It's a Christmas day!

Happy Thursday! I've been saying that all day, and I think I said "Merry Christmas" like maybe three times. I even wore my new Classy Thursday pants, because they were classy and also because they were brown. Still are! In fact. I also got this sweet gray camo shirt. I guess I really like gray camo.

FULLTIME KILLER from Carolyn! Finally! Now we can all enjoy it!!

Along the same lines, SMOKIN' ACES from my folks, although I picked it out of the 7.99 rack at Blockbuster last week. Darn, I just realized I should have bought it on my discount. Silly me.

The entire series of SUPER FRIENDS from my brother. So wacky. Invisible planes? Bars of gold turning into doves?? Apache Chief??? I love it.

Got a cute little Mach 6 and the U.S.S. Reliant from Steven and Jacqi, respectively. They had a race but the Reliant won 'cause it could go in space and all.

Oh yeah, and a PS3.



WHAT! YES. YES I DID.

Here I come, world of Blu-Ray. Didn't actually get anything to play on it, but my and my bro ran over to Blockbuster and rented Lego Batman (for free, of course). It's pretty fun. I get to smash a lot of stuff, and who doesn't love that? Now we gotta get the wireless network up and running again, and I'll be in business. I feel technologically wealthy today.

So my brother and all the little ones that belong to him are here to visit. And my uncle and aunt came over for the day. And I stopped by at Carolyn's house to drop off Jacqi's present (yes), but she wasn't there. It was a good day. I'm sleepy but I think I'll watch another episode of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Okay so I've got my free rentals again, yeah? I'm going to watch tv with them. I've started PUSHING DAISIES and BSG, and I've got the first disc of UGLY BETTY. The first I've heard good things about, and a lot of people are sad it's canceled, and I really love DEAD LIKE ME which was created by the same guy. From the first episode, I was like ehhhhh what is this?! But by the third I was totally warmed up to it. It's funny.

BSG and me go way back. Back like two summers, the summer where I watched, on average, five hours of STAR TREK a day (three TNG and two DS9 courtesy of Sci-Fi channel). In the midst of all this, I said to myself, You should really try that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. And somewhere, somehow, the clouds of TREK parted and what came floating down but an episode of BSG. So I watched it. And decided I hated it more than somewhat.

Dr. P is sorta crazy about it, and since then I've watched two separate episodes in two separate classes. The first, confirmed my opinion. Another was assigned but I didn't have time to watch it (it was this semester) so I Wiki'd it, and something in those pages caught my eye. So then in class we watched another episode, and hmmmmmm I said, maybe this isn't so bad after all.

So last week we rented the miniseries pilot and now I'm on disc two and I'm going to watch another after I'm done with this. Oh, how the times have changed.

UGLY BETTY I've only seen two episodes of ever, but both times I've been pleasantly surprised.

I'm going to start 30 ROCK over, too, fill in the gaps, but Carolyn has those so I don't need to rent it.

So that's what I've been doing. TV, wrapping presents. Hanging out at Carolyn's. Cleaning my room. It's quite clean now. Ripping music onto my new computer because now I have the space for it. What else. Started work again yesterday. Been trying to organize my superhero serial, but I made the most cryptic notes last time I tried to think about it.

I feel like I did something special in particular on one of the days since last Thursday, but you know me, at this time of the night I can't remember anything worthwhile. I need to start writing in a calendar again. My sister got me one with star charts updated monthly (and the phase of the moon daily--full moon on my next birthday!), so I will have to use that. For great justice.

So Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your days were jolly and safe and not as windy as mine.

-Steph

Late Thursday

Happy Thursday! I cannot for the life of me believe that Christmas is in a week. We don't even have a tree yet. I don't even have any presents in mind for anyone. Bah.

Hey, so, I graduated! I even passed all my classes (C+ in Sr. Sem. but hey, that's passing!)! So that's utterly over with. Last Friday (gosh, it was just last Friday) we tried to export what was done on Ink-Man, but it wouldn't get past 11 minutes. I must have some kind of curse, always having the most bizarre, inexplicable, and unfixable technical problems on my projects. Do you remember when Order Up! wouldn't export out of the special effects program, and we had to export it as THREE THOUSAND JPGS and recompile them in Final Cut? Doesn't happen to anyone else but me.

But it got graded and I got a B in the class. Good enough! Dan said he'd keep working on it, and evidently it's in the running for the year-end premiere night, so hopefully it'll at least be finished by then.

Saturday was graduation, and I had to get up at 7:45. :< I'm so so so glad I graduated in the winter because the ceremony was in the Event Center and was like an hour long. When I got my diploma case, Jon Wallace said "I got this one for you," which appealed immensely to my sense of humor. But I forgot to put my middle name on the name card or the diploma, and that's sad.

I had a mental lapse and didn't ask Carolyn if she'd like to come to graduation (since all my other so-called friends up and left before Saturday), but I did end up asking Friday night and luckily she was able to hitch a ride with my folks the next morning! Lucky! She took all them pictures you might have noticed on Facebook already. And we went to DJs for the best pita plate, and then we cleaned my apartment! And now I can't find anything because I didn't pack it, Carolyn did, and I'm unpacking very slowly. And then I drove us home, and luckily it didn't rain and luckily I didn't do a barrel roll.

Sunday was Steven's birthday and I got invited to his funtime lunchtime thing. City Buffet in Oxnard. It's good! That kid is 18 now. I've known him half his life. Geez.

Monday me and Carolyn...did something. Lemme ask. Oh, right. It rained! And we went to Burger King and got pretty amusing Mario toys: A chain chomp that smashes into things, and a drug-addled Princess Peach who spins and also smashes into things/falls off the table. The Charn Champ came with Wario and Bowser cutouts to knock down, but we put those up for Peach to run into, and I with the Chimp Charmp aimed at her to protect the villagers. RIDICULOUSLY FUN.

Then we went over to Buena, actually got visitors' passes so we wouldn't be arrested as child molesters, and visited Mrs. Lyans. Except class wasn't out yet, so first we went to the library. (This blog started after senior year, but that year we all spent 6th period in the library, and when we go back to visit we try to get them to rope off our table, or at least put up a plaque) But then Mrs. Lyans class came into the library!

But after school was out we went over to her class, which had moved rooms but still managed to look precisely the same, and loitered and wouldn't let her leave. I think I promised to show Ink-Man to her class. We had Film Studies and Creative Writing with her that glorious penultimate year, and they were literally my favorite classes of high school. Big surprise. She's still teaching them, and so now I have some kind of authority in being a guest. I'm cool. Kevin Costner and Zachary Levi went to my high school.

And then we tried to go home, but I had locked us out. So we went to Joann's instead, because they're going out of business. Then we went to L&L and got spam musubi and did a crossword. It was an awfully rainy day, and I really did not want to be locked out. It was sorta fun playing hobo, though.

Then we discovered Jacqi was secretly back in town, and the next day we all went to Carolyn's house and did I-don't-remember what and then played Mario Party. I had to be Waluigi because they haven't unlocked Squiddy yet. Then I left them early to go to a play at church. It was alright.

Then yesterday they both came over to my house and helped me throw stuff away in my room. I'm trying to clean it, but I'm really just making more of a mess. Then we went to Korean food with Dorothy.

Today I really did nothing, but I meant to clean so much. I started laundry, but the most thing I did was set up my Zune on my new computer and subscribe to podcasts. I also walked to the post office (and back), and listened to a CHUCK podcast and then a "Zero Hour with Rod Serling" radio show. The former was better than the latter, although there was a priceless oldtimey line in the radio show: "This woman had a certain girl scout quality about her. Delicate yet determined." Oh, old fashioned times. You're fantastic.

I also updated my Facebook!

OH so. I have a new computer! His name is Keith and he is the envy of the village. My monitor? We watched SPEED RACER on it instead of the TV. And it has a webcam which can watch my room and tell me if anyone uses my computer while I'm gone. I have fake surround sound because I also plugged in my old set of speakers. I can install whatever I want and rip all my music because I have five times as much space as I ever had before. It has Vista, though, and I'm still having some heated arguments with it. Honestly, Microsoft. Windows Media Player 11? Are you trying to make me switch to iTunes? At least I'd already made the switch to Firefox.

Also, "life without walls?" What an awful slogan for a product called windows. Where are you going to put your windows if you don't have any walls? Honestly, Microsoft.

Review time!

SOMEHOW I FORGOT THAT MONDAYS EXIST AND DIDN'T REMEMBER TO WATCH HEROES OR CHUCK UNTIL JACQI TOLD ME TO AT LIKE 12:30 TUESDAY MORNING. But I caught up. (Full screen on this monitor? Sweetness)

HEROES.
Well, we really didn't care about that half of the cast, now did we?
Sylar pulled out all the stops and finally became the villain he was meant to be.
Now what are they gonna do?

CHUCK
Yvonne Strahovski (who I heard interviewed on the podcast today) is a really wonderful actress when it comes to expressing complex emotions with her face. Really. Watch her. She'll take your breath away.
Zachary Levi went to my high school.
What the heck was that Anna/Lester?? WHY did that even happen??

I don't know why those came out as middling reviews. I actually liked both episodes quite a bit. Can't wait for everything to start up again after the winter hiatus!

Next stop: Christmas.

-Steph

The Last Studentious Thursday

Happy Thursday! I really hope it is, anyway. My last studentious Thursday. That is, the last Thursday in which I am a student. Did you know graduation is the day after tomorrow? Scratch that, that was a sucky movie. Did you know graduation is Saturday?

Well it is!

For some of us.

I spent the last few days probably the busiest and most miserable I've ever been. But I'm fairly confident in the quality of the grades I might receive. Or, have earned. But every point is in, every final behind me. Well, not entirely true, INK-MAN is due tomorrow at five, but I've been over that for a long time now. Not over-over it, just letting it exist outside of the forefront of my mind, as it did for so long. Letting it rise, if you will. I am a baker of movies.

