational;women irrational) out dated?
Is the opposite any more true?
Is is far more complicated then any of this?

If you have answers, or just more questions feel free to comment below.

Between a Rock and...

2010-11-15T14:30:00.004-06:00

Hello, I'm trying my darndest to get back into a blogging frame of mind. So I thought of something I really wanted to talk about..... My engagement.

Yes, I'm (as of yet) unofficially engaged to a very nice guy, who was not my boyfriend for the past several years, that's another story entirely. I say unofficially because I don't have a ring yet.

This is my dillema. I am happy to wait for however long it takes for him to save up and buy me a ring. However, I want to proclaim to the world that I've found a great guy and I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him and I don't feel right doing that unless I have a ring.

Why do I feel I need a ring? Society. Society says I need a ring to show off when I announce my engagement to my friends and family. They will ask to see the ring and I'll happily say I don't have one yet and immediately, apart from the incredible speed we're moving at, people will think something is completely off about our relationship, including his parents.

You see my parents are cool with my fiance and I because they too only dated for a month before their official engagement was announced. His parents (Well, him mom and step-dad--we don't talk about his biological father) have both remarried at least once and therefore are far more wary of our relationship, which is understandable.

I realize to the outside world we are moving at a breakneck pace, but to me I've never felt anything more right in my life. Which leads me back to this ring thing (ha!).

I want to wait for a ring, because I know that will give more people more time to get aquainted with my fiance and the idea that we're together. I would love to say I'm comfortable enough with myself that I don't need a ring to tell people I'm engaged, but I think it's another matter of length.

I know we won't get married until we both finish our undergrad (not only because we think it's best, but I'm pretty sure that's the easiest way to let his parents get used to the idea, and it's when my parents want me to wait until), which won't be until May 2014 at the earliest. SO the earliest possible wedding dates are in June of 2014. That's nearly a three year engagement, which isn't unheard of, but it's not exactly common either.

So I want to wait for a ring and yet I don't. I keep thinking of my grandmother's engagement ring I have back at my parents house and the best way to persuade him to use it, yet at the same time I want him to put his unique spin on our official engagement... It's all so complicated.

I want to proclaim that I have found Mr. Right to the heavens, and yet I know that I should wait, and kind of want to wait until the time is right which for some reason means a ring is around my finger.

In any case, I'm glad I do have time to plan though, weddding are complicated!

Prom... The first of many....

2010-04-13T16:41:00.004-05:00

SO, I got a lovely email today, asking me to move where I'm sitting at Prom... I'm not even kidding.

Why must we have assigned seating when every wedding movie known to mankind has shown us it is a bad idea? The world may never know.

I actually then tried to move, because the feelings of unwantedness were coming from where I signed up long before I even chose to sit there. On top of that I felt bad because it really does seem like the person they wanted to have my seat does need a seat and she's really a nice girl.

The problem is that all the tables were full, the ones that might have been open were with people I hardly talk to, much less would want to spend my prom night with.

I do ask why we even need assigned seating? If you want everyone to have fancy place cards, don't bother. I'd rather have the beef you promised us instead of the chicken you'll be serving than have a fancy place card to keep in my drawer of things I've gathered about me and my history.

After I got this email I wrote this poem. It sucks and is unedited, but it expresses my most initial reaction (Snap is the title, not an actual part of the poem...):

Snap

Let’s not hurt anyone’s feelings
Don’t want anyone to feel left out of the festivities
You, move
Now don’t be upset
We don’t want anyone upset,
Now leave so we don’t hurt anyone
Get the fuck out.
We want fun for all,
So you can sit in the corner alone with a box of crayons and safety scissors,
We can’t afford paper.
Throw yourself under the bus for the good of the whole
Why are you upset?
Its not that big of a deal.
Its just a meal
Stand out of the way and hide in a corner
Now we can all have fun
Sacrifice yourself so that others may live and be happy
Messiah complexes suck…

I can’t fucking take it
Tumultuous is such a simple word to describe this entire year
Prom, a Capstone
Are you serious?
I lie down and take it
It is more easy
What the fuck do I do now?

Plastered on fake smile, because what else is left?
I can’t force myself to feel any other emotion except a creepy kind of laughing incredulity
I realize why the Joker smiles
The world is so ridiculous
SO pretentious
SO incredibly insane
SO caught up in inanity
You can’t take it at face value

Smiling, Smiling just keep smiling
Writing no better than Rape survival poetry
Oh, My Fucking God, are we twelve?
Why must we have assigned seating?
Why must it be such a Big Fucking Deal?
Why? Why? Why?

Settle down, still in utter disbelief

Holidays are lovely

2010-04-05T20:55:00.003-05:00

Happy Easter all. Not going to write much because I'm writing from my new iPod touch and it's hard to type on this little keypad thing. Just making sure it's going to work okay.

Quitter, not yet.

2010-03-24T17:35:00.001-05:00

I need to quit my job, soon. Before it starts back up (its a seasonal job).

I'm not going to go into details about the whys and stuff for quite some time, but I just need the courage and timing to do so. Short and sweet post.

You Can't Stop the Beast!

2010-03-22T19:37:00.004-05:00

The beastmeaning a monster, meaning pocket monster, meaning, of course, Pokemon (I'm not putting the accent mark, it's too complicated and doesn't always work).

I have become reobsessed with Pokemon. I don't know when it exactly started. I always enjoyed the games as a child. In fact, I still remember my original Yellow team, that was until I lost it... I played Gold several times (never beating it unfortunately. I could now, I'm just easily distracted). I played my brother's copy of Ruby mostly through, though I got easily frustrated and never quite finished.

The re-obsession began 2 summers ago when on a long road trip I restarted my Gold (the only time I restarted a game). It was so fun to replay that game.

Then recently, my boyfriend, came back from a trip to Japan (I am SO jealous, I don't want to talk about it...) and gave me a piplup hood (Isn't it soo cute?!)

Just imagine it as a hood, you know subtract the body and leave a human head sized hole for my face.

Anyway, then he gave me a gameboy advanced emulator for my laptop and he gave me Pokemon Leaf Green. I am so glad I decided to put it on the part of my computerI can't access at school, otherwise I'd be playing it all day. I just miss the old games.

SO really, this has absolutely no point. Other than.....I love Pokemon. Plain, simple, unashamed.

Pokemon is my favorite RPG. It is sophisticated in its simplicity. It is as timeless your ten-year old protagonist. It may add characters and mosters that don't fit earlier continuity, or aren't as good as before, but you continue to come back. Why? Because, you gotta catch 'em all!

On Being a Senior, a piece in Two Parts

2010-03-09T19:35:00.006-06:00

Part One: An Open Letter

To my dearest underclassmen, and Juniors:

First of all I wish to make it known that you are not invisible. I see you every day wandering around, many of you still look like deer in headlights. Most of you seem like smart, intelligent girls who know how to make yourselves happy, something that’s very tricky in these parts

But that’s just it, I see you.

I see you listening to your iPhone or laptop during study, through headphones. Last time I checked that was a Senior privilege. If I’m mistaken please, let me know. Now, I’m not mad when you are actually working on a project, but I don’t think connecting headphones to your iPhone while flipping through your Spanish II workbook is absolutely necessary. Again, correct me if I’m wrong.

I see you wearing your grey Columbia. Again, I didn’t think you could, but I am just human. Maybe a club got special permission for everyone to wear a Columbia every day.

I see you sitting around the electric plugs. Forget to charge your computer last night? Oh, don’t worry, your allowed to sit in those spots, but let me tell you a little secret. We need them more. You see, our laptops and our batteries are far older than yours. This means a lot in technology time. Several Seniors have to plug in their laptops to get them to work at all. There are a select few who’s laptops do hold a charge for twenty minutes before dying. So, don’t worry, feel free to take those places by the plugs. It’s not like we need them.

Well, that’s all the wisdom I have to store upon you today my dear children.

Remember Jesus loves you.

I’m not so sure.

Signed,

Anonymous Uncaring Seniors

Part II: Prescription Write Ups

Patient needs 200cc’s of motivation straight to her veins, stat. The IV will drip continuously until patient has put on her white cap and gown.

Patient needs 30mg of ‘interest in’ my school work. The generic ‘Concern for’ will do if necessary. The patient should be forced to swallow one or more daily unless she does at least some homework without prompting.

Patient needs an over the counter plan to deal with a general sense of apathy that concerns graduation. Patient should be able to self medicate how much she does or does not care about Graduation. Should lower dosage as graduation draws closer.

Patient needs a daily dose of fun until this depressive thing called school is done with. Make sure teachers are aware that interesting may not equal the same as fun and realize that the condition is not their fault.

Patient needs a prescription for Senioritis.

Animation and the Oscars

2010-03-08T22:10:00.004-06:00

So I didn't actually watch the Oscars Sunday night, though I did look up the winners. But this post started itching my brain before that.

Friday in homeroom a couple of people, myself included, were talking about some of the films nominated for best picture and how I was disappointed in myself for not seeing as many nominated movies as last year. Last year I had seen several serious 'films' not just movies. Last year I was a movie snob.

Then we got to talking about Avatar, because really who isn't talking about Avatar these days? And one girl mentions she sees Avatar more as an animated film. I understand her argument and quite honestly somewhat agree with her. Avatar is an animated film in the same way Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit are. Interpret that how you will.

She goes on to say how she doesn't think Avatar should be nominated for best picture. Again, I see the validity of her statement. Avatar's plot was completely unoriginal, though it never pretended to be, and if we're going for best picture of the entire year plot is certainly a factor. Did Avatar's special effects, detailed creation of an entire planet and culture, and monetary success outweigh the lack of original plot? Again, there are plenty of opinions on that subject too.

I guess I'll state, for the curious, that I don't personally consider Avatar, Mary Poppins, or Roger Rabbit fully animated features. I will say where the line is drawn between real life and animation can be drawn, pardon the word, by someone else, because I don't care. I also think that while Avatar wasn't the the best thing ever, I feel its special effects and attention to detail deserve the utmost recognition, and the special effects were honored.

Anyway back to the ranting girl.

She then goes on to say she doesn't understand why Up was nominated either. And that got me, because you see, that film snob I mentioned earlier fell in love with Up. Not only was it a fun cartoon it was also an excellent film. Those first ten or so minutes are some of the most poignant and honest moments I have ever seen in my life. (I, of course, refer to Carl and Ellie's life montage.) If two characters hardly speak in that ten minute span and yet you can be moved to tears when one of them dies, or even before that when you find out they are unable to have children, that is truly great story telling/film making.

Back on track...

The girl then says she doesn't think animated films should be in that category. No justification, no solid reasoning, they just should 'count.' I'm very angry, so I will try to remain civil here. Why does it matter if something is animated or live action. Can't a true piece of art be a cartoon? What about Batman: The Animated Series? One of the highest quality television series out there, and it says animated in the title. Some may argue that it failed in Prime Time, but that is due to the animation age ghetto (adults don't watch cartoons because clearly they are all for kids, end sarcasm.)

I don't think this kind of snobbery is animation age ghetto. I don't think age has anything to do with cartoons being for children. I think that this is just, people think Cartoons aren't good enough to compete.

That's the part that confuses me the most. Why do people feel that animation, puppetry, or other stop motion animation lessens a film?

I believe that some people feel the actors don't have to work as hard. Which I don't personally understand. You have to have the right vocal cues to match the situation, with no one to work off of, usually (actually depends on the company). It has to flow cohesively and making sure your dialogue does that is not always the easiest. On top of that, everything about that character has to flow from your voice, nothing else. To me this seems harder than having your whole body to work with.

And if it is the Animation Age Ghetto, so what? Just because it's a children's movie doesn't mean it is inherently a poorer quality film. There are good children's movies (Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast) and there are bad children's movies (The Barney Movie, Quest for Camelot). But the same goes for movies for 'adults' too.

But I don't honestly know why people feel this way. If you know or have a better idea, feel free to tell me.

It's times like these....

2010-03-01T21:37:00.002-06:00

It's times like these, when I've squandered the day away on TV Tropes, I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling lazy, Chuck and Hannah broke up, and I miss David Tennant that I wish I was an internet celebrity.

Because really, if there is one guaranteed way to get me to post on my blog is for me to have an assignment do.

The problem is I have no idea where to go with said assignment. Othello, while a very well written and fun (in my opinion) play, leaves me kind of wondering what to talk about.

Yes, I know I could talk about race, fidelity, purity, communication skills, but our teacher keeps reminding us to find what interests us.

Okay, what interests me about Othello is that Iago is fucking awesome. He's the villain, but damn, he's a good one. You hate him, loathe him, he's a mean one mister grinch. If this were a modern day musical he would have the best song in the whole fucking thing. Why is he evil? Who cares? Why does he hate Othello? Does it matter?

Simply by not having motivation, he succeeds at avoiding one thing many villains suffer, the stupid motive. He is a complete monster and that is why he rocks! Seriously, he makes it his goal to totally screw this one guy over, and he does it with style.

I could talk about how villainy without reason is the best kind of villainy, but I can't think of many villains who don't have a reason. Sue Sylvester fits the bill, but Glee isn't the type of thing you write about in a formal paper, plus I'd need another example.

Which leads me back to "It's Times Like These...." because it's times like these where I wish I was a bit of a celebrity so I could ask my fans what I should write about for this paper. And even if I got shitty answers, at least I'd have an idea.

You believe this? Sucks for you Man.

2010-02-13T07:43:00.004-06:00

So, I was over on Alicia Blade's live journal and I saw she had reviewed a writing book, Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers, by George Singleton. And this book made the following points:
- Fan fiction is a waste of time.

- If you go to a coffeeshop to write, you're not a real writer.

- Bestsellers are to literary fiction as bologna is to filet mignon.

- People who major in creative writing have nothing to write about.

- You should never write anything that takes place in a foreign country or a big city.

- You shouldn't be friends with too many other writers because they might steal your ideas.

...Anger cannot begin to describe how I feel towards this man.

I'm going to try and address this point by point.

"Fanfiction is a waste of time." Really? Because, I've been told that any writing practice at all was good. You are practicing and refining part of your craft, whenever you write. No, You can't practice making your own characters. But that doesn't prevent you from practicing description, dialogue, plot, pacing and other generally important things. And you're not just practicing those things, your practicing getting inside a character's head and deciding how they'd react in the situation you've given them. No, this isn't the same as making characters, its no where close. But it's a start. I know when I write fanfiction I'm practicing everything but making characters, and sometimes I even do that.

"If you go to a coffeeshop to write, you're not a real writer." I can't personally attest to this one quite perfectly. I don't write at coffee shops, yet. However, I know J.K. Rowling did plenty of writing at various cafes near her home and I think we all know what happened to her career. Is her prose a shining beacon for those around her to look up to? No, not quite, but her plot was one of the most complex and intriguing things I have ever seen. Her characters were beautifully developed and highly realistic. Finally, the best cure I know of for writer's block is to change scenery. Not in the story, for yourself. For a long time I used to write primarily at home (I was trying to be a good little student). Now, I write a lot at school too. That place seems to be drying out, so I'll try another place.

"Bestsellers are to literary fiction as bologna is to filet mignon." Is every best seller out there going to be the most thoughtful, the most well written, and the best executed book out there? No. Twilight I'm looking at you. (BTW I know I used to like Twilight, but I'm over it. WAY over it.) But this does not mean that every bestseller is a piece of garbage. For example, the final book of the Malloreon, The Seeress of Kell, is a great book. The dialogue in any Eddings book is usually far better than most fantasy novels of the same genre and that is why its a best seller. People love his dialogue. His plots are old and used, he realizes that, but its the banter between the characters and the actual skill when he writes that brings his novels alive.

"People who major in creative writing have nothing to write about." ...I'm still in high school so I can't really say much. However, I read something by a writer (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/04/27/10-things-teenage-writers-should-know-about-writing/) that one doesn't necessarily need to major in English, Writing, Creative Writing to be a writer. I think that is a valid point. Saying they have NOTHING to write though? That seems a little extreme. My current, and favorite, English teacher says, "Everyone has something to write about" and I believe her. My Grandma, who never went on to have any education past high school and grew up in a town that barely exists anymore kept journal after journal and wrote pieces of a novel for herself. If there is one woman who shouldn't have had anything to write about it was her. Yet, she did.

"You should never write anything that takes place in a foreign country or a big city." I can understand why someone shouldn't write about places they've never been to (Again, Twilight I'm looking straight at you). It can make the locals very unhappy when you muck up their town/city/country. However, staying away from Big Cities and Foreign Countries all together? I don't think so. In one book I'm trying to read (as well as twenty others) The Painter from Shanghai, the author lives in America but has visited China, and Italy, and France several times and knows enough about the cultures in all of those places to keep it authentic (the main character lives at all of these places at one point). Could she get some details wrong? Probably, but doesn't every writer make some mistakes?

"You shouldn't be friends with too many other writers because they might steal your ideas." While there certainly might be some truth to this statement, as people are a vile disgusting lot (see previous entry), I don't see the point of it. I enjoy having other people who know what they're doing (or more importantly, what I should be doing) read over my work and give it a good honest critique. I'm happier when people tell me whats wrong with my work, then I can fix it and get better. Also, I think this has to do with quality of friends. If I kept certain people close to me I'd be worried about losing things too. However, if you have good friends they won't steal your work. For example, Dracula and Frankenstein written by two different people in the same group of friends. Took the same inspiration 'A Ghost Story' and ignited the Gothic Horror genre as we know it. I can see people might steal a kind of premise. But eventually every story boils down to roughly the same story.

SO Mr. Bigshot, I don't see your point. I didn't read your book, if this isn't what you meant by any of it correct me. Until then, I see your points as null and void.

The Internet Scares Me

2010-02-12T16:47:00.003-06:00

Woah. I read this story about this crazy chick who goes by the handle MsScribe. I can't get my mind off of it.

Before anyone asks, I'm not her in any way shape or form. I'm just an innocent bystander who found her story via hitting random on TV Tropes and coming across the sock puppet page. ( The MS Scribe tale is compiled wonderfully here: http://www.journalfen.net/users/charlottelennox/784.html.) Honest, at that time my involvement in fandom meant checking Mugglenet once a day (if not more) and Going to my first Midnight Book release. In 2003 I was 12-13ish, and far too shy on top of the fact I wasn't really allowed to join any websites at the time.

For those of you who subscribe to the TL;DR (Too long; didn't read) method of internet inquiry I'll do my best to summarize:

One Woman to Rule them all. One Woman to Find Them.
One Woman to rule them all and in the Darkness bind them.

I'm not exaggerating. One woman created (hold on let me tally) HOLY SHIT! Nearly 30 (probably more though as I'm sure I'm missing some) sock puppets. That's fake accounts for all those internet illiterate or naive. But not just the normal "OMG this person (who totally isn't me) is so fantastic isn't she?" way (which is usually executed with 1 puppet, of course she had many more) but ALSO in the "Wounded Gazelle" way. Self attack in order to gain sympathy (again usually one, maybe two. Oh no she had far more).

Why? For the sake of internet celebrity of course. Now, I'm sure we all want a little attention or 15 minutes of fame now and then. Some people are willing to go to more extreme lengths (Ala Baloon Boy, the White House gate Crashers, I call that Gate Gate).

But even in typing that I realized something. Now is the rest of the world interested in people doing stupid shit for the sake of fame. It's been happening on the internet for YEARS! Literally! Earth to real world, you think the internet is backwards and misinformed, look at yourself in comparison to what fandoms have been dealing with.

Which brings me to the title of this post, "The Internet Scares Me."

Because it does. In real life you have to do major stuff that can get you caught and reprimanded easily. The internet, not so much. All you have to do is not be overly obvious about the whole thing and you can become a BNF, which in the grand scale of internet celebrity I'm not sure where this lies. It took a grand total of six months for people to get suspicious of MsScribe and one more month to get serious accusations leveled at her. And THEN it takes a grand total of 3 1/2 years for her to finally disappear for good (kinda). It also takes about that long for people to accept and/or realize she's been pulling these stunts.

You know when your teachers told you the internet is the underbelly of society and that the worst of the worst are there and you scoffed? or at least were dubious because of the friends you made? Sometimes I wonder if that's true.

Yes, I know I can't trust EVERYONE out there, but I used to be optimistic.

I used to sit quietly in the back and observe to learn the rules of the game and be a respectful observer.

Now I'll sit back wondering how many of you are the same person.

Stage Fright

2010-02-10T15:19:00.003-06:00

SO I have my camera. Now I'm not sure I want to do this whole video blog thing. I know I can do it. I just feel uncertain of myself randomly.

Text provides anonymity that a video blog does not.

Yet, on the other hand, I'm an actress. Performing is nothing. I have a feeling I'll do this anyway. Just needed to write it out.

Moving Goalposts

2010-02-01T22:25:00.003-06:00

I wanted to be a Theater Major. My mother wanted me to do something practical.

I decide to be an English major, because I enjoy it and I can do anything. My mother decides I we're not getting any loans, because it would be silly and I couldn't do anything with an English Degree.

I took a journalism class and enjoyed it and the fame it brought. My mother took the credit and only enjoyed two of my videos.

I was going to pay for my own camera to start my vlog, but found a better model for cheaper online. My mother won't let me buy myself a camera until I actually put forth effort into creating it.

A Bigger Fish has just appeared in the area

2010-02-01T16:09:00.000-06:00

I'm going to start vlogging. Video Blogging for the hermits of the world.

Why? I hear some of you crying. Maybe...

Well, I'm funny when I get angry and when I gush. It shows in my writing, but I'm a better speaker than writer. This is the wise decision.

So, what does this mean for here? I will write either transcriptions or commentaries of the video blogs (like the commentaries for my old fanfic). I'll keep my personal life stuff here primarily. I have a feeling my friends will be more likely to see the videos, not these ramblings. Some of these rants I don't want friends seeing. Simple enough really. And I'll be doing my fanfic updates and reminders through here.

Day of the First blog? When I get my new camera.

And Now I'm Back, from Outer Space...

2010-01-31T22:04:00.001-06:00

I just walked in to find... nothing.

I apologize for not writing in.... 10 months. I have been writing, just not here. I was told that my blog hasn't updated recently enough and needs a refresh. I would like to point out that my twitter is linked and it updates regularly. :P Also I didn't go over a year without an update. I'm actually impressed.

I'm still writing fiction. That fanfic that attacked me a while a go is still being written. I had to take some time off. I thought taking a Creative Writing Class would help create writing time. It didn't. I didn't even finish my assigned writings for that class. I also hit a stumbling block on that story. I wrote a crap chapter that I just need to scrap and start over. I haven't yet because I keep hoping I can salvage it. I'll try and pull something out.

Been toying with an original series. It would need multiple books. Mystery/Scifi/Thriller. I've been watching a lot of X-files so you can probably guess what the Scifi aspect will be... If not, then you've been missing out.

Also I'm probably going to write an X-files/Doctor Who fic. I only found 4 on fanfiction.net. What I've got planned is fairly different from all of them. Mostly it'll star 9 instead of 10.

SO I'm procrastinating something else: ACC lit. I hate that class. I don't know why. I had a love/hate with ACC Rhetoric (writing) but this class is just pure hate. The only thing I'm looking forward to is starting Othello this week. And THAT'S only because I love Shakespeare and the Othello Rap.

EDIT: I just noticed a gross grammar error, that I fixed myself. I'm even getting better at grammar.

Cue Abortion Rant:

2009-03-15T21:04:00.000-05:00

To understand the following rant please follow these next few facts:

1. I HATE MASS EMAILS! Plain and simple, they rub me the wrong way. I don't send 'em (all but once). I don't like gettin' em. Sure I'll respond if I know something (for a survey) but usually it's a waste of my time. They are some of the first things to get deleted even when I'm not cleaning out my inbox.

2. I don't like misrepresented and/or falsified facts. I don't like 'quote mining.' I don't like not being able to believe something because an organization uses above tactics to try and prove another point. I also don't like it when people buy into said "facts" at face value.

3. I don't like it when people assume one thing automatically equals another. As it pertains to what I'm about to rant about I'll use the old AntiAbortion ALWAYS=ProLife. It doesn't. Being "ProLife" really means that not only do you think abortion is wrong, you refuse to believe in euthanasia, capital punishment (of anyone). You should also practice what you preach by, adopting a child of any age and of any ethnicity. You believe in Health Care for all, no matter what. Unfortunately in America many people don't see past the "oh dear we're killing cute little babies" part of the all inclusiveness of "Pro Life." A cute baby is easy to defend, grizzly prisoners...not so much. Some people just do the easy part and call it Pro Life.

So those facts being said I check my email today (after a loooong day), and what do I find? A Mass email, about how we should all send President Obama an empty red envelope with a cutesy little note on the back, urging him not to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (with an equally cutesy name of FOCA... makes me want to do jazz hands for some odd reason).

Now we get to the misrepresentation of facts bit (my favorite part): Anti Abortioners (I'll call them this because I don't know where most stand on other life issues) LOVE to cite the fact that Barack Obama once said "Well, the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" at Planned Parenthood. Iz teh evil demon and he shud be aborted rite? Uh no. While said quote is quoted correctly it should be looked at in the context of the (I assume) evening. He was asked a question about how he as President would protect a woman's right to choose, keeping the decision in her hands as opposed to the Previous Administration's "choice" to leave it to a bunch of politicians. The above is his response to the question. So his response means that it would be the first thing he'd do as President about abortion. AS of late he's been busy with the economy and hasn't dealt with FOCA or abortion much lately has he? So this point shouldn't even be a point, but it still gets brought up in annoying emails.

Now comes the "Oh, you're just ProChoice/ProDeath" bit. Well, no I'm not ProDeath, that would be highly illogical of just about anyone. I just can't in GOOD CONSCIENCE make abortion illegal for several reasons

1) Illegal abortions=dangerous abortions. In some ProLife tainted religion class we were told that abortions now are dangerous and can result in sickness or even death. Gee, what happens when they're no longer being performed in safe clinics or hospitals but in back alleys, backs of vans, peoples homes? Simple MORE people get sick or die because things are no longer sterile.

2) Let's say a woman has one or two illegal abortions. The maximum sentence in the State of Missouri(where I and my one reader live) for a premeditated murder is...Capital Punishment! I smell hypocrisy already. Some have argued, to me, that you should punish the doctor or whoever performed it, to which I point out anyone who hires a hit man also gets punished, usually worse.

3) I know that these are getting to be rare but if a mother would die in child birth leaving kids behind I think, as sad as it is, she should be able to choose to be a mother to the children she's already had instead of dying. Do I think it's the best situation (or even likely)? No, but should it occur a mother should be able to not have a baby.

4) If someone is raped they should be able to have an abortion. I've heard the 'destroying the evidence' argument, but listen: there are seminal fluids, pubic hairs and all sorts of other pieces of evidence the police find in a simple rape kit. Second even if all these other traces of evidence were not present DNA could probably (I'm not sure, but I think we can do genetic testing on unborn babies such as Downs Syndrome testing) be extracted before or (probably less likely) after abortion. And as my brother has said if a fourteen year old girl is raped she shouldn't have to carry the shame around for months. I've heard the "having an abortion causes twice as much pain" argument, but the only people I've heard it from have gotten so many other facts wrong I can't take it at face value anymore, and it disheartens me. I've heard the "there is only a 10% chance a woman can actually get pregnant while being raped" argument too, to which I respond, why yes 10%, doesn't sound like zero and that too has the taintedness of other wrong facts.

5) We don't adopt what kids we do have. I know several families who consider themselves "Pro Life" but haven't adopted a single child who needs a loving stable home. There are some who adopt a BABY from a foreign country, but we have several older children in need of homes in our own country as well who are left in the system until they are turned out on the street at 18. As cute as foreign babies are, we need to be able to provide homes for children in our own country as well.

Back to FOCA. I've heard FOCA is supposedly going to wipe out everything from freedom of conscience laws, sterilization of instruments and other crazy things, all of which is untrue, I'm not gonna go into it myself, the people at Snopes do a much better job= http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/choice.asp
Does it get rid of lots of limitations? Yes, but to me these only seem to be helping people stuck in bad situations. This Link also addresses common issues such as Catholic Hospitals and their stake, parental consent, partial birth abortion, and taxpayer funding. Really worth the read.

This is where I should end with either something witty or something powerful, but I suck at conclusions. They are my weak point.

If you want to argue, feel free. I am always up for a debate, but a few requests: when finding facts try to find them from a third party source, not a religious pamphlet (I'm sorry I just have issues trusting things that have lied to me); use facts not just beliefs (it'll be hard I know, really not trying to be facetious); read the snopes link (so I don't have to end up quoting it back to you anyway). That's about it. Also I don't take kindly to statements such as: "You should be aborted." etcetera. That only shows low brow hypocrisy and I won't have any of it.

Twittering away

2009-02-16T12:55:00.000-06:00

Okay so I officially have a twitter now:

https://twitter.com/Yarsian

Check it out if you like will try to update once or twice a day. Even if I don't update this quite as often I will make sure I twitter plenty

I haven't been updating 'cuz I've been told/assigned to write in a journal everyday (I Don't). I feel I should keep that updated first and foremost. But this is a link and this is therefore an acceptable update. So I keep telling myself.

Getting off Now!

That's MAJOR geek to you

2009-01-21T10:49:00.000-06:00

Great movie speeches

2008-12-18T21:00:00.001-06:00

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes @ Yahoo! Video

I personally enjoy the Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, and Bring it On Quotes, as well as footage from Angels in the Outfield/

Plot Bunnies hurt....

2008-12-01T19:42:00.000-06:00

Wow, as I sit here about to update my blog I notice my laptop's clock (which is usually no more than 5 minutes off) is a whole freaking 9-10 minutes off. I really hate my 3 year old, over used, slow, virus ridden laptop.... (Which I need so desperately I can't turn in to get fixed.)

As you can see last night a plot bunny, which I had encountered before and had only nipped lightly at my heels, FREAKING TRIED TO KILL ME! Seriously I couldn't sleep until I had been writing for like an hour. Here's how it tried to kill me. Because it attacked so late in the night my usual sleeping pattern was thrown off. Today in fourth period I nearly fell asleep, IN MY FAVORITE CLASS OF THE DAY! Really I could have understood any other class, heck even my study RIGHT BEFORE, but not that class. Then I took a nap for like an hour when I finally got home (had to work on Christmas drive stuff...).

What annoys me about the bunny though is I've been trying SO hard to write an original story, and I've really been putting effort into it. However this plot bunny was for a Seto/Anzu Fanfic... ARGH! I don't mind fanfic, I just realized I'll get published with an original piece, not a fanfic. Oh well, at least I'm writing, and I think I'm writing damn well too.

I recently finished up a big paper which is such a stress relief. Now I have to make a 3-5 minute presentation (Preferably a powerpoint I think...). We are supposed to talk about why we chose a neighborhood and why we took the angle we did, why we think it's cool, ect. Problem: I wrote about how crappy the neighboor hood was... Or more specifically I wrote about how shitty a planned community there is. So I don't know how I'll do the presentation, but it'll be interesting.

I'll write about my birthday later, but Heroes is almost on. :)

Let's call this procrastination

2008-11-17T20:28:00.001-06:00

Procrastinating on a paper about a creepy suburb of my major city in which I lives.

I found this over on Alicia Blade's Livejournal: The Holiday Wishes MemeStep One- Make a post (public, friends locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two- Surf around your friendslist (or friends friends, or just random journals, or [info]holiday_wishes) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1. Books on writing professionally
2. The Dark Knight on DVD, if it comes out before then... :(
3. 1776 on DVD
4. An episode of Doctor Who on Itunes (Preferably Season 1 or 2)
5. instructions on how to knit
6. A Blu-Ray player
7. Voice lessons
8. The Virgin Suicides on DVD
9. A Calendar (preferably Doctor Who, Twilight, SPN, Chuck, or Heroes)
10. David Tennant wearing only a decorative bow.... ;)

In other news I'm in a play my boyfriend is my father and in the script there is a spanking scene... Yeah, and I thought kissing for one minute and twenty seconds was awkward. My part is small, Louise in The Imaginary Invalid, and I was initially disappointed but then I realized out of the 4 girls cast I am probably the youngest and I also look the youngest. Which hey that'll be good if I still look the youngest when I'm 40. I'm playing a little girl. It's weird.

I'm not watching any of my shows tonight, I'm "working". Seriously though, I have been working hard. Mostly. It took me a while to get going. The teachers have given little to no direction and I'm scared shitless after my last paper. I know some of it had nothing to do with this kind of paper but still scared shitless. I've never had writer's block this bad. My boyfriend wrote my thesis statement and has basically helped me through my planning stages. So now all I have to do is write it and pray that it's good enough. Thankfully tommorow is only a rough draft AND I have study right before the class. YAY! The bad news is the final draft is due.......... On my Birthday. &)$&*^$#^&$%&!

Ooh I almost forgot TWILIGHT FRIDAY!!!!!!!!! Can't wait. Homecoming on Saturday, should be interesting.... Sunday maybe see Collin's show again 'cuz I'm just that nice. Wait I think I have rehearsal, lemme check..... Doesn't say. Oh well, maybe I don't have to see it again. It wasn't bad. I'm just biased.

My life sucks, lets make it worse!!!!

2008-10-29T12:49:00.000-05:00

Yeah I think I'm diving off the deep-end. Yet I'm doing so willingly.... What could I possibly do to make my life worse?

NaNoWriMo. I have decided I need to write more. Good. I'll soon be getting more time when Cross Country ends... Good. So I'm gonna write a 50.000 word novel in a month. WHAT? I honestly cant say I agree with my own decision. I've entered though, I have to try. I'm making character profiles. I had an outline, it needs tweaking (ei: changing from S/A fanfic to original story set in college). I'm comforted by the constant reassurances that I will be writing crap. I can get out what I need to actually turn it into a novel that could possibly be publishable. YAY! I also don't have to work Sundays anymore, so I have even more free time, except for this Sunday (an open house at school). I'm excited, this will be one of my first really long original work. I've been tweaking characters from their Yu-Gi-Oh counterparts into (very) different characters. Some characters are more different than others. Like I've made some characters very Catholic (a view of my ultraconservative friends). I've given some characters a parent when they had died (yes the Kaiba brother counterparts now have a father). I'm combining Joey and Tristan, sorry if you're a fan but really I don't need both of them (I think). I am giving Yugi a personality overhaul. You'll be able to see parts of Yugi in him, but I can't say how hard you'll have to squint. Seto has a dead girlfriend. Mokuba is a video-game addict. And Tea one of the few similar traits of hers is that she dances. This definitely takes place...in America. (Oh you saw the joke coming). And well the parents in the story will suck. They will be terrible parents. The one good parent, is dead.

As daunting as this task may seem I'm looking forward to it. I will try my hardest to do this, and if I don't quite hit 50,000 words I'll have written something.

WHY?????

2008-10-29T12:27:00.000-05:00

I can't even vote and I fail at life!

Wow.....

2008-10-18T23:39:00.000-05:00

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(18% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Insanity

2008-09-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Author's Note: Just a little rant I composed in the ten minutes or less between physics and Algebra. Also please note I am not sucicidal in any way.

I’m hovering on the edge of insanity. One minute I couldn’t be happier and the next I feel like God turned his back on me. I’m slowly slipping off the cliff and there are only a few people who can stop my hopeless slide. Unfortunately, none of them can help me in the middle of physics. Why’d I have to leave my stuff at home? I thought I grabbed it. Oh, Amy probably moved it on me. God really must hate me. What have I done? I’m trying my hardest and nothing I do seems to be good enough anymore. I’m falling further and further down into the deep black pit. I just want to scream at the top of my lungs DOES ANYBODY EVEN CARE ABOUT MY SANITY??? But I don’t, because I can’t. Because if I did, it would prove I’m crazier than I previously thought. I want to runaway and hide from school. If I dropped one thing I could make it through the rest. The problem being first and formost I have to attend school. Well, technically I could drop out, but that’s not likely and I want to finish high school. There is no way I’d drop the musical. That is my one shining beacon of happiness, the reason the other things haven’t dragged me past the point of no return. If I didn’t have the musical I’d be lost. However, my parents would absolutely refuse to let me drop Cross Country. A fire and brimstone hell is more likely to freeze over. Despite what I say I do like Cross Country, it’s just hard. I can’t quit my job because it’s rather apparent that Brian doesn’t regard e-mails as important. I could lose my job, I don’t need the money. I just don’t know how to quit. I haven’t really begun to do anything NHS related yet, I’m too busy doing all of my above listed things.

How Could I be right?

2008-08-05T17:56:00.001-05:00

Seriously, I've been right a lot lately. Seriously it's been scary. Things I have pulled out of my ass have been right lately. Well, let me explain. ((Note spoilers for everything I talk about))

Stolen Earth/Journey's End: The most amazing Doctor Who finale I have ever watched ever. Lot's of companions. Daleks. K-9. Naked David. Luke (sorry I loves the little guy). German. Former Prime Minister. Yes we know who you are. I loved this finale. I really did like Doctor 10.5 and I'm happy Rose got a Doctor all to herself. I've had to adjust a fanfic I'm writing but hey it will be easily done.

Speaking of fanfic remember WTUC? Yeah, I know I need to update. I will, when I can. But remember how the Doctor could get to Rose? When the universes are collapsing it's easier to get across? Made that up a looooooooooong time ago. I stirred up the theory a while before I wrote the story. Apparently that was the correct theory, because that's how it worked in the finale. Now I will admit I was wrong about slipping, but that was an even more of an ass pull. I didn't think that would really happen but in-story I needed a reason for the Doctor to go get Rose. So I just invented slippage. So except for slipping I was essentially right in my theory.

Now for another correct theory:

Breaking Dawn: I have an unpublished and unfinished Twilight fic that I never planned on publishing (because I thought it was just like every other bad fanfic out there). Oh side note, I'm trying to step away from reading/writing bad fanfic. Anywho, in unnamed bad twilight fic I had Bella get pregnant (surprise) and I said that male virgin vampires could get human girls pregnant and that female vampires were barren. Take out the word virgin in the entire previous sentence and you have a synopsis the first book of Breaking Dawn. yeah. one word off. Damn I'm good. How'd I do it? The world may never know.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that a lot of things that I believed would happen in Deathly Hallows did. I (eventually) became the biggest Snape truster in the universe. (What? As an emotional eighth grader I was pissed right after Dumbledore died, but one Snape is good theory had me convinced). I instantly knew Harry was a Horcrux. I had always believed it was going to be Ron/Hermiony. No HARMONY for me. You delusional freaks. Anyway, I always thought Snape liked Lily. And last but not least I thought a lot more than 2 people were going to die in Deathly Hallows. In case you forgot people thought only 2 people were going to die after JK said that she killed 2 people she hadn't meant to. The only thing I was wrong about in the book was I was convinced Hagrid and Harry were goners. Yeah wrong.

Now some people would think I'm trying to say I'm great author who knows every thing. No. No. No. No. You get that? I think I just happen to theorize and I've been getting lucky. Like I said about my twilight fic, I never thought it would actually happen, and then it did. *head shake* I'm sure I'll be wrong about something else. I've just been feeling weird lately about how right I've been. Oh Sometime soon I'm going to write about The Dark Knight soon.

Funny Vids Starring the Doctor

2008-08-05T16:36:00.001-05:00

Short pointless funny:

Epic

2008-07-16T22:16:00.000-05:00

LittleKuriboh has officially won the internet. Just watch. Really it's just that amazing.

Impressive right?

So yeah...

2008-07-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

Umm let's see where to begin???? So much has happened in so little time... Uhhh. Let's start with the bad and move on from there? Sounds like an idea to me/

So my job is officially going crazy. I work for Anheuser Busch. Well, I work at Grant's Farm, the ancestral home of the Busch Family and home of a good chunk (but alas not all) of the famous Clydesdales. So if you haven't heard AB got taken over by InBev!. I really don't know what to say about anything at this point. I don't think I'm really allowed to say anything, shame isn't it? Anyway, my job may or may not exist in a few summers... Damn. (Note: May update this later after I actually go into work after the takeover.)

Movingt On: I have three weeks to get my 2 mile time down to 17 minutes and 59 seconds or less. Yes Cross Country Season will soon be upon us. If you are religous please pray that in four weeks from today (July 15) that the weather will be absolutely beautiful and I will run my time trial with out fail. Oh God I think I need this more than my job right now...

On a lighter note: Happy Second Anniversary YGO:TAS! Congratulations on not only surviving, updating, but also being down right funny. Seriously episode 30: Sore = epic win! Phresh Pharoah of Bel Aire was pure comedic gold. Also props to TitanAura for "You'll Never Stop the Abridged" I loved that song, and I understand not being able to hit high notes easily, after all I'm an alto.

Yay: I told you guys I entered Alicia Blade's Writing Contest right? Well, I didn't win, but that's okay! I think she honestly liked my story. Here is the review she gave it in her newsletter: "The Best-Seller" by Brooke Johnson was a story that truly touched me, as a writer and a reader. It was one of those stories that follows you around long after you finish it and had me thinking about the continuation of love after death and how artists tend to live on in their works. Brooke's use of "phantom" was subtle and effective—over all, this was an extremely well-crafted story. So I think that's a good review. Also the story was completely original.

You know what? Here's the story:

“The Best-Seller”

I received a phone call from a TV show today. They want to interview me about the book. Who wouldn’t love to talk about a best-selling modern masterpiece? I couldn’t have been happier.

And yet paradoxically I couldn’t have been more heartbroken. As you know, the story isn’t mine. You wrote everything. The characters, the plot, everything, it was always yours. It was never mine. I only followed your outline.

You received your ‘inspiration’ shortly after our first anniversary. You tore the house apart looking for a blank note book and a pen. It had to be a pen you had said. That way even if you trashed an idea for this story you could keep it for later. For three days you scratched away at the notebook ‘outlining’ your ‘best-seller’. I thought you were just being childish.

You told me everything about the story, although many times I really didn’t want to hear it. I don’t care for fantasy. I definitely don’t care for romance, ‘chick novels’ is what I called them. But you continued to ‘bounce’ your ideas off me. I told you what I honestly thought. And yet you seemed to appreciate it, even when I wasn’t that helpful or, let’s be honest, hurtful. Some great husband I was.

And one day you sat down at your computer, and began typing away. The rapid fire clicking and clacking of keys nearly drove me off the edge. It was nigh impossible for me to work. I’d always ask you to type softer, and you did, being the loving wife you were, for a half-hour or so, but then you’d be right back at it. I hated that you know. Oh, you knew all right and you’d apologize and move into the other room. You always said you did it for love. Love keeps us going you always said.

Love. That’s what got you killed. You just had to go and visit your mother that day didn’t you? You just had to arrive in time to see the smoke billowing out of the kitchen. You couldn’t have just waited for the firemen could you? Oh, no, you had to go running in and try to save her. You loved her too much to let her die. So you died instead of her. Which, that didn’t do much good because she was so grief stricken that she killed herself.

Maybe she had the right idea. I tried, many times, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it or as luck would have it we wouldn’t have what I wanted. I was mysteriously out of ibuprofen the first time. The second time all the knives were hidden in the part of the cabinet I forgot to search. Little instances like that were the only things that kept me going.

Then one day I found something else. I opened up your computer and there it was, your unfinished ‘masterpiece’, the cursor blinking as if it expected you to begin typing again. You wouldn’t begin typing though, you’d never move again. You’re six feet underground. You couldn’t reach a computer if you tried.
But I could reach a computer, and I knew the story. But, that was insane, I knew nothing about writing, but sitting there it was almost as if my fingers began moving on there own. I slowly began writing your story. You always complained of writer’s block but every time I came across a difficult part I’d suddenly know exactly how you would want to write it.

I finished the story three weeks after I began typing it. That seemed faster than you ever wrote, but that may have happened because I didn’t sleep or go to work. Astonishingly though I didn’t actually need the sleep. Of course after I finished I collapsed into a heap on my bed, and slept for 2 days.

I sent it into a few companies. I sent a letter explaining the circumstances surrounding the novel’s being written, hoping they’d understand. They did. I received offers from all the companies finally deciding on one simply because I was drawn to them for some unexplained reason.

The book climbed to tops of charts within days. Within weeks the publishers had to print more copies than they originally anticipated. People wanted interviews and press conferences and I turned everyone down. I couldn’t talk about your book. It wasn’t mine to talk about.

Which brings us back to this phone call, this show’s offer is different. They want to talk about you and your writing. I want to say no. I can’t talk about you, I can’t. It hurts too much. And yet a calm feeling washes over me as the word “yes” escapes my lips.

Uh yeah so that's All I have to say for now.

Songs (Simply because I couldn't choose which one was more appropriate): Phresh Pharoah of Bel-Aire by Little Kuriboh; and You'll Never Stop the Abridged by TitanAura

Batman!

2008-07-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

All I'm gonna say is that I can't wait for this movie. Really, I can't.

Look it's Springtime

2008-06-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

AND NOW IT'S..... Springtime for Hitler and Germany.... I'm seeing The Producers tonight! Summer in my city has officially started. The Muny has opened. YAY! I can't wait to see The Producers! I love the old movie (with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder). I have never seen the musical version so this will be an interesting adventure for me. Well, I've seen one part of the new movie, over and over and over. But ONLY because John Barrowman is in it, and he's the beautiful man beautifully singing "Springtime". God he has a voice of an angel.

SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR WHO FINALE: Came across an interesting picture yesterday. From left to right we have Sarah Jane Smith, Mickey Smith (No relation), Jackie Tyler, Rose Tyler, The Doctor, Martha Jones, Donna Noble and in front, Captain Jack Harkness. Wow, doesn't that picture just look cool, I mean despite the low resolution it rocks. I think Harriet Jones is also coming back. I don't know what they'll do about her, seeing as she should be really ticked at the Doctor. Oh andI think I heard that Davros is confirmed to be returning in the finale. YAY! For my one blog reader it would be like getting YED back after years of him being hinted at. I love Davros, though I have only seen him in one six-part serial he had me scared shitless. Genesis of The Daleks, if you want to know, is one of my favorite old series stories, but the only other I've seen is Pyramids of Mars, another great serial, but no Daleks. Daleks rule. I'm sorry but they have been around forever and I don't think they've really suffered from to much villain decay. They are just timeless. They seem so cheezy, but whenever some one bashes them and their plungers they just suck your face right off. Cheezy and angry indeed. I think the best thing about this whole picture is Jackie is the only person who looks downright terrified, which if you think about the characters if someone said look an alien she'd be the only person to immediately react with fear.

I know I cursed George Lucas, but the more I think about it the more I think Indiana Jones 4 was an all right film. Shia LeBeouf was spectacular. I wish Sean Connery would have appeared for a few minutes, other than just Indy looking at his picture. It was an intriguing change from magic to scifi, but I read to honor the B movies of the 50's they made it scifi instead. In the 30's it was the adventure archaeologist where as the fifties had spaceships and aliens. It all makes sense now. Shall post soon with my thoughts on The Producers, until then:

HEIL myself!

Eep!

2008-03-28T17:38:00.000-05:00

I'm freaking out here! I'm losing my frakking mind! AHHHHH! Okay today has been one long roller coaster for me and my writing today....

It started when I was wandering around Fanfiction.net and I thought "Ooh I'll see if that great Sailor Moon Fanfic by Alicia Blade updated recently..." So I go to look and it hasn't updated, BUT she had a long one shot so I figured "What the heck after my shower I'll settle down with a good cup of tea and read it." So I showered, dressed, made a cup of English Breakfast Tea and started reading away. (here's a link if your interested and since it's VERY AU you don't have to really know Sailor Moon to get it http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4145061/1/Luna_version_42 Any way read it, found it beautiful and noticed something, Alicia Blade got her own website. I Immediately check it out here http://www.aliciablade.com. Searched around a bit and really enjoyed my experience. Alicia Blade is truly amazing and I read some of her bits about the writing process. It got me all inspired and I instantly dove back into my unnamed Seto/Anzu fic. This was my high of the day.

My low came when I was searching around the New Amsterdam forums (which by the way are so addictive)when a link came to this post http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com/2007/07/emily-posts-guide-to-save-our-show.html. So I began to poke around the blog of Writerboy (found here http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com) When I came across this post http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/wherein-kirk-and-spock-make-man-love.html. If you don't want to read the whole thing its understandable but to get my feelings. Anyway, that left me feeling uncreative, angry at myself and him, ashamed and just down right bad. I'd like to think I'm not infringing on copywrited material when I write but the more I delve into how fanfic is viewed by others the worse and worse I feel. I know fanfic isn't the most creative outlet in the history of the world, but it's not all bad. I've read many a good fanfic, but I am fully aware of the crap that's out there. Sometimes I need to get these things out there. I don't feel entitled, I don't think Russel T. Davies was WRONG for sending Rose away, I don't feel I could come up with better ideas, I won't want to fix Supernatural if Dean dies, I don't think that a writer would use a fanfic written by someone else. I would like to entertain the few people who do actually think my writing isn't half bad. However I remember the reaction to when the SS Harmony sank (FYI the nickname for Harry/Hermione shipping) and how people got mad and think that good ol' JK got it wrong. I think the truly rabid fans with bad punctuation, crazy ships and overall insanity give us all a bad name. I won't say Fangirls because Fanboys are just as crazy, albeit over completely different things (Yes, you stuffy concieted posters at Outpost Gallifrey who think New Who is crap I'm talking to you.) and well, I've read guy written fiction and it's very good, technical but good (a perfect example is one of my favorites on my fanfiction.net page called The Truth Behind the Blue Eyes. Note the excessive details in the duels to get what I'm saying about technical). The crazies make the sane ones look bad, kinda like in religions... Fanfic, a religion... Weird. Anyway, now I don't know how I feel about fanfic. I think I'll keep writing it but I'll try to write some original stuff. Moving off this mindless rant.

Anyway as I said above I am addicted to the New Amsterdam Forever forums, which coincidentally also host some Doctor Who forums. I'm Yarsian over at the blue whale pub. Feel free to talk to me if you want. Now if you don't mind please keep your TV on Fox Monday nights from 8-9 to help our ratings, they aren't bad, we're just taking a preemptive strike against anything bad. I am leaving my TV in my room on New Amsterdam and watching it downstairs in HD. Spread the New Amsterdam word. John Amsterdam has lived for 400 years, lets try and make it at least 401!

Hey a long time ago I promised some running stories and have I got one for you. So I had a track meet Monday. I was supposed to run the 1600 meter and that was it. Well as you've probably guessed this isn't as simple as that. Oh no, far too easy right? So I arrive plenty early for the Sophmore and Freshmen only meet. Being the only Sophmore who runs Middle distance I decide to check in with the freshmen of my squad. Only half of them were there... A tells me that AM won't be there till 5... which is great since you know the meet starts at 4 and she's in the first race, the 4x800 meter relay. I tell the coach I know, K, and she calls the Middle Distance Coach DM. He's gonna have me sub in for AM on TOP of my 1600. Okay, my 1600 won't be amazing but hey its the first meet of the season. I'm leading my team in warm-ups when DM finally shows up. He's upset because the 4th member of the relay, J, probably won't be at the meet. He's snappy and bitchy but I put up with it, just smiling and nodding. After the rest of warm ups he asks us if we want to go through with the race and if so who would want to run two legs. Both freshmen say the don't want too before I can say "Not Me". So I say that I could but I can't make promises on my next mile. He's getting mad at all of us. I think he was being unfair, I kept telling him I could do it if necessary. He finally tells me to go scratch our team. I do so. Right as I get back into the stands AM finally shows up and coach re-enters our team. We enter past the last minute. I didn't even have time to change into my sweet track spikes. I run a decent 3:12 800, my time could have been better but the 800 is too short for my taste anyway. I think we came in last for the relay, but hey how many teams went through the shit we did?

But wait, It gets better! So while AM is running the last leg A starts walking over to me and C is sitting on the ground. (Oh just to clarify here is the order of who ran, C,ME,A,AM) A starts to puke.. It was yellow and slightly see through. I turn to the stands and shout to the first person I see, "DAD!" I start flailing my arms. I finally see the coach K and I motion for her to come over and I also shout, "A puked!" As I look back to attend to A C starts in with her own vommitting... Hers looked like mexican food. K finally gets over and starts taking care of my teammates. AM finally finishes her 800 and Coach DM makes his way over. He starts laughing, he has a weird sense of humor. Anyway he tells me to lead AM and A on a recovery jog since AM and I feel fine and A had started to feel better. Well after about 20 feet A falls back, I later find out she's puking again.

So after that mess I'm waiting in the stands because I have some time before I need to prepare for my 1600. I'm hanging with my freshmen crew because all my sprinter friends are well, sprinting. DM then asks if I can take C's place in the 200 meter x 200 meter x 400 meter x 800 meter relay. I say sure. It would be after my 1600 and therefore suck, but hey whatever. I lead AM on a warm up for a 1600 (yes after running an 800 i need to warm up for the 1600. The race actually went really well, on a strict time basis I got a 7:12, which with finishing last season with a 7:00 isn't bad at all. But the best part of the whole race was well, my race. There's no way to put this in words, but I'll try. When I was racing (this time with my sweet silver spikes) I saw people and thought, 'I can pass her' and then I would. I did this a lot through out the race and I came in 5th out of 10. A number I can count on one hand! WOW!! I was in the top half. YAY!

Anyway I hung out with the sprinters who were in the 2x2x4x8 with me. I realized somehting, sprinters do not warm up like I do. They thought I'd get tired from the warm ups I was doing but I don't think I warmed up enough actually. This 800 was much slower at a 3:20 and I believe we came in 4th, but when I got the baton we were in 3rd. I felt terrible after that last run. I wanted to crash down hard. But then again I was the only person who had run 1 1/2 miles already. At least now I think the head coach appreciates me andDM kept mentioning my exploits at practice on tuesday.

Well, I think this post is long enough for now.

Song of the Day- In the End-Linkin Park (just bought on Itunes, love it!)

PS: I tried to make all of those links above HTML but it wasn't working... Sorry :)

All TV All April

2008-03-21T09:23:00.000-05:00

Hello Nurse! Just thought I'd start with an Animaniacs reference. I loved that show, and I've been watching season 1 on DVD, good times. Though the humor is kind of dated I still enjoy watching it. Somethings never get old.

So last weekend was pretty interesting. I got 3 pairs of shoes. I got some track spikes. It was tough deciding which ones to get. The grey and green ones were lighter but the pink ones were sturdier and, well pink. I went with the grey ones though. I also got some jazz shoes. They are black and cool looking. I don't know how much I'll actually use them but now I at least have them and don't have to borrow shoes from minx. I also got flip-flops 'cuz I don't have a pair that fit anymore, and I got the matching bag! YAY!

Now On to TV News! On TV I watched a movie, I had no idea what it was called though. I loved the movie. The characters seemed like real people, they made bad decisions and didn't always know everything in a believable way. Not like being completely oblivious, just not having all the information about other people. I finally found out it's called Loser. If you ever get a chance check it out.

Smallville last night was interesting, let me rephrase that The past two weeks Smallville's have been interesting. I watched this weeks and last weeks last night. Last weeks was just a big Stride gum commercial and rather boring. Pete came back, but that's not as exciting as Oli's one episode return. Last nights was a little weird. I don't mind the whole new secret orginization, or the randomly shot female, And I especially didn't mind Chief from battlestar galactica's minor role as the crazy military guy. I did mind the whole return to evil Lionel. Evil Lionel is dead, it'll soon reveal he's either not evil or he is. If he's evil I think the writers are taking him in the opposite direction of where he was going. I hope He's still good or at least leave him hanging on the edge. A sometimes evil Lionel makes sense but a return to pure evil lionel is just wrong.

Now I have some amazing news about an amazing week! So April 3rd is the triumphant return of Supernatural reruns to our screens! Yay and what not! Hooray. Go sam and dean! BUT it gets better! Battlestar Galactica's Fourth and Final season starts the next day, April 4th!!!!! Huzzah! SO SAY WE ALL! HOWEVER it gets best on the Fifth of April, for on that day......THE DOCTOR COMES BACK!!!!!! Well in Britain anyway. We get it the 18th of April. WE'RE only 2 weeks behind!! I can live with a two week delay. I may read wikipedia, but here I will swear not to watch the episodes online. In the gap between 3 days of Fantasticness/magnificence and the American Doctor Who premiere comes the American premiere of Sarah Jane Adventures. Boo Ya! So I'm happy, I think I'll be on cloud nine that whole week.

Well, that's all for now. I have spring break so I should be writing a bit more often.

Song of the Day- All Along the Watchtower- By whoever did the version at the end of BSG Season 3

New Post, New Amsterdam

2008-03-16T12:37:00.001-05:00

Okay I bet you can guess what I want to talk about, NEW AMSTERDAM!!! It's that new show on Fox and I love it. I even found a sweet Fansite with full length episodes. it's called newamsterdam-forever.com and its pretty sweet. While the show has a lot of similarities to certain Doctor Who thoughts on immortality it doesn't feel stale or overdone. It just feels cool. John Amsterdam is sexy too. I do watch for the plot don't worry. It's just the right blend of crime solving and Time travel that makes me happy. As a kid I loved CSI, Without A Trace, and Cold Case. I still watch some real crime shows like American Justice, Cold Case Files, Snapped and Captured. I love crime shows but CSI is on at the same time Supernatural is and I just can't let Supernatural go. Anyway watch New Amsterdam, it will change your life.

Now on to fanfic news! Okay posted another chapter of WTUC and finished the next. I know where I want to go but getting there is difficult because well I'm getting bored. Don't worry I will finish the story. I'm thinking 4-6 chapters more and the story will be finished. I know what will happen in each chapter and what everything is leading towards. *sigh* It's all coming to a close.

Umm I don't know if I should be happy about this or not but I've already got my next big project down. I mean I have a for page outline! 4 pages! thats 3 more than my research paper. My biggest shock is that's its a Yu-Gi-Oh! fic... A Seto/Anzu fic to be precise. I've been wanting to write a Azure ship fic for a while but I couldn't use an overused plot device. Finally my boyfriend suggested, "Lock 'em in a room together!" and well a plot bunny attacked. I'm currently writing the first chapter. I'm trying my hand at first person perspective, more precisely Tea's perspective. Oh speaking of Tea I'm having trouble deciding Japanese names or American names. While Joey is much easier to type then Jonouchi certain names like Tea and her ever complicated accent mark. Anzu also just sounds prettier. I'm leading more toward Japanese but if anyone has an opinion on the matter feel free to tell me. This fic will also be another experiment for me, in...well...(if you don't want toknow the plot look away)...SMUT! There I said it the fic will be totally smutty. Like I said it's an experiment.

My reasearch paper is going better than I thought. It's terrible but it could be worse.

42nd Street didn't go too badly, considering we had one full run before the show. Our opening night was terrible but after that it picked up. Guys and Dolls is going well now.

My body is slowly breaking down. I'm losing speed, not style. That goes on flourishing forever. ((Sorry couldn't resist Evita reference). Seriously though I have been ill a lot lately. I had pink-eye last week and this week I have a kidney and/or bladder infection. The worst part about the infection is that I know that I have it before it'll show up on any test. I know my symptoms and how these present themselves before the doctors do.

Song: In Her Eyes- Josh Groban (listen to this song! it's amazing)

Fantastic!

2007-12-05T20:43:00.000-06:00

I switched off Deal or No Deal. It was driving me crazy. This post has been in waiting a long time. It is a big deal. I have been waiting for this for what seems like ever. I didn't think it would really happen. Oh, I hoped, I wrote, I dreamed but in all reality I didn't think it would happen. It was deemed impossible. It was beautiful and tragic. I was beginning to think I'd move on but now I'm not going to. Well, unless something else happens, but not now. I have to wait and see. Now I'll stop talking vague and tell you my exciting news.

ROSE TYLER IS COMING BACK!!!

Here is the official report from the BBC.

Billie Is Back!

Rose Tyler returns for Series Four.
Following a series of unconfirmed reports across the media this morning, we're delighted to officially confirm that Billie Piper will return as Rose Tyler in Series Four of Doctor Who.
Anything you may read elsewhere about when, how or for how long Rose returns to Doctor Who should be treated as pure speculation at this point.

Look She's on the set!

OMG ROSE!!!! Like I said didn't think it would happen. It has made me so happy. It has made my sucky life so much better. It made me literally shake so hard I couldn't type write for the rest of the day (it was only 10 more minutes but hey you wouldn't have known had I told you). I couldn't sleep I was ecstatic, euphoric, perfectly happy, fantastic. It was great.

The nice thing is the Return of Rose has made me twice as creative as I had been. I have been writing a new fanfic. I haven't finished it. I think it will be a one shot. I could continue it but until I finish it and I edit it I don't even know where it[a sequal or second chapter] would go yet. I thought of how to end the story just now. I will warn you this fic will be angsty. I'll be listening to my angst playlist. Or I would if I hadn't deleted it. I can just remake it. I have also started rewriting an unpublished fic. I've been working on rewriting and editing it non stop. Don't worry that one is pretty light. Some angst here and there but not nearly as angsty as my other story. My fic on ff.net isn't angsy at all, or is it? The Doctor is certainly feeling angsty but oh I don't know. Don't worry I'm not suicidal. I'm just deep. My Sailor Moon Fic might be on fanfiction.net soon. I'll look it over again. It isn't angsty. It is full of sexual tension though. If your a Sailor Moon fan answer me one question season 1 type romance or after stars. If you're not a fan you can say one either way.

I have a quote of the day: Sad is happy for deep people. (This is an attempt to explain my emo-ness earlier)