Summer movies

I watched Prince Caspian and Across the Universe yesterday.

Watch Narnia for an entertaining movie, but not because you love the books. Also, I thought the prince was a huge wimp.

I continue to be a fan of Eddie Izzard, who happened to be in both films. I liked Universe, but feel like I should watch it again before I decide how much.

Song of the Day

"Revolution" by the Beatles. Last night I watched Across the Universe for the first time. Now the songs are stuck in my head and I have a new appreciation for the music of the Beatles. I liked a few of their songs before and now like a couple more. I think that the actors in the movie did a better job with several of the songs. Aside from a couple of over the top phychedelic moments I recommend it.

Best Presidents' Day by far

Over 800 miles in four days
In a wet and moldy car
With a friend I see every day
To visit a friend we haven't seen in a while

The CD player was annoying
Lisa read aloud from Unreasonable Behaviour
I tried to turn up her volume
It did not work

I had Irish cream
But not in coffee
To celebrate St. Paddy's Day
He is better than St. Valentine

After grilled cheese, we visited the ocean
Played in the waves and on the rocks
Then looked at Tom Cruise while eating burritos
Before learning where the blood will be

We ate ice cream at Billy's
And felt like small children
But we beat Oregon
And later mocked a stupid truck

I visited home
To de-mold my car
So my friends could visit my farm
Where a goat skull greeted us

Later there were guns and a goose
Thumbless emus and a green egg
We visited the bone yard
My father offered Jacob a cow pelvis

We began our return early
Got giant pancakes at The Rusty Tractor
Lisa took someone's drink (by accident)
Adventure over, we made it back in time for work

Tale of the Tudors

Winter Break Post 3 - sometime over break

As I was tucking my youngest sister into bed last night, she asked me if I had heard of the book, The Other Boleyn Girl. I said of course I had. It’s a book involving King Henry VIII. “Did you know they’re making a movie from it,” she asked. That bit of information I did not know.

I have had a fascination with King Henry VIII since middle school. One of my expository speeches during high school was on him and his wives. I wrote a 14 page paper on his second and my favorite of his wives, Anne Boleyn, during my senior year. Last year I wrote an 18 page paper interpreting Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale as the story of Anne Boleyn. Over the years I’ve continued to learn more about Henry and his wives as I find his story to be an intriguing one.

I have mixed feelings about the author Philippa Gregory. I was excited to read a book set during the Tudor period of England. She seemed to find Henry’s story just as interesting as I did. I enjoy her books. On the other hand, I feel like she beat me to the punch. I doubt that when I grew older I would have written books about Henry VIII, but it was a daydream I had more than once in my years. Now if I did it, I would feel like I was just copying her. Similarly, I’m excited for the movie, because I did like that book, but I also think I’ll be a little bitter about it.

I didn’t think I was the only one in the world who knew about King Henry VIII, but I knew more about him than anyone else I knew. It was an interest that made me unique. Now, with the popularity of her books and possibly the movie, more people will be familiar with the tale and my knowledge on the subject will no longer make me stand out.

I will continue to read her books and I plan on seeing the movie, but I want it known, for the record, that I liked and knew about King Henry and his wives before they became popular entertainment.

Not Traditional, Yet Nostalgic

One of my favorite Disney movies is Lilo & Stitch. I watched it today after not having seen it for a while and about half way through the movie I remember thinking "man, I forgot how good this movie is." It truly is fantastic. The artwork alone is breathtaking. If you haven't seen it I suggest you do so. This movie is not just for children to enjoy. I happen to enjoy all (well almost all) Disney movies, but this one has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, that allows anyone to find something special in it.

If you don't feel like watching it then I suggest you at least listen to the score which is magnificent. The best thing to do would be to watch the movie, buy the score, listen to it a bunch of times, then go watch the behind the scenes feature on the DVD. It shows the orchestra recording the music along with the movie and if you are an ex/current band geek like me you will think it's awesome.

The artwork in the movie is spectacular. The watercolor backgrounds are perfect for a movie set in Hawaii. The colors are vibrant and the shapes are indeed "soft and friendly." The design of the movie is truly different from every other Disney movie you have seen. If I can suggest one more thing it would be that you watch the movie once to understand the story, then watch it a second time and this time look at the backgrounds, and the colors, and the shapes.

Please do not just blow this off as some kid's movie. It's that attitude that keeps us from enjoying many aspects of life. I will now leave you with two very related quotes that I adore. "Never lose your childish enthusiasm and things will come your way." "No matter what happens, always keep your childish innocence. It's the most important thing." Trust me.