Finished a short screenplay for screenwriting (shocker) and it's alright. Once I get a working version of Final Draft back I'll touch it up. The TFT computers only had the demo mode so after 15 pages I couldn't save anymore. And I had to copy it into Word anyhow 'cause it would save to .pdf with a giant watermark. So I had to fight stupid Word 3000 formatting and somehow it became two pages longer than it was in Final Draft. And it numbered the title page. Life is so hard for me.

Also finished my sr. sem paper, on how technology is impossible to judge. I think it's an interesting point, but not entirely relevant or well-argued. I'm just glad it's over.

Acting is also over! We all did our scenes in a sort of performance this morning, and I invited people like Megan and Sam. I still think Christina and Tyler's scene was outstanding, though. They're why I invited people at all. (no offense to the rest of the class, of course)

Sci-fi final I was half an hour late to because I was finishing my term paper after work the other morning. THAT is the crappiest paper ever written. But all I need is to pass the class, not exceed in it.

And Sound Design. THAT IS OVER NOW KPLZTHNX.

Brianna and Megan already went home, and Beth might leave before graduation. :< Sam, too, I think. I am not looking forward to packing. So much stuff!!! First thing I do when I get home is to get rid of everything I don't want to have. Like, for serious. Second thing is to set up a schedule of watching movies/writing/reading books on screenwriting. Third is stock the trunk of my car with a survival kit.

So I was driving the other day and it hit me like a handful of gravel that I want to keep my car forever. That's the car I want to drive around Hollywood and people who know me will be able to spot what building I'm inside because my car's there in the parking lot. I want my car to run forever. I don't another, not a Mini or even a Chrysler Crossfire Roadster (2005).

Yeahp, so, I don't know what direction this blog will take from now on. I'd like it to become more cinematically-minded, but I might just want to make up a new blog for that. I'll have the time.

Oh gosh, guys. Who knows what will happen next?!

-Stephanie 08

Um. Last Day Of School.

Happy Thursday!!! This is my last full day of classes EVER. Just final periods next week. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!

Got all my ministry units cleared. That's a fun story, if you ever want to hear it.

Just need to pass some classes, finish some papers. Probably not in that order. The movie is cut, hours away from picture lock and starting sound. Should be done on time. Looks nice. My acting scene is average. My half-way-done Sr. Sem draft came back with good marks, just need to find some more references to fill it out. No idea if my HEROES paper is ever going to make sense. My script is outlined, I just need to sit down and write it. I'll be spending the rest of tonight and next Wednesday finishing all my sound projects.

For some reason wasn't scheduled to work yesterday--but I went in to ask for it off because TFT Senior Banquet was yesterday evening. It was lovely and full of deliciousness and funny.

Working Friday and Saturday for some reason, leaving Sunday open for Mexican Christmas (since Thanksgiving this year was already pretty Mexicoed out). Also have a "Remembering Mexico" meeting Saturday afternoon. Yay.

Saw MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA yesterday or the day before and DUDE was it funny. King Julien. Disgustingly cute baby Alex. Alec Baldwin.

Oh yeah, so I went to Mexico.

It did rain on Wednesday on the drive out of LA, and that night, which was in fact very muddy. There were lightning storms all over. A couple of potentially catastrophic driving situations. I copiloted, and I had to deal with some of the most entirely useless maps ever created. Left late, got there after dark. The ground is hard. It was cold at night, but nice and hottish during the day. Thursday it drizzled a bit, but after that it was clear.

6:30 AM, wake up! Breakfast at 7 and chapel at..8? We left for our site at about 9. We were supposed to be out there until 6:30, back for dinner at 7 and chapel at 8:30, but we ended up staying for dinner at the orphanage and one night half of our team went to church with the older boys so we didn't get back to camp until like 10. Lights out at 11! Or as soon as possible, in my case.

Our site was Bethesda orphanage in Mexicali. (The camp was in Ejido Cuernavaca, about 25 minutes south-east.) The kids were great! There was Matilda and Jose and Estaban and Itzel and Carlos and Oscar and Mauricio and Jose and Julio and Juanita and Jessica and Rigo and Jose and Samuel and Raul and a few more whose names I didn't learn. That list, though, is approximately youngest to oldest, starting at 4ish and going up to I think 18. I spent most of my time with middle Jose (he drew lovely pictures on my hands) and Rigo (he's pretty good at the DRAGON BALL style of drawing).

We'd planned things to do, story, craft, snack, game, but basically we threw that aside and played with them. They ended up having school from 1-4 (the young ones, 1-7 for the older boys), so we had some down time, too. By down time I mean, time to buy paint and paint the orphanage. We went to the park, we played fútbol, we decorated cookies and shirts, we learned about Noah. One day we went and saw NAVIDAD, S.A. at a movie theater. It was cute.

I also helped make tortillas on the second day, which was great because I didn't have to interact with the kids. XD Not that I hated interacting with the kids, but after the first day, not really being able to talk to them (it seems everyone else had at least taken Spanish in school) but having to be social made me remember my introverted side and I severely needed the time to recoup. So the painting day/hanging out in the kitchen day was nice. And then on Saturday most of the kids had gone to other homes that they have (like aunts' and stuff??) so it was pretty low-key. Watched Julio and Carlos and Jose (and Calvin, one of our own) play marbles. What an intense game. Tried to talk with "the older boys" (they're like 13 and up, so) and didn't suck at it. Thanks to cognates, Spanish is not an outstandingly foreign language. So it's more like I listened to other people's conversations. And then I talked to Rigo a bit about tv, haha.

They really wanted us all to come back. I can't, not on a missions trip because I'm graduating, but it would be pretty cool to roadtrip down there again some day.

Sunday it was up at 6:30, packed up and magically on the road by 8......waited in line at the border for over two hours.....drove at an average of 10 MPH in Thanksgiving weekend traffic through Palm Springs for four, five, six hours? At that point, if we had kept up that pace, it would have taken another five hours to get home. Luckily right about then it cleared up and we were home in like an hour. So we got in at around 6, I think. It was a long day.

I love indoor plumbing.

Okay, I'm going to go learn some stuff. Hopefully. Instead of working on papers last time I was at the computer, I ended up reading Greg Beeman's blog (the HEREOES behind the scenes) instead, and had a very very compelling feeling that that was actually what I was supposed to be doing in that moment. Reading about how it's done. One day I want to read a blog about that, except that it's written by a good friend, or about a show I have a hand in. That's my dream.

Also, HEROES this week. WTF, mate?? I knew it was coming, but COME ON. Not like that, guys. That was Not Cool. All you're doing is validating every complaint I've ever had about you. Every single one.

What a creepy night of tv that was, too. Even most of CHUCK wigged me out. What a creeper you've become, NBC.

-Steph

The Distant Future. The Year 2000.

Happy Thursday! This message is coming at you from the future! Thanks to time travel!

See, I exist in a moment in time where I have access to a computer. However, when you will be reading this, probably on a Thursday, I will not, at any moment of that day, have access to a computer.

So it's not so much as this message is coming from the future rather than it's going to the future, but in either case it strikes me as being unstuck in time. And that's always worthy of note.

So apparently this is the first time in four years that I haven't been in contact with a computer on a Thursday. Presumably longer. That's kind of crazy, but it also is our culture; there was another time and place where someone might have been shocked to be similarly separated from say a horse. If one considers a horse to be a technology. It's not better or worse, just different!!!! And that's my senior sem paper in a nutshell.

I would like to tell you about my all-nighter from Sunday night. I camped out in the ER after work (which ended at 11:30), hijacking their computers for Word and Final Draft and Final Cut (which I wouldn't have had anyhow). I made progress on my senior sem paper (it's 11 pages now!) and my short screenplay (5 pages!) and my sound design project (tedious) and tried to work on my HEROES paper, but I was too foggy and this time travel business wasn't making any sense at all.

I took a short nap on one of the couches at the back of the office from like 6 - 7 in the morning, because I had to move my car out of it's nearby faculty spot at that second time. And then I came back and did some more Sound, and then I went and got a tea from Heritage and came back and enjoyed the morning, and then I went to chapel!

The day was pretty fine, but I was noticeably loopy. Loopier. And I didn't hear the second half of Sr. Sem because I was starting to drift into another world--a place, which, incidentally, I haven't experienced since high school. Why was I so tired in high school? I feel like I was that tired all four years.

So, in the past 62 hours, I've had about 7 hours of sleep. This is as of approximately midnight on Tuesday. Which is the past, but hey.

Going to Mexico tomorrow. Gonna sleep in and then go to Mexico. I gotta finish packing.

Also, Carolyn came to visit me on Saturday and that was so fun. I drove us on the freeway to Pasadena and we didn't die!!! We went to no less than three eating establishments. We played Star Wars Battlefront all day and watched SPEED RACER which I undoubtedly love. The colors, Duke, the colors! (I'm colorblind, kid) We also tried to play Brianna's "My Horse and Me" Wii game, but we couldn't figure out how to turn left. Try chasing the chickens out of the corn, or trying to sort the butterflies with only well-planned right turns. It's awful.

I like the show CHUCK and I like the show HEROES and I like the show THE OFFICE. I like Sylar/Elle. I like the show VERONICA MARS. I like stuff like that and mid-sentence I realized that some day soon this blog will likely be only about tv stuff. How awesome is that.

Also, it's raining. Mexico is going to be a mud puddle.

Have a lovely Thursgiving Day. I'm sorry I'm going to miss out. (Or will I? Mexican Thanksgiving Part 2????)

-Steph

Writey writey

Happy Thursday. You may not know it, but a common element in my speech pattern is to refer to something with a repeated diminutive of a verb that represents it. There are variations of this, like, it doesn't have to be diminutive. Sometimes it doesn't have to be repeated. Like Rick Deckerd's "eye glitter glitter" or Sylar's "cutty finger power."

Rick Deckerd is from BLADERUNNER which I saw for the second time last night because I had to do a presentation on it today for Sci-Fi class. I still didn't like it. And I feel utterly justified in my judgment because after my presentation we had "someone from The Industry" (in this case Bill Marsilii, co-writer of DEJA VU) talk about it as well, and he ripped it apart. In fact, he cites the poor quality of the script as the reason he took his first screenwriting course because he knew he could write better than that. He's a really cool guy and maybe I'll get his contact info and hit him up for some advice.

Screenwriting has suddenly become my most favorite class ever. Nothing about it has changed, it's exactly the same it's been all semester. But I feel like I'm getting so much out of lately, and I wish I could keep taking classes like that. All the other classes are blah or unpleasant, but this one I'm really digging. I think it might have something to do with me wanting to be a screenwriter.

So I've been working on "Mad Scientists," my superhero anthology, in my little black notebook that I take with me to places like chapel and work. I've had this story mapped out since the end of summer, but I've had no time to dedicate it to print. But I'm loving that I let it, what's the word, age? in my mind, like a food item that needs to sit in a dark cellar for years before it's properly edible. This, I'm told, is a necessary part of writing, and let me tell you, it's something I've been doing since I started writing. It's just that most of the time things get stuck in there and I never write them, or forget about them before I have the chance to really develop them.

But lately, in these moments that I have, I flip open my notebook and the story just falls in there. Not perfectly, of course. Usually quite clumsily and embarrassingly. But I've come to realize this, too, is an appropriate thing, called by Dr. Parham's friend the "vomit draft." Just get it out. Fix it later. Editing and rewriting are new to me, but also necessary. I'm learning.

And also outlining. Since I've rarely written anything with plot progression before, outlining seems unwieldy to me. I don't know what to do with them, or even how to do one. But they're so important! They're like the physical representation of what you've already thought out. And then when it's done, you just write the details and DUDE you're done. In my purple notebook I've been outlining the pilot for DREAMERS, and that's been going along great. Great in that I've been thinking and developing and vomiting out an outline and realizing what's working and what's not.

And it was while thinking about the outline (before Megan said, "just write it!!!" I was complaining about how hard it was to think about) that I realized something special. I just love writing. I think I tend to forget that when the going gets tough, when the outline gets stuck or when I feel stupid and uncreative and boring. But sometimes I can take a step back and understand that there exists something I absolutely love, and no matter whether I'm any good or not, just the fact that I love it makes me so happy. I don't know that many writers, but I wish I did. I don't know how normal people spend their thought-time, but I spend it writing, and I'm so glad for it. It's those times that I notice that I love what I'm doing that I can really appreciate the field I'm going into, the opportunities I've had to learn about it and study it and execute it. Wow, I think I'm really not making any sense here, but the gist of it is, I love writing and there's nothing that can ever stop me from doing it.

Unless maybe I go blind and lose my hands.

The point is, it's not even a matter of career. If I get a job writing, then I'll be getting paid for doing something I love. If I don't get a job writing, I can still write. It's not like I love space exploration and can only do that once every five years or whatever. It's not like I love something impossible or limited like that. What I love I can do no matter what, and getting trained in order to make money off of it? That's just a lovely lovely bonus.

In other news, I'm thinking that if my creativity keeps it up, and I can find some good editors that wouldn't mind giving serious critique to it, I'd like to turn "Chaos Watch" into a book. Now that I've said it out loud it'll never happen. But I've got many good years ahead of me in which to continue writing all these stories that I actually have planned. Planning them is the biggest step, because then you have something to write, when you get the chance. I have the entire Bade/Code Master story planned! They have several plot-oriented adventures! It's so possible that I could churn them all out and then polish them for publication. I think that's a good long-term goal.

Also, writing short films and entering them into contests. I'll have two by the time I graduate, so that's a start. That, and I should start on some spec scripts for shows I love, for fun and for profit. (For practice and sending in to networks)

So forgive me for rambling about writing, but this is my life. And these last few hectic weeks of school may be Now, but they are fleeting and soon I will be in Life and all this whimsical writing stuff will become so much more important than this crunch time ever was. Or, I hate this crunch time and I wish it were already over. Either way, I love writing, and you can't take that away from me.

-Steph

Call Me Beep Me

Happy Thursday. (If you want to reach me - thanks Kim Possible). My computer died. Hello again, computer lab! What a good friend you are to me.

Guys. I just don't know what to do. Ink-Man has one scene/location left but no where to shoot, no one to act or crew. Any solution to this at this point is going to be like the worst student film you ever saw. But only for the stuff we have yet to shoot. The rest of it will be an average student film.

Had a draft of my critical paper on HEROES due Tuesday that I didn't know about. I wrote him the first page and a half a little while ago and turned that in.

Still haven't done my first project for Sound Design and I'm not sure if there's something I need to be turning in today. In ten minutes.

Had a first draft of my senior sem. paper due yesterday. Gonna try to do that Saturday.

Have a presentation on some movie I've never seen for that class due Monday. Have a presentation on BLADE RUNNER due for Sci-Fi on Tuesday or maybe Thursday. That's not my fave movie.

At least in acting the guy who was filling in (our prof is in a stage show and was away at rehearsal this week) said I'm very funny and would like to see me get into acting. With the exception of that I don't know how to act, I really appreciated his comments and might look into it (not in a life-changing, money-making way, just the opposite of avoiding it) in the future.

Had to work with Ben yesterday and he makes me grouchy when my friends come to visit.

Sam turned 21 and we all had a fun time at Red Robin on Monday. Kelly I think is 22 today. Happy Thursday birthdays, guys!

Apparently the burners on our stove were broken for a week but I wasn't even home to know about it.

Last weekend shooting went really well, got everything done that we needed to do, and in the time we'd had allotted. My thanks goes out to everyone who participated.

I always get this eye/head ache when this class starts, and it's three hours and I really don't want to go to it. I had packed a peanut butter sandwich and a bottle of water, but I guess I didn't bring them and that makes me emo. I think I probably won't go because I have nothing to contribute and nothing to learn. Even though I actually started on my project this week, I gave up my drive to the Ink-Man editors to get a start on that (because the assembly cut was due this week, and now it's next Monday) so I couldn't work on my Sound stuff.

Guys. I just don't know what to do.

Haps Thurs, though. :<

-Stephanie

People

Happy Thursday. There are some people that I just don't ever want to have to deal with again, and luckily soon they'll be a bad memory. "Like a long night after a bad taco," as Mr. Sylar would say, but that's not very relevant.

Sam turned 21 today! His very own Blackjack Thursday Birthday. Which reminds me that I haven't kept track of ANY real Blackjack Thursdays this year, and that makes me sad. Maybe I'll do a retroactive count of them all. Anyway! Happy Birthday, Sam! I wish you all the best.

So for the movie we have this stuffed horse which we just started playing with as a member of the family. Beth named him...Reginald. I have forgotten his name every time I talk to him, calling him things like Roscoe and Rodriguez and Rocky and once Rocko. At some point in this, Megan turned to me and shouted, "HIS NAME IS SYLAR."

Guys, just telling you know, if you don't watch HEROES you're really missing out on half of what I ever talk about.

Wasn't on this week, but I think it'll be back next week? Took the time to watch HSM and HSM back to back before I had to return them. Those movies are wacky. And I went to a meeting tonight about going to Mexico, so I'll have to catch the OFFICE and 30 ROCK at some future point. (Both episodes from last week were fantastic, by the by)

Seeing as my Mexico trip is a four day thing, I've decided to call it Mexico AX. Where people dress up and buy cute souvenirs...? They showed a documentary about what "short-term missions" has come to mean, and how we're doin it rong, and it was very interesting. Someone teach me Spanish?

Shooting the movie is coming along. Still so much to do and not enough time to do it in. While it's going on I really don't feel like talking about it, so in a month or so you'll be getting a deluge of water-color memories about how great it was.

I think Blockbuster is paying me again tomorrow. Yay.

When I have so much going on, I tend to fall back on my natural creativity, and it's the least important things that start getting done. Like my miniseries and my sci-fi/fantasy "comic book" serial. I've rebooted the notemaking/outlining process on the first and actual writing on the second. Writing has always been my first line of defense against reality, my most natural and available form of escapism. I just wish I was always this productive, like when I have the time for it.

But seriously, I'm going to sell my miniseries for millions of dollars one day.

When I started my car today, the DJ on KROQ said Happy Thursday and I yelled at her with a startled fondness.

Oh yeah, and I hear we're getting a new president?

I'm going to go have some sleepytimes now. Or maybe I might get some quality Bade/Codes time in.

(Oh, and November started and apparently so did Winter)

-Steph

Ink-Man 2: Cutting it Close

Happy Thursday. I have to sit right next to the tv or else it screams with static. I can't even move my arms around. We did, however, move the furniture around, and now it suddenly looks like a living room. And there's posters everywhere and it makes me so happy. You should come see it.

Beth is cooking something culinary, by the smell of it. We might watcha the movie soon--PATHOLOGY? It has Milo Ventimiglia on the cover, so I got it. Should be scary. But that's appropriate, seeing as it's Halloween Eve.

I was going to be Harry Potter for Halloween, and then I was going to be Peter Petrelli, but I'm working 5-12 so that fell through.

I decided to cap show/movie titles now, because I noticed that Facebook ignores all the italicizing I spend all my precious time on. Greg Beeman caps things he talks about. Greg Beeman is my go-to guy for all things directing. And blogging, it seems.

If I felt up to it, I would give you reviews of all the things I've seen this week. CHUCK, HEROES, of course. (Wasn't paying attention although there was a really good Zune joke./Season 3 is really starting to suck - even Sylar) HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR. That one I'll spare a paragraph for.

Saw it twice now. First time I was actually disappointed, because the trailer was full of amazing things that looked amazing all condensed into a minute and a half. This moments were still amazing, but they were just moments. At first I thought the songs were not so catchy, and I didn't really get what was happening at all. It just didn't sit right. But then I downloaded the soundtrack and then watched it again, and the songs had grown on me, right into my organs, and I sorta loved it. I also decided early on the second time that Troy was actually a girl, and that brought an element to it that entertained me sooo much. And the dancing was amazing and it was a really nice end to the series. (Except for the actual end, which made me want to shoot myself/whoever wrote that song.)

Second paragraph. I think my favorite song out of the whole series is in this one, called "Can I Have This Dance?" The number takes place on the roof, and they waltz, and then it rains and one of the most beautiful shots of the movie happens and the song is just so sweet and poignant and downright musical. "What I've Been Looking For" might still be my actual favorite, but it might also be a tie.

Didn't watch THE OFFICE because Megan watched GREY'S instead (it was ridiculous as usual). I'll see it tomorrow.

All I want to do right now is go to work, watch movies, and write my mini-series. I don't want to struggle with INK-MAN or classes. =[ I will, but I just really don't want to anymore.

Okay, gotta start the movie so we can to to sleep on time. ttyl.

-Steph

Clarifactory

Happy Thursday. I was so busy today I did not make it to any classes. Hoorah. Clarifactory is a word I invented that combines "clarification" and "satisfactory." In other words, it means to have satisfactorily clarified something, or made something clear. If you ask someone why they bought a dozen pounds of onions, and their answer is something like, onions grow in the ground, that answer is NOT clarifactory.

Dear diary,

I am so busy. At this point, it seems as though half of our plans for shooting Saturday are fallen through, and maybe even some shooting down the road. I don't have any time to fix it, only to try.

I did a lot of stuff today but it doesn't seem like it was really a lot. A couple of things were going places that were closed and I had to go back. Some working-through-problems conversations were had, and problem-solving emails and phonecalls were made, but in the end no one emailed back and no one had time to fix things.

I did, however, solve my need-ministry-credits-to-graduate problem. The MAS office finally emailed me back saying I can turn in the paperwork before I go (the turning-in-to-graduate deadline is during the Thanksgiving weekend), and I got an application to turn in tomorrow. So I'll be going to Mexico over Thanksgiving, I just have to tell Blockbuster.

I worked with Ben again last night, which wasn't very fun. I don't understand people who aren't nice. I'm only working until 9 on Friday for some reason, but that's great because I'll have to get up super early on Saturday for filming.

Oh, the Office suddenly became on, so I will watch it because that's my fave. I don't know if it's the same for you, but the commercials are sooo much louder than the show. It's a good show.

Heroes, now, is rapidly becoming a not-good show. Even the Sylar bits this week were less than ideal. Mostly because he was interacting with a poorly-motivated character, and made poor decisions based on the other character's out-of-characterness. I really can't even tell you a highlight. I could tell you a bunch of stuff that was stupid. I just don't understand what these people are thinking. It would be nice if the show actually started to get better.

Oh, looks like 30 Rock is starting up again next week!

Tonight we're sorta kinda having a read-through of the script, don't know who all is showing up. Should be fun? Also bringing along some of the costume pieces me and Beth bought today, see if they fit. Also if any crew shows up, then they'll know what's going on, 'cause I haven't really gotten a script to every single person. I think Reclamation last year had a read through that I missed, and that's why I was so confused all the time on set.

For Senior Sem. me and Megan went to see a documentary about the South Central Farm? There was this farm in South Central LA, that the community ran for like ten years, but then the city sold it back to its original owner who kicked everyone off to build warehouses. It's very fascinating. I doubt it's on dvd or anything, but if you ever get the chance, you should watch it. It's called The Garden and it's the best true-life LA noir drama I ever saw.

And just because I like mentioning people to tag, me and Brianna were up way late chatting. 'Cause we hardly ever talk because she's so busy and now I'm so busy, so we caught up. It was cool.

This party on Grey's just reminded me of when me and Beth went to Accounts Payable today to pick up the check for our budget. There was this massive party, brownies and cookies and mini cupcakes and sodas and like twenty ladies. Because I guess it's Accounts Payable Appreciation Week. The cookie was quite good.

Okay, I gotta go to the meeeeeeting! I hope you all have a nice day.

-Steph

Battlefront

Happy Thursday! Let me tell you about my lovely food times.

Apparently when I get stressed out, I think about making foods. The other day, I was sitting in class, and I was like, man, I really want some drumsticks. Like the chicken kind. So I said, where can I get those? I'll make 'em. I'll go to the store and get some chicken legs and some shake 'n bake, and make food! So I did. And I was like, what can I eat with that? Mashed potatoes? But no, I still have twenty boxes of rice and couscous at home. I'll make that. Whaaat else? Some spinach and pine nuts!! Except the store didn't have spinach, not fresh. So I bought some baby bok choy.

Let me make a new paragraph. The bok choy I chopped up with a carrot and sauteed them with a garlic, and tossed in some pine nuts near the end so they didn't burn. It made enough vegetables for one! And the chicken took 45 minutes, the rice 25, and the vegetables about 10, so everything was done at the same time. It was kind of cool. I shared my chickens, and ended up with two drumsticks and a bucket of rice for lunch the next day. I was kinda proud of myself.

And while I was shopping for the chicken, I picked up a thing of romaine lettuce and something else, planning a chicken salad from the delicious frozen chicken pieces I had already. I made that today, since I had time, and it was sooo good. It goes like this.

I took about four or five leaves of the romaine, sliced them up. A thing of celery. The last of my orange grape tomatoes. Some walnuts I bought for the curry chicken salad. Salt, pepper. The chicken I microwaved. Some balsamic vinaigrette. Oh, and some feta I had left over, too. I don't really like straight feta, just like I don't like straight dark lettuces, but mixed with other things I am a fan. And on the side I had some strawberries I bought on the aforementioned shopping trip, and some graham crackers I bought on a lunch break last week. The strawberries + graham crackers? Perfection. I want to make little strawberry pies with graham cracker crusts. Or oreo crusts, I think that would also work so well.

What I like the most about cooking for myself is that it turns out well. I literally learned cooking from foodnetwork, and every time I imagine food, and then I make it, and it tastes like food, I am happy. Don't need recipes, just imagination! Although I would like to have some of the recipes from home, like the one for maple cookies. The apple pie one I have saved on my computer, and I already bought the vinegar for the crust. I just wish I had the time to make a pie.

Oh, the other thing I like about cooking (especially the salad today), is that there's nothing unhealthy about it. For the prepackaged things, like the rice and the frozen chicken, I'm sure there's some preservatives or a high sodium content, but there's nothing really about it that you'd be like, wow, that's gonna give me a heart attack. I especially liked the salad because there was so many different sources of things, like nuts and cheese as well as, you know, vegetables. I think the problem with people eating vegetables is that often you're faced with the vegetables that you're not fond of, and they're prepared weird. Cooking for myself, I only buy the ones I know I like, and I cook them to how I like them.

Eating vegetables is important.

These meals, though, I'm not sure how efficient they are on cost. They're leaning towards the gourmet, so the individual costs of ingredients add up. Walnuts, for example, or pine nuts, or anything in the nut family, don't run cheap. And feta and strawberries. But I stretch them, and that's another plus for mixing ingredients, if you use a small amount of a lot of things, you have more of each for longer.

What's worrying me right now is the red bar across the top of the screen saying ERROR, and the little Autosave failed. down at the bottom. I hope I'll fix that before midnight.

So my sister turned like 20 yesterday! Or two days ago, since she's in Paris and it's Friday now. I didn't get her anything. :< More accurately, I did get her something, but I didn't finish the personal touches and stuff, so I didn't send it. But I will! Ohh how I will.

And little Melody just turned......five on Tuesday. Hurrah! I didn't get her anything, either. :< I am so out of touch. Maybe I'll call them tomorrow and make up for it. XD Happy Birthday little one!

So we're shooting next weekend. I'm not going to think about that right now.

Had a midterm in Sci-Fi class today, but c'mon, it's Sci-Fi class. I had to match things like "Who created Star Trek" and "Who hated anti-technicism." (Gene Roddenberry and H.G. Wells)

Sound Design was canceled today, which I found out right before I left, which was great. I'd come back home because the midterm let out early so I had an hour in between. I always get a headache during that class, but I still got it today. Quite weird.

Work's been fine. I work mostly with this guy named Kevin, and he's cool. And I discovered the shuttle van back from the West parking lot, so I don't have to walk back at midnight anymore. Although I took it last night and when I tried to drive to class today my car wasn't here, and so I was pretty late. :< But I had the boom mic with me, for Sound Design, and my prof made an inappropriate comment about it, because he shockingly can't restrain himself. I stared at him in disbelief, but he didn't see me.

The Office was good tonight. I disliked/felt uncomfortable about the things that were happening between the two couples, and then both situations ended on a good note and my heart was happy.

Chuck is still fantastic, I'm still quite surprised. I hope it sticks. They are doing it right.

Heroes, now that's the same as always. Which is both comforting and sad. Whereas I'm pleasantly surprised that Chuck has pulled itself together and is succeeding in a way few shows do, Hereos seems to be content with plodding along at the same level of competency they exhibited in the pilot. So three fourths of the episode is rather mundane, one eighth is awful, and one eighth is freaking outstanding. This is starting to get maddening. But I just. can't. stop. watching.

Beth is almost caught up. One more disc of season two.

Sam and Gareth came over today, and we all watched the Office. Except Brianna, 'cause she doesn't understand comedy. My parents might/are coming to visit me on Saturday!

Also, Bowie died. We have a new pet, the one-legged monster cricket he didn't eat. I call it The Mariner. The Mariner might be dead, too.

Drive Safe,

-Steph

Happy Thursday! An all-new Office starts now!

I've already gut laughed once.

Hokay! OH. It's back already.

Okay, commercial. What to talk about? I feel like I got nothin'. A heron came and killed most of Carolyn's fish. :< I got my Bennet poster. Now he protects us unless we threaten his daughter, in which case he'll take us out. (He's got a gun)

Let us go through the days. Friday I worked. Saturday I slept in. Sunday I worked. Monday I did some things so I'll hold off on that. Tuesday I acted and had class, Wednesday I worked. Today I had many class. Watched the Office.

Let's go back to Monday.

Right after class me and Megan held auditions for Ink-Man, which was way fun. We got some great personalities. Sam read with them and it was so entertaining. It's going to be good.

And then I made dinner instead of watching Chuck, but I caught the last scene and it was wonderfully shocking. Still need to watch the whole thing--my internet was way sketchy later. And then was HEROES which was same as always. Which is: pretty dumb for some parts, but Sylar rocked the house.

Now we're watching Grey's and it's just as ridiculous as normal.

I suppose I've also been culinary, because I went to the store and bought like a hundred dollars of food. I made curry chicken salad out of apples, celery, craisins, walnuts, chicken, mango chutney, mayo, and curry powder. It was very good. It still is, actually. Had it on some croissants. Tell your friends.

Also, there was the time when me and Beth walked to Starbucks.

Okay, we're off to watch How I Met Your Mother. Hooray, Neil Patrick Harris!

-Stephanie

Second Summer

Happy Thursday! It's a stressful time for everyone!

Pre-production on Ink-Man is going very slowly. Mostly because I don't have any time during the week 'cause of classes, and no time on the weekends 'cause of work. So my free time goes to Ink-Man, and then nothing else gets done. :<

It will all work out.

Even for Megan, who is having a meltdown because her old lady actress just canceled on her for a stupid reason, and they're filming the day after tomorrow. To add insult to injury, there was a post-it in her hair.

Chin up!

I'm watching this Justice League movie, and it's very interesting but I'm like fifteen minutes in and two people have been shot in the head and one was frozen and shattered into a million pieces. I'm just waiting for Batman to show up.

I asked Beth what we did this week and it boils down to Ink-Man and work. Side helping of Heroes. Helped out on Matt and Amanda, the news show before Friday chapels. Helped Megan cast her movie, but that didn't turn out so well, I guess. That's about all that's interesting.

Caught the Office Friday morning, and it did not disappoint. You just have to see it, it has some very perfect moments. And Ryan! hahaha Ryan.

And Heroes this weeeeeeeek. I had aneurysms during the previews for both this week's and next week's episodes, but oddly enough not during. (For the record, yes, I don't know what an aneurysm actually is, it's just what I call "freaking out because something amazing/freaky/well-written is happening") Still absolutely digging Sylar's storyline. (sorry if you haven't caught up yet, but yes he survives into season three) I'm so excited for next week. Everyone else I almost couldn't care about, but I think Sylar and everyone involved with Sylar is going somewhere great. I was also pretty pleased that Disgusto aka Mohinder was absent this week. Let us hope it lasts.

OH and Chuck! How great was that episode? If you don't know my feelings on Chuck, it's this: if they knew what they were doing, it would be my favorite show. It has the potential to be my favorite show. It has every element that's needed to be a favorite show. It just is rather clunky and cliched and awkward. Worse so than Heroes. Every week last year I just hoped it would magically be better, that one of those days it would suddenly be all that it could be.

Well, Monday was that day. I guess it took them some time off for them to regroup and pull their act together, because this episode was tight, logical, and emotionally fulfilling. It didn't recap the full first season for the benefit of new viewers, and even the re-intro that they did have was fitting to the narrative. I approve of the changes that have transpired (like the yogurt store), and I also really loved the deeper side the episode was hinting at--even though they turned that on its head in the last act. But that too was perfect, since it threw everyone back into status quo for a reason, the audience both frustrated that he can't reach for his new-found goals, but secretly pleased that things can stay the way they are. It was lovely. And the new opening credits with the supporting cast? Classy.

The other cool thing about this week is that I talked a manager into giving me the ginormous window-poster of Iron Man when it's time for it to come down. Score.

-Steph

Premiere Week

Happy Thursday! It is just about 11 PM and I left for class at 1. It's been a long day. The first half of this post will be about my week, and the second half will be about Heroes. Just warning.

To start things off right, last Friday we had a party! Jake and Sam came over! We all played Mario Party and made a cake! You might have seen the pictures on Facebook. A grand time was had by all! Then we gathered around and watched Sam sleep. A grand time was had by all bar Sam.

Friday and Sunday I worked, and I'll go ahead and throw yesterday into the mix and say it's still boring. I like my old store better. This one is cramped and has odd priorities. They also make me work forever so that when I come home at 11:30 there's no parking and I have to park on West and walk back. :<

I probably did something on Saturday. Oh. We watched Heroes all weekend. I didn't get dressed Saturday. We finally finished Season One on....Tuesday. Brianna's supposedly getting season two in from Netflix, anyday now. Saturday and Sunday I think I also just re-watched all the Sylar bits and then listened to the commentaries. They were very informative! One of them spent a good part of the time going through the process of writing, casting, directing, shooting an episode. I loved it. And the other had Zachary Quinto and Sendhil Ramamurthy chatting, and that was way cute.

Sorry, I promised the Heroes talk would come later. So I won't even talk about Monday.

Started How I Met Your Mother, but I'm not impressed. Neil Patrick Harris is win, but maybe a little too...much. I'll at least finish the season.

Haven't caught up on this week's Fringe, but that's no big deal. My one fear is that it will become interesting/have that one mystery that I Must Know, and then I'll have to suffer through it week after week. Missed The Office premiere tonight due to going to The Music Man. Sam was in it! And Gareth. And many others. And Jake came to see it. He was happy that he'd be tagged all up in this more than once. It was way fun and cute and I don't regret missing the Office at all. There were a whole fleet of kids in it, too, and they were all very well-behaved. Hooray everyone, you were all great!

Been rounding up my crew, since the script is finally done. Now we need the monies, and to find locations and cast it and all that fun stuff. Megan wants to help cast, and I'm planning on sending some sort of casting call to the general APU acting base, hold auditions. Even though Music Man is going on, and A Few Good Men is coming up. But we have good actors here, and I want to use them.

Now I just have to mention Beth, and I can move on to Heroes. Alright.

If you are a person with no/limited Heroes knowledge, but plan to be, good night! (I'm lookin at you, Beth) Here be spoilers.

^^^^^^^^^^

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
or
Resistance is Futile
or
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World?

I don't know if you know, but I do appreciate the emo aesthetic. Doesn't mean that I subscribe to its worldview. What I mean is that Heroes is inherently fatalistic, and that bothers me. How many times are they going to see the future and see that it sucks and needs to be fixed before it happens? As far as I can tell, they saved that cheerleader. Seems to me they traded that timeline for something worse. Oh, fixed that. And now there's something even worse four years down the line. I know it's just to keep up conflict so their heroes have something to fight for, but come on. As Mr. Incredible would say, "sometimes you wish the world would just stay saved!"

So this is tentatively going to be my critical paper for Sci-Fi. Because these are my honest thoughts that I naturally had, no prompting. I was going to make this blog about my initial points (using textual references!) but I wrote three pages in my notebook, so I thought it would be better to truncate it for you all. What my point comes down to is this: Heroes' perspective on time is that even if you change things, the details might change, but the outcome is inevitable. That's what happened with Charlie. And as far as I can tell the bomb may not have destroyed New York, but it doesn't mean that the mutant-hunting, scarred-Peter future was averted.

In specifics about the season three opener, I found everyone to be very creepy. Why don't the Bennets turn on a light? Why is Nathan crazy? How the hell did Sylar get to California? Why does Future Peter still have that scar? Mama Petrelli freaked me out, and Mohinder honestly disgusts me now. I had to leave the room once.

I did love love love the Sylar/Claire exchange, even though I guess the writers don't care about keeping Claire an interesting/not whiny character. Sylar though, he just keeps getting better and better. Even if he may be someones hired gun now. Boo Mama Petrelli. And I do mean Mama. (btw, ?!?!?!?!!!!!!)

Oh, and also? It was Peter. Did I not tell you that right after we watched the season two end?

Overall, I find it met expectations. The writing was just as odd and awkward and exposition-based as it's always been, the plot is progressing at a forced pace, there were some cool things and some ridiculously stupid things. Pretty standard fare. But I'm still so head-over-heels fascinated with it, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.

-Steph

Still watching Heroes

Happy Thursday! We're almost halfway through season one again, and it's been fun. It's actually been more boring than fun, because everyone who was already boring was extra boring. But it's nice to catch up on things, and see little things you didn't see the first time (there's an intense clock sound when you first see Sylar at the diner)(I guess that's hearing something). And I still love all the people I love, and I'm just so happy to be with them again.

I have very strong feelings about Sylar's fate, which I will keep to myself until it happens or I'm proved wrong. I also had a dream the other day in which a friend of mine and his friend were savin' all the kids from Sylar. In the other part of the episode, I hung out in an electrified 7-11 with Elle. It's nice to have the Heroes dreams again.

But honestly, it's been pretty tricky trying to find times in which to watch it. And all together, too. Like last night, I left for class at 4, went straight to Blockbuster from there, and got back at like midnight. And there wasn't parking so I had to go to the other parking lot and walk back. It was way fun.

Blockbuster though? WAY BORING. There was nobody there, and when I all the returns were done, I asked if she had anything special for me to do, and she was all "nah." So I literally just stood around for like five hours. Side note- Del Taco is open until 11, and it has a lovely drink called a "Vanilla Iced Coffee." Tell your friends.

I also bought some vegetables today, to stave off the scurvy.

WHAT ELSE FASCINATING HAS HAPPENED. There was one day in chapel where we had to sit up in the top top balcony, and I got a free sign language lesson from down below. (Oh, sorry, Sylar's killin people, so I'm distracted) There were two hearing impaired kids down there on the floor (I think one could hear at least a little) and they had another student signing translations to them. The one in pink's name was Emily, she said to the semi-hearing one. And the Student translator was way cute because during the singing, she'd start spelling something she didn't know, and the deaf kids were like, "no, it's actually this." So everyone was learning stuff.

Ink-Man 2 is comin' along, getting crew and finishing rewrites. It's pretty complicated and I don't think I've ever responded to so many emails in a single day. It's going to take up every free moment (except for when I'm watching Heroes and my other five free weekly rentals).

So as the weather turns, I find myself desperately wanting to visit a pumpkin patch and make maple cookies. I'm going to be Harry Potter for Halloween! And if we're having to shoot that day, I'll direct in costume. I mean, everyone else will be in costume, right?

I've just been told that I'm "like a cat with a ball of string." Discuss.

-Stephanie

PS I told Beth and Megan that since I didn't mention them in this, I wouldn't be able to tag them on Facebook. There ya go, guys.

Bowie, Richard, and Georgina

Happy Thursday! I distinctly remember last week when I got out of class, I was surprised that it was still daytime. Today, though, it was definitely late evening. I might even have called it night. It was also cloudy and cool, and I think we're headed into Fall from here on out.

The same as last week, however, is that there is still someone playing Guitar Hero. This time it is Megan. She's learning to play on Medium.

Last Friday was play day, no class for me, so I did a bit of cleaning (not much, don't worry) and ended up hanging out and probably playing video games. Then me and Sam and Gareth, his roommate, went to the Hat for dinner and later after that we went and saw Tropic Thunder with a bunch of people. It definitely was funny, and RDJ was undeniably fantastic, but it had a few too many stupid jokes/painfully embarrassing moments for me to love it. Loved the little drug lord kid, though.

I think Saturday was sleep in day! Got back from the movie way late and all. Ohhh hahah I was just reminded by my roommates that I went home on Saturday. Let me back up a moment.

Found Bowie on Friday, while following Megan to class. Some kids were taking pictures of him with their cellphones, so I saw what they were looking at and said I WANT IT. This is because Bowie Brett is a PRAYING MANTIS. Our friend Eric helped us catch him in a Koalas box, and I took him home and put him in a Gladware.

Then I went home on Saturday to bring back Jayne's cage. Also to take home some big boxes and the extra Brita, and to bring back some Ink-Man stuff and an RCA cable and more cups and all the tea and to pick up my last check from Blockbuster.

I scared my parents to death because when I pulled up the garage door was open and the driveway was full of cars. So I passed by, music blaring out my windows, and parked right across the street. Then I took my stuff out of my trunk and walked up behind them and after about a minute my dad saw me and yelled and then my mom screamed and it was very funny. We hung out and cleaned stuff and then went to lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe, which is my fave.

Then I ran to Carolyn's house and went with her to bring food to Steven's friend's house, and we ended up talking to his dad for a while. But then we really went to Carolyn's house and we played a game called...Castle...Castle Crashers or something. It was bizarre. XD

AND THEN I DROVE HOME. I think I forgot to mention that I also drove there, so I did a lot of driving that day, and didn't die.

Sunday I didn't do anything except go see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with Megan and Beth. It was alright. Everyone was very cute. Alexis Bledel still can't act. Also that day I'm being told I wrote my script. Which I'm pretty sure I did. I may have even finished it that day! Too bad I have to re-write it. =[

Monday was nondescript, just one class. OH except I forgot that Monday night I helped shoot for "Wake Up with Matt and Amanda," a sort of news show that plays before chapel on Fridays. It was way fun, but it ran long and I didn't get to sleep until 1. Unlucky me had early work a few hours later. Had to do something of a monologue for acting, it was weird. And late later me and Kelly met with Michael Smith about Ink-Man, which has to be almost entirely re-worked. Oh well. It's going to be fun, this film making process, but also a lot of work. Wish me well.

Also Tuesday we watched The Worst Movie Ever aka A Civil Action starring John Travolta. It was for Sr. Sem. About a third of the way through we were distracted by Beth, who had been followed home by Georgina and Richard, our two new cats. Richard is a scrawny baby, orange, and Georgina is the most skittish kittish I've ever seen, and she likes to go on the roof and look down on us in fear. Brianna fed them a can of tuna and so they spent the rest of the night outside the window meowing.

Spent the rest of the movie doing the Epic Puzzle, one of those mystery ones that doesn't have a picture on the box. It came with a whole story that the image is supposed to solve when it's finished, and it was the most mockable story ever writ. TODAY WE FINISHED THE PUZZLE. Now we need to get another one.

The most exciting thing I did yesterday was convince Megan to sleep in and not go to chapel (oddly enough, the other room also unanimously slept in), and also to watch the pilot of J.J. Abrams' Fringe on the internet. It was okay. Not weird enough for me--you know how Heroes jumps right in and says "this is the world, and these are the strange things that are happening in it"? Fringe takes a much more mundane approach, and it's a standard FBI show the first forty minutes. I think he's still going to have the problem of too many questions, not enough answers. But I'm giving it a chance.

Today I was in class all day, but it was fun. I stand by my assessment of Sci-Fi Films: Being geeks. That's allll we were today. I still love my major.

Okay, that was in depth. I guess I'll close it off now. Sees you next time!

-Steph

Last First Day of School....Ever.

Happy Thursday! Tonight's blog reaches you from the peaceful and lovely deck outside my living room, where I am lounging in my bean bag in a night of 76 degree weather and with the smell of charcoal coming from somewhere down below. I hear crickets and people laughing and shouting "Hallelujah!" I'm not even joking.

So I've been here a week! It seems like forever. Everyone's moved in and now classes have started and I feel like I've never left. It's very fun, hanging out and making weird faces at people and driving around and buying food and playing Guitar Hero and reading syllabi.

Last Friday I woke up super crazy early and went to training for Mail Services, my on-campus employer. Go to the city post office, pick up the mail, come back, sort the mail by campus, put sorted mail into bags, put bags into crates, put crates into the van and then drive around and deliver the new mail bags and pick up the out-going mail bags from each department. Return. Sort the mail again and then do it all again. It's not a bad job, but wandering around campus with an armload of mail in 90 degrees isn't ideal. Good thing my schedule is only 7:30-9:30, I'll only be there long enough to pick up and sort before class.

Saturday I also went in and worked blaaah.

Saturday night me and Megan trucked out to Squirrel Tree Park in Arcadia and caught a bus to the Hollywood Bowl. Except the bus broke down on the off-ramp....and then started again and turned the corner and broke down under the overpass. So we all had to flee the dead bus and commandeer no less than two other buses headed to the same place. Exciting.

We met my mom and dad there (who weren't overly pleased with me leaving the tickets in my apartment...but that was easily remedied at the ticket window), who had brought a cute picnic dinner which we juggled in our seats. There were sci-fi nerds everywhere because John Williams was conducting. His music is very good, and they also played some songs/clips from some musicals because Stanley Donen was guest...appearing. It was really great, and Williams came back out and did like three encores. He was impressed by the fleet of lightsaber-equipped Jedi in the rows in front of us. The weather was great and we made it back to our bus on time. It was sooo much fun.

I feel like something happened on Sunday, but I don't remember what. Same with Monday! Probably hung out a lot. Probably watched Spaced with Megan.

So Tuesday I worked again in the morning, but since I didn't have to leave for class they kept me for like FOREVER. But then I came back and played Wii Fit, because Brianna has it and it's fun. I don't think I logged on today, though. Beth's playing Guitar Hero, so I probably won't. XD Later we'll probably go exploring Crestview, though.

Tuesday was also a meeting+mixer for the TFT department, which was kinda boring but I did get to see some people I haven't seen. Sam was there, though, Theater kid he is, and he introduced me to all kinds of people. Pizza was involved. And through fate and bad luck and superstition, I'm destined to become a Theater major, despite my complaints that "I want to graduate!!"

Tuesday was also a meeting for our housing section, I don't know what they're calling it. It's not a court or hall.... That was extra boring, and they said we couldn't get a snake OR a praying mantis. Bleh.

So Wednesday was first chapel and my last first day of school evar!! Even though I only had the one class, and it got out early. So that was cool. Today was really really long, though. Let me tell you my schedule.

Mon/Weds
Senior Seminar - big paper to write, but over time.

Tues/Thurs
Acting Fundamentals - graded on effort, not skill!
Intermediate Screenwriting - focusing on tightening craft
Sci-Fi Films - Being geeks

Thurs
Sound Design - learning about sound in movies.

And then there's my Capstone, which doesn't have a set meeting time, but we're going to meet with him once a week. I still need to finish my script!!! But I've been having good discussions about it with Megan and Sam, so the first draft will probably not suck, even though I know it will still need to be reworked and fine tuned.

So right after class finally ended today, Beth and Megan swooped me up and we went to my favorite Pasadena where Beth bought on-sale art supplies and then we went to A'Float and Famima!! and the world became as bright and shiny as it's ever been. There's a lot of cool people in all of my classes, too, and I think this year's gonna be so great. Even though we already flooded the kitchen once by putting dish soap in the dishwasher. All I really need to do is find a ladder to put up my posters on the really high posters-wall.

-Steph

Back at schooolll??!

Happy Thursday! I seem to recall a day when I quit Vons, and I wrote a lovely/scathing poem to it, and posted it on a Thursday. Why is it I stop working on Thursdays? Because Thursdays are MEANT FOR QUITTING. Not that I've quit Blockbuster.....I'm not sure what's going on there. XD But I'm at APU again! WOW.

All my friends are here and they're amazing and way fun and we're hanging out and we're so cool and now one of them is going to write a guest Thursday for you:

Well I'm here to tell everyone about Thursday. What you may not know is that out of all the days of the week, Thursday is usually the most timid. He's very cautious around busy things, (like cars or plaque) and he hates the color white. BUT: Now that we're all back at school, Thursday has decided to come out and play and we're going to have a dance-off like the world has never ever seen. Thursdays ahoy!

~Anonymous!

Aww, now I have to write again. I dunno whats to say. I drove on the freeway! My mom drove behind me, but still, I was technically alone. I didn't die!

I have to get up at like 6:30 to go to work training for the post office. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. That ought to be fun??

Sam is here, and Megan, and they're cool. Beth and Jenn and Nikki were here earlier, but they went away.

Ummmm yesterday? I hung out with Carolyn a little, and we bought new food for her new fish, which are GIANTS and scare the turtles, but they were dumb and didn't eat any of the food. Then we played some Geometry Wars. That's a fun and very pretty pretty game.

Erhererer I don't want to write this anymore! I want to hang out! I don't feel like much happened this week except for driving here and packing and working. So yeah! More news later, when classes start!

-Steph

End of the Summer, awww

Happy Thursday! I've been sitting here reading Heroes fic, and suddenly I was all, "whut it's Thursday, there is clearly something else I should be doing." So here I am!

I finished season two. It was only eleven episodes, due to the strike. Season three starts September 22, and I await the day. I've gotten one person to start in (and who is over halfway through first season by now) and two others to promise to start when the get the chance to borrow it. HAHA. My influence is boundless.

Been playing in Photoshop, making meaningless fanarts from Heroes screencaps. Photoshop is like a fun game, and even though I'm not very good at it, I enjoy it as much as, I don't know, watching tv or something, but it's creative so it's somewhat better. Like a fun game, as I said. I'm still glad I took that computer graphics class.

My Writing Episodic Drama class was canceled due to not-enough-peeps, and when I can register again I'm going to replace it with Sound Design. Sound design is also something I think of as a fun game, and I had a great time of it when editing Ink-Man last semester, putting in dog barks and freeway sounds and what have you.

Finally started really writing Ink-Man 2, haha. If you want to donate monies to the production, I will happily take them.

Got a fatty paycheck today, hurrah. Only have a few days left working at Blockbuster, but maybe I'll transfer over to Blockbuster Glendora. They had me at "free movies."

Gotta pack, moving in next week. Driving down Sunday, coming back and working, leaving for good next Thursday night. Gah. School starts the Wednesday after that. I only have the one class Mons and Weds, but Tues and Thurs are going to be killers.

Discovered a band called The Hoosiers, and they are very catchy. Check 'em out. If you want the Heroes tie-in, youtube "mylar killer" and watch that. It's terrific.

I know I spent an afternoon at Carolyn's place this week, but other than that I don't have any memory of what happened. I think that's what living forever would feel like. I hope I'm not offending anyone I spent time with in this period, but my head's kinda empty right now and it will probably stay that way until school starts again and time starts to matter again.

-Steph

Makemashita

Happy Thursday! Today was EXCITING when I found Heroes season 2 disc 1 among the new DVDs I was locking up. Prestreet! Let me start over.

When last we met, I had just started to dig into this...phenomenon known to the world as Heroes. My opinion of it was ambivalent--literally. I thought that what they had to say was very compelling, but I thought that the way they were saying it was very weak. I hoped it would improve.

It did.

For the most part, anyway. You'll still get episodes that retell details from other episodes so that the new plotline will make sense, and you sometimes get characters saying and doing incredibly childish things because the writer wants to get at a particular point that he/she can't do in a tasteful way. Both of these are consistency problems, as if the writer of any given episode has taken great lengths to not know anything about the previous episode. This is not great. But it doesn't happen very often.

On the other hand, the story gets more complex without becoming muddled OR nonsensical. People fracture into groups, have limited (and often incorrect) information, and act on what they know, not what we know. This leads to very natural conflicts and epiphanies for individual characters when they cross paths with someone who believes or knows differently than they do. Characters have arcs! Secrets are not only revealed, but are also successfully shocking! Even twists you've seen coming from episodes ago are sweet because you knew it would happen; it just makes so much sense.

One of my first impressions was that some characters where stupid, and most of the powers were mundane. There were some characters I hated, but had powers I enjoyed, and there were some powers I thought were boring in characters I really liked. One of the things I really appreciate in the show is how, over the course of the season, my opinions actually changed. Take Peter Petrelli, prime example. From the first episode, I looked at him with nothing less than derision. Look at this whiny character! Look at his so very common power! There is nothing in this person that I find appealing. Now, now look at him--we're in season two now but I can tell you I've loved him from somewhere deep in season one. Love, people. I love this character. I love his brother. I love his entire family.

He's not the only one. There are characters who seem pretty cut-and-dried in terms of villainous intent. You don't really expect them to break free from their role as "bad guy." But they do. One of them I now hold very dear to my heart, and another had a very very poignant turning point which made it clear that this was not your standard black-and-white evildoer. He's just a guy. And one of the initial bad guys was honestly my favorite character early on. (before the Petrellis became so freaking awesome)

There's even one episode which was so carefully structured, so beautifully tragic that I was frustrated nearly to the point of aneurysm...it made me think of how some shows just really are that dark and depressing, and how much better I felt inside to know that what I was seeing was not the destination--things would look up! But the idea that things could get that bad for these people.....let's just say that I found myself suddenly very emotionally attached.

If by now you're wondering why the heck I'm still talking about this, it's because I'm fairly sure that I've done nothing else this week except for watch Heroes. I think I cooked one day? I worked yesterday and today. I rented the Jumper game and it sucked pretty bad.

The other day I did end up at Carolyn's house, and we watched Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, and then we followed it up with Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The first one is definitely better than the second, although Neil Patrick Harris has a much more valuable appearance in the second (may he rest in peace). John Cho is a terrific actor and now I'm even more excited for the new Star Trek movie! (also starring my favorite Simon Pegg and my good friend Corey Krueger!)

Now that I mention it, I must have also shown my parents Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog at some point, and I was overly pleased to see them love it. If I haven't handed you the link personally yet, I now direct you to drhorrible.com so you can see it for yourself. It's simply the best bit of storytelling you can find on the internet today.

That is all! I hope that you all have a fantastic time!

-Stephanie

Previously on Thursday...

Happy Thursday! I love the fair. I went to the fair yesterday, with Carolyn and Steven and Heidi and Karen! I took one picture, of a very interpretive lion, in the kids' art room. I have an epic story to relate.

So we went to get food at "Spiral Fry's" when I noticed the name of the stand was in blatant disregard of grammar. So I went up and I stole that apostrophe. In hindsight, that didn't make it anymore grammatical, but I wasn't worried about that at the time. Then I went around back to ransom the punctuation back to them.

"Give me ten dollars for this apostrophe, I stole it because it's not grammatically correct. You shouldn't even put it back up when you get it back," I told them.

They bought it from me, with cash in part from the most recent purchase at the front window.

This was Carolyn, who paid them a five for her spiral fries. Then she had to go stand in the other line for half an hour to get back up to the front and actually get the fries. It was a very long line.

Meanwhile, the employees decided to climb up on the ladder and replace the troublesome apostrophe. This act also took about half an hour, so Carolyn was just at the front of the line when they fixed the apostrophe back on. But I had boobytrapped it so when they foolishly reattached it, the whole stand exploded! So Carolyn never got her Spiral Fries even though she was thrown clear of the blast.

Because of this, though, she swore to get revenge for the loss of her spiral fries, and now I am on the run.

The moral of the story is: buy the corndogs. They're cheaper and they hand them to you right at the window!

Also while we were in line for the fries (it was a particularly long line, as maybe you can guess), I wondered if you could make a corn bread and maybe just sprinkle some hotdogs in it?

So today we bought some Jiffy mix and some hotdogs and made Corn Cups! Like mini-muffins with hotdog surprises in them. Pretty okay, but the first batch was very crumbly and didn't hold up so well. But they were oh-so cute. And delicious.

Also yesterday and today, we played Wii Fit, because they have that now. It's fun and painful! I learned a new way of hugging which is also yoga. I also have pretty good balance? If you have a Wii, you should probably get it, because it's worth while.

Oh and Carolyn's friends Christina and Ashley are here to visit. The used to be neighbors, back in the day. And Carolyn and Steven just went to visit them for a week. This doesn't really have anything to do with me, I don't know why I'm telling you. XD But we all watched The Onion Movie together, and then went out to Sumo for dinner. And then we came back and watched a Korean drama which is okay but not an instant favorite.

Whutelsewhutelse. Me and my folks started Heroes, because I can rent the DVDs for free. I kinda hate it, but I can't stop watching. My opinion of it is basically the same as it's always been--the ideas are good but the execution/presentation is very amateurish. The concepts are of a higher level than the writing (or acting, for that matter). But I suppose the newer seasons are better and better, right? I hope.

I guess that's all, because I can't remember any farther back. XD It's probably time for sleeps.

-Steph

Work work work

Happy Thursday! Tomorrow is my first day off this week! I'm gonna watch movies alllllllllll day. Hurrah!

Since last week, this one kid at work has been sick, so I picked up at least three of his shifts. This week I was already scheduled yesterday, today, and Saturday equaling like 14 hours, and then I jumped in on Monday and Tuesday as well. So tired! Today even I got to sleep in until 10! Wow! But it's good, I'm getting better at working, and, like I say, I'm making all the monies.

I also successfully took and passed traffic school! That was fun. Learned some good jokes.

In between working and, like, traffic school, seen some movies. Squeezed in The Prestige between lunch with mom and work on Saturday. Hooboy I love that movie. And this week I have checked out Brick, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Seven Samurai, (and Heroes disk one, and Vantage Point, but those don't count because I've seen them both)--and my mom got some, including a French one we watched today, and IN BRUGES.

Watched In Bruges yesterday, and it's sorta my new favorite hitman movie. It's not particularly a hitman movie, other than that it has hitmen in it. It's funny and quirky and beautiful (in location and acting) and the muuuuusic is sooo good. Someone please buy this for me?

Um so that's really all that's happened this week. We're watching So You Think You Can Dance right now, it's not bad. One too many interpretive dance solos for my taste, but whatever. People are being kicked off. A six year old did some break dancing, which was really good. I like Joshua and Twitch, don't really care about any of the others.

Man I hate it when that lady screams.

Was it Comic-Con that was last weekend? Wish I had been there. Megan got to say hi to Simon Pegg, so !! I have no way to express my jealous glee in words.

So You Think You Can Dance is having an 80s acid trip right now. Whoa. You just have to see it. Pop music will never be low brow. You can take those words to the bank.

Oh, somewhere in this past times, we spent some time at the library, because I'm remembering when I read the script for Buffy's musical Once More, With Feeling. Anya kept talking about breakaway pop hits. It made me miss Buffy a lot, and glad that Joss got to achieve his dream by making a real musical like Dr. Horrible, and that he had a shot to figure things out in Buffy before going for it for real. Yeah, not sure at all if I'm being coherent. It's that time of day.

The fair has started! The fair! Ohhhhhhh I'm gonna go to the FAIR. I love the fair!!! I want to go one day all by myself and see everything. And take all the pictures. And NEXT YEAR I will enter photos. I promise it. (and hopefully work will continue to be dead because of the fair)

Happy birthday to Beth tomorrow!

-Stephanie

(ps Joshua and Twitch are both coming back next week.)

The Dark Knight

Happy Thursday! It's been a good week. Let me tell you about it.

Friday, I never remember the contents of Fridays. I'm sure something happened on it. I'm fairly certain that I worked. That was probably it, I guess.

Saturday we saw Batman, and then I worked again. I suppose I'm entitled to give you my review of The Dark Knight.

It is, quite frankly, a very good movie. The style is refined, slick and dark as an oil spill. The story is complex and impacting; the acting is intense and spotless. It's really everything you want in a professional Batman story. That being said, I recognize and applaud its merits, but I didn't necessarily love it.

There were individual things, like certain characterizations or character decisions, that I questioned. I can't be specific because I don't want to give details and nothing really stands out in my mind now. I guess I just mean to say that while the movie was created by a group of geniuses, there were times when their work missed its mark with me--they did their jobs perfectly well, but it wasn't what I wanted to see. All in all, I didn't walk out of the theater thinking "wow, that was the best thing I've ever seen! I need to see it eighteen more times!!!" It was more of a "wow, that was a really well-done movie."

In the past year or so, I decided to start judging movies on two separate basis--whether they are good and whether I like them. This, I've found, clears up a lot of misunderstandings: No Country for Old Men is a Good Movie, but I Don't Like It. High School Musical is a Bad Movie, but I Love It. The Departed is a Bad Movie and I Hate It. Shaun of the Dead is a Good Movie, and I Love It. Good and Bad are based on technical, stylistic, and performance achievements; my enjoyment of these movies are only somewhat relative to these standards. I like movies that are fun, funny, or intellectual or moving or shocking, but always entertaining. While I appreciate the landmark The Dark Knight is in terms of the way it approached the Batman icon, and the really profound way it shapes Batman's world, it was just too long, complex, and intense for me to simply enjoy it.

It it wasn't part of the Batman franchise, I bet I wouldn't even like it. That's my stance on the matter.

Uhhh the rest of the week! Ended up renting Red Eye and The Prestige after Batman, but haven't got around to Prestige yet. (Now there is a long, complex, and intense movie that I do enjoy, because it's one of those omgmymindohhhhmymind movies that changes your life) Oh, also got the second Ultimate Avengers movie and there were really only two good parts--when the future Black Panther looked over at the elders, who glared at him, I said "They hate him," and about half a second later he says to his dad, "They hate me." The other was when Steven wanted Hank to die the whole movie long, and then he did. Oh, and also when Thor was recharging Tony with his magical lightning powers, I said "Pikachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" It wasn't much better than the first, besides the fact that Tony ended up with both Jan AND Betty.

So I guess that means I also spent one of these days at Carolyn's house. Let's see, that must have been....Monday or Tuesday. My money's on Tuesday, but that's just a hunch. Yesterday I worked in the morning. Me and my mom also went out to lunch and to the mall and I got two new snappy polos. Wearing one right now. It's got a little lion on it.

I guess I've also been doing a bit of Pokemon, and official correspondence.

My once and future roommate Megan is at the ComicCon, and I am deeply jealous. She saw one of our professors there. Before that sounds strange, let me tell you I'm taking Sci-Fi Films from him next semester. She's also hoping to get into a panel where Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright etc are talking about Spaced, their old tv show. As is the rest of their work, it's fantastic. I've told you also that Wright is writing/directing Marvel's Ant-Man? Ant-Man is this same Hank that Steven hates so much. Poor Hank.

OH I REMEMBER NOW. The other way ComicCon and Carolyn's house relates is that the same day we watched the Avengers, we also watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, written/directed by Joss Whedon (who frequents ComicCon, and also Dr. P asked Megan yesterday if she'd seen it, and tomorrow she might be going to a panel about it) and it honestly might be my most favorite thing I've seen all summer. Rivalling Iron Man, honestly. It's three fifteen minute "episodes" designed for internet broadcast, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) as his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. It's also a musical. That's about all I can coherently say about it. When the dvd comes out, I'll show it to you.

So today I also visited the house of Carolyn, and I brought Firefly to show Steven why I laughed so much when Captain Hammer started singing. But first we watched some old Host Club (still soooo good) and some Soul Eater (our new show, kinda similar to Host Club but in most ways not so similar), and it's just about set that we'll cosplay Soul Eater next year. We also played some Rock Band and I earned $60 to buy my guitarist a shirt that didn't have holes in it.

It was a pretty happy Thursday. Except for when I accidentally stepped on Donnie.

-Steph

I choose you, Batman!

Happy Thursday! This has been a really slow week! I've basically just looked at lolcats and played Pokemon. Very strange.

On Saturday, though, my aunt and uncle came down from Goleta and we had a fun barbecue. I made couscous! They brought their little dog Bentley, and he did not make friends with Donnie. We also made a cake that Josh and Michelle failed to frost, and so we ended up covering the failure with tea lights and pretty flowers. The adults were rather impressed.

Sunday Josh went home, but I went to Carolyn's for pho and Wall-E and playing at the arcade. They all were good. It was a long day. I wish I had more to say about Wall-E, but as far as stories go, it doesn't really hold up to Pixar's past (and that's besides the fact that it's also an ecology movie, which never really settle right with me). The graphics are singularly outstanding, don't get me wrong, and you should definitely see it, but I wouldn't say it's the best thing they've every done, not on the whole.

I pulled out this bucket from my closet which holds a segment of my childhood--I was looking for Star Wars Racer for the Gameboy, to see if it was a game I wanted to sell. Oh, it definitely is. Along with it, though, I found Pokemons Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Crystal, the very backbone of my middle years. I wanted to play one! I popped in Yellow, to see what I had been doing at the time, maybe I could erase it and start over? Oh, but no, I was seemingly in the middle of raising starter Pokemon to ridiculous levels without evolving them. Too precious an endeavor to rewrite. Gold, Crystal...I remember restarting Crystal a while ago, but I never even got the first badge because things were so complicated and not interesting. I really wanted to play something old school.

I snapped Blue into my berry pink Gameboy Color, not to restart it--no, Pokemon Blue is the first RPG I ever beat, my first Pokemon was Bulba the Bulbasaur (and Ivysaur, and Venasaur), and my first Pokemon to reach level 100 was my Persian Meowsy because it knew payday which got me money every battle. That game was stuffed as full with nostalgia as any Christmas turkey--I was just going to look and what I had done, maybe listen to the corrupted music files in my League scores entry. OH WAIT. DATA FILE DESTROYED my Gameboy tells me happily. I mourn my lost childhood for about 15 seconds before I choose New Game.

I started with a Charmander this time, named him Bade. Before we went to dinner today, I taught my Sandshrew Wolverine CUT, so now I can get into all those secret places. Also have a Golbat named Batman, and a Magikarp named Sub-Mariner ('cause you know it's gonna be a Gyrados someday!) and I'm hoping to eventually have a DC team and a Marvel team. Ohohohoh my Geekdoms collide.

I also got a Piplup card from Burger King. Yes, in my Big Kids' Meal. Here's some trivia for you--it was actually Pokemon which converted me from McDonald's to Burger King all those years ago, when their toys were those Pokeballs with the Pokemons inside, I still have my two Koffings, Eevee, Electabuzz, and Pikachu from then. Right there in the same box.

Yeah, other than that, lolcats. Icanhascheezburger.com. Gotta get Donnie to wear the little sombrero long enough to get a pic of him.

Michelle's going back to Seattle tomorrow, but I have to work so I don't get to go on the LA adventure that will ensue. While she packed today, I sat in the hallway outside her room with my Zune and the big ol' speakers my bro got me a while back, and DJ'd. While, of course, raising my Pokemans. Oops, I think I left them there, right where everyone's going to trip all over them.

YEAH ALRIGHT. IT'S LATE NOW AND IT'S TIME TO WATCH TV. HAPPY THURSDAY TO US ALL.

-Stephanie!