Song of the Day

"Merry Unbirthday" from Alice In Wonderland

A Question For The Audience

Do you have a happy movie? I suppose it could also be referred to as a sad movie. What is the one movie you watch when you are sad or sick or depressed? That movie you watch when you want to feel happy. It might be the movie that makes you cry and get it all out or the movie that makes you laugh hysterically and forget about what's troubling you. Is it The Fox and The Hound? Is it Gone With The Wind? What? Tell me.

This is mine.

Our Friday Night: Part Three

The next stop was the cinema in the mall. On the way over we discussed the ridiculousness of the self scanner. Then I realized that I would have to sneak my grapes and candy and big bottle of GatorAid into the theatre. According to Ali, the people at the new theatres are very persnickety about letting people in with outside food. We were going to buy the tickets then find a bathroom so I could wash my grapes off, but realized that the rest of the mall is closed at 10PM. So, we just walked in and nobody cared. We went into the bathroom and I rinsed off my grapes and shook them vigorously to get the water off. I wasn't satisfied with just shaking them so I stuck them under the hand blow drier, which basically just happened for laughs because it didn't accomplish much.

We then made our way into our designated theatre and wouldn't you know it it was deserted. We got our prime choice for seats (second section, first full row, right in front of the bar). We chatted for a few seconds about how wonderful it was that we had avoided the scary Harry Potter fans then each pulled out our favorite magazine from my Top Foods bag and read in silence. Thanks again Christina. It's great that we don't have to talk to each other when we are together. We are perfectly happy hanging out in silence. I also found our magazines amusing. Christina chose Cosmopolitan and I chose Every Day with Rachel Ray. They are so opposite from each other, and at the same time reflect our personalities which are also opposites.

Continuing my observations ...

As I've said before, all I really do at work is think about things and/or make observations. Some of today's observations:

I work with a Rick, Roy, Richard, Ray, and Ryan. That's a lot of R-names working together in a small vicinity.

I like wearing nail polish to work because it's about the only dressing up I can do. I fell in love with a color Ariel has and bought a bottle of my own. I ate grapes today with my lunch. The nail polish was exactly the same color as the red grapes. I thought it was weird.

I've seen a lot of 3s this summer: Spider-man 3, Pirates 3, Shrek the Third, Ocean's 13, and though technically it was a 5th and not a 3rd, Harry Potter. What's with the 3s?

Today I also reinforced in my mind that I am a nerd. I replay bad/embarrassing/regretful memories a lot more often in my mind than I replay happy/fond ones. I realized this in the middle of a bad memory. I became determined to think about some happy ones instead. What came immediately to my mind, but of course, different moments from debate tournaments. Can't get much happier than debate.

Don't watch Shooter with a shooter.

My cousins came over this morning because they had rented Shooter with Mark Wahlberg and thought my father might enjoy watching it. My sisters and I watched as well. My father couldn't turn off his commentary setting.

"They're doing it all wrong. Where's the sun guard for the gun."

"Why are they running? Do they want to die? They'd be better off staying absolutely as still as possible." (They were running from a helicopter)

"Hey, maybe they did go through sniper training after all. Bound to get something right eventually." (In reference to the placement of the finger on the trigger)

It only continued. This made me remember why I never watch movies about cops, swat teams, drug busts, or snipers with my father.

The movie was a typical action movie, except for a bit more outspoken with the political criticisms. I found it enjoyable but not anything extraordinary.

11,13,12

My thoughts:

Ocean's 13 better than Ocean's 12 but not as good as Ocean's 11. Characters from 12 would have been well suited for larger roles in 13, but their potential was apparently overlooked. 13 also had much fewer surprises than the previous two, but had a closer feel to 11 than 12 did.

I'm satisfied with what I've seen. Let us hope there will be no Ocean's 14.
(It was accidental but after I realized it, I liked it, so I kept it.)

"He can call me a flower if he wants to"

Christina and I watched Bambi on Sunday night. We were going to watch Aladdin but during the previews, which you have to watch on old movies because they're great, there was one for Bambi. We started throwing out our favorite Bambi quotes and then with a pitiful face I asked "Do you wanna watch Bambi?" "Yeaaah," Christina replied with an equally pitiful face. So we did. And yes, it's still sad.

217 Days Down, 14 To Go

I went home this weekend for the holiday. It was wonderfully perfect timing. I made it 8 full weeks without going home, which is a record. Last term after 5 weeks I was starting to show signs of depression and the doctor sent me home. The term before that I had to come home after about 4 weeks, so for me 8 weeks is amazing. I actually might have made it the whole 10 weeks without going home, but I didn't want to stay here either.

I went and saw Pirates with my mom and sister. I think I give it a C+. I got to hang out with Christina too, which was swell. I went to the cemetery with my mama like we do every year to decorate the graves of my grandma, grandpa, aunt, and great grandpa. I didn't get a chance to blog because my computer at home is really slow. I also went back to Big 5 to see if I could line up a summer job. They were actually really excited to see me and it looks like I will be working there.

I thought I would be okay coming back, emotionally. I think the next two weeks are going to be hard. Coming home this weekend was like a false sense of finality. Even though I knew I had to come back to Corvallis, I felt like I was done. It's strange because I thought I had gotten stronger but as soon as I got into Oregon I felt instantly tired and testy. Two and a half hours later...still tired and testy.

Only two more weeks.

The Day of Our 100th Post

I didn't realize that this was the 100th post of our blog until I signed in to write a post. I didn't have anything spectacular planned. The original title was going to be My May 11. I was just going to recap what I did today, on this day where our blog reached its 100th post. I wish I had something better. Perhaps Ariel can do a magnificent 200th post to make up for this one. So today ...

I woke up and drove my sister to the airport. I then sat with her in the airport for two hours. I tried to teach her to play cribbage, but she grew impatient. I turned to reading instead. Only 50 pages left of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

I drove back from the airport. Traffic was horrible. I had to drive in the stop and go traffic with my heat on full blast to cool off my engine. Otherwise my car may have burst into flames.

I went out to dinner and a movie with my father. We picked up a couple Snapple teas when we put gas in the car. From my cap I learned, " 'Tsiology' is anything written about tea." My father's cap had "Real Fact # 89: The average American walks 18,000 steps a day."

The whole world is a little bit smarter thanks to Snapple.

At Applebees for dinner, they overcooked my father's steak so they gave him a new one and didn't charge him for either. It was quite nice of them.

We saw Spiderman 3. It is a looooooooong movie. It feels like a looooooooong movie. And I had such high hopes ...

But all in all, it was not a bad day for a 100th post I suppose.

"Frankly My Dear..."

You know those movie quotes that you would love to say to someone in context if given the opportunity? Here are a few of mine.

• "I will literally break your shit off if you ever touch me again. Mmkay Pumpkin?" ~Hitch
• "Tricky fish! TRICKY FISH!" ~Lilo & Stitch
• "I tried to give you my good looks but lets face it...something went wrong." ~ Lilo & Stitch
• "Stop kicking that mackerel!" ~ Alice in Wonderland
• "May I just say enchanteé señorita to you!" ~ Rescuers Down Under
• "We're gonna have to make connections with a bigger bird." ~ Rescuers Down Under
• "I'VE BEEN SKEWERED!" ~ Rescuers Down Under
• "You are not having sex on this stage!" ~ Miss.Congeniality
• "That sounded a little ocra-ish. Did that sound a little orca-ish to you? Maybe I should try humpback." ~ Finding Nemo
• "I'm H2O intolerant." ~ Finding Nemo
• "I'm surrounded by idiots." ~ The Lion King
• "I know this place like the back of my hand...[looks at hand] Hey, that's new." ~ Robots

I crack myself up.

Following the IMDb Game

Guess the movie and I'll tell you if you're right.
I've added more clues. *#10's clues changed on IMDb when I went to get more clues...

1. Virgin Mary/Lover/House/Woman (Under The Tuscan Sun - Christina)
2. Love Triangle/Dead Brother/Gold Mine/Child Kidnapping
3. Con Artist/Caper/Mastermind/Perfect Crime (Ocean's Eleven - Mr.A)
4. Sibling/Piano/Parent-Child Relationship/Snobbery
5. Pirates/British Empire/No Opening Credits (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - Josh)
6. Judo/Romantic Comedy/Martial Arts/Heiress/Ellis Island New York (Hitch - Christina)
7. Character's POV Camera Shot/Disney/Turns Into Animal/No Opening Credits/ Magic (Beauty and the Beast - Todd)
8. Self Sacrifice/Teen/Heroine (Little Mermaid - TRP)
9. Police/Car/Death/Shoot/Accident/Mini Cooper (The Italian Job - Christina)
10. Brother Sister Relationship/Color Remake of B & W Film/Mirror/Librarian/Shot to Death (The Mummy - Christina